Super Fitness Health BlogBed Bugs Bramhall, Handforth and Stockport.
One of the most feared and least understood pests known to mankind is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep at night as young ones with the words of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs probably started to dine on man at about the time when we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella mainly fed on bats and it is likely that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on man when our forebears started staying} in bat infested caves.
Before the arrival of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common unwelcome guests in most poor quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest control companies having very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being generally restricted to cheap holiday homes and student accomadation etc.
A lot of people confuse dust mites, which cannot be seen by the naked, with bed bugs which most certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after a feed of human blood.
Bed bugs typically feed on our blood every week or so, emerging in the hours before dawn and finding their target by smelling the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when close in on their target, they sense body body heat.
Lacking a suitable human host to feed on they can remain dormant for periods of up to 18 months.
Often the first sign of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bed clothes and on the edges of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug numbers explode across the planet, the easy availability of international and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is known is that that are now making a real fightback not only in slum quality housing but top class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug reports every year from 1995 to 2001.
One night stay in an infested premises 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 spread these bugs to your own home.
They are an tricky pest to eradicate as contrary to popular notion they do not just live in beds. They hide in any nook and cranny conveniently close to a sleeping person, 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 eradicated by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.
Telephone us on 0800 019 8382
Comments are currently closed.