One of the most detested and least understood pests known to science is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us fell asleep to sleep at night as kids with the parting words of our parents in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs probably started to feed on man at around the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella mostly feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bed bus evolved to feed on man when our ancestors started sleeping} in bat infested caves.
Up to the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace stowaways in most slum quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest control companies having very few bed bug call outs indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to cheap holiday homes and student accomadation etc.
Many people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the naked, with bed bugs which certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddish brown, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after feeding on human blood.
Bed bugs usually feed on human blood every week or so, coming out in the hours before dawn and locating their target by sniffing the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when close to their target, they sense body body heat.
In the absence of a suitable human host to feed on they can remain dormant for periods of up to 18 months.
Signs of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on bedding and on the base of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to the bites of these bugs.
The early part of this century has seen bed bug reports explode all over the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been put forward for the resurgence.
What is positive is that that are now making a real return not only in cheaper quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough cited 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 ride home on an infested tube or train can be sufficient to bring bed bugs to your own home.
They are an expensive pest to eradicate as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They hide in any nook and cranny conveniently close to a sleeping human being, 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 folds of flesh on very fat people.
They are not a pest that can be successfully tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
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