One of the most hated and misunderstood pests known to the world is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep at night as children with the parting rhyme of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to predate on man at about the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is likely that bat feeding species of bed bus evolved to feed on man when our ancestors started staying} in bat infested caves.
Up to the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace guests in most low quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug call outs indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to cheap holiday homes and student accomadation etc.
Most people confuse dust mites, which cannot be seen by the naked, with bed bugs which deinitely.
Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and very swollen after feeding on human blood.
Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every few days, appearing in the hours before dawn and finding their target by smelling the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when nearby their target, body heat.
In the absence of a suitable human host to feed on they can remain in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.
Often the first sign of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on bedding and on the edges of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations growing everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of overseas and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is positive is that that are now making a real comeback not only in poor quality housing but first class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reports a doubling of bed bug problems every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night stay in an infested premises is all it needs, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on all kinds of transport so a simple trip home on an infested tube or train can be enough to spread the infestation to your own home.
They are an difficult pest to eradicate as contrary to popular opinion they do not just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny suitably close to a sleeping human, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both laborious and time consuming. They have even been discovered found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the creases of flesh on grossly over-weight people.
They are not a pest that can be successfully tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.
Call Harrier Pest Prevention on 01257 230637
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