One of the most feared and misunderstood pest species known to science is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off 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 most probably started to feed on man at about the period we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella mainly feed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on man when our ancestors started dwelling} in bat infested caves.
Until the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common unwelcome guests in most slum quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest control companies called out to very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being generally restricted to budget holiday camps and student lodgings etc.
Most people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which most certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and swollen after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs usually feed on human blood every seven to ten days, coming out in the early hours of the morning and homing in on their target by smelling the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when closing in on their target, they sense infra red heat.
Without a suitable human host to feed on they can lay in a period of dormancy for periods of up to a year or more.
Signs of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on sheets and on the edges of mattresses and many people can react badly to the bites of these bugs.
The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations growing everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been put forward for the resurgence.
What is sure is that that are now making a real comeback not only in lower quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.
One night stay in an infested hotel is all it needs, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Stretford Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on all kinds of transport so a simple journey to work on an infested tube or train can be sufficient to bring bed bugs to your own home.
They are an tricky pest to deal with as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They hide in any nook and cranny anywhere 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 revealed found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the creases of flesh on very fat people.
They are not a pest that can be dealt with by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
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