One of the most detested and least understood pest insect species known to science is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed 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 around the period when we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella mainly feed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human blood when our ancestors started living} in bat infested caves.
Until the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common stowaways in most poor quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest operatives called out to very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being generally restricted to budget holiday homes and student lodgings etc.
A lot of people confuse dust mites, which cannot be seen by the naked, with bed bugs which very definitely are.
Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after a feed of human blood.
Bed bugs regularly feed on human blood every week or so, emerging in the hours before dawn and finding their target by detecting the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when nearby their target, body heat.
Without a suitable human meal to feed on they can stay in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.
Signs of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on sheets and on the edges of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations expoding everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been blamed for the resurgence.
What is sure is that that are now making a real fightback not only in low quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reports a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.
One night away in an infested premises is all it needs, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Stretford Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a simple trip home on an infested tube or train can be all it takes to bring the infestation to your own home.
They are an tricky pest to deal with as contrary to popular opinion they do not just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny anywhere close to a sleeping human, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both tricky 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 overweight people.
They are not a pest that can be successfully tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.
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