One of the most hated and least understood pest insect species known to mankind is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep at night as kids with the parting words of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs probably started to dine on people at around the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human blood when our forebears started living} in bat infested caves.
Until the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common unwelcome guests in most slum quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest control companies having very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to cheap holiday homes and student accomadation etc.
A lot of people mistake dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which very definitely are.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a quarter of an inch in size and engorged after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs regularly feed on a target’s blood every few days, emerging in the hours before dawn and finding their target by sniffing the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when nearby their target, body heat.
In the absence of a suitable human meal to dine on they can remain in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.
Signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on sheets and on the edges of mattresses and many people can react badly to their bites.
The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations multiplying all over the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is certain is that that are now making a real resurgence not only in lower quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug reports every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night away in an infested bed is all it requires, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on transport of all kinds so a simple journey to work on an infested tube or train can be all it takes to bring the infestation to your own home.
They are an expensive pest to deal with as contrary to popular notion they do not just live in beds. They infest 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 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 needed.
Call Harrier Pest Control on 01257 230637
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