Super Fitness Health BlogA review of Bed Bugs in Warrington, Knutsford and Lymm, in 2012
One of the most reviled and least understood pest species known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as youngsters 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 human beings at around the time when we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella largely feed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on human blood when our forebears started dwelling in bat infested caves.
Before the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common stowaways in most poor quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest operatives having very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being generally restricted to cheap holiday hotels and student housing etc.
Many people mistake dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, 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 our blood every week or so, appearing in the hours before dawn and finding their target by detecting the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when closing in on their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.
Lacking a suitable human host to dine on they can lay 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 base of mattresses and many people can react badly to the bites of these bugs.
The early the 21st century has seen bed bug numbers explode across the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is known is that that are now making a real comeback not only in slum quality housing but top class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night stay in an infested bed is all it needs, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a simple journey home on an infested tube or train can be enough to bring the infestation to your own home.
They are an difficult pest to deal with as contrary to popular notion they do not just live in beds. They live in any nook and cranny anywhere close to a sleeping human target, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both difficult and time consuming.
They have even been revealed found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the folds of flesh on grossly over-weight people.
They are not a pest that can be tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
Telephone Harrier Pest Prevention on 0800 019 8382
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