Super Fitness Health BlogHow to prevent bed bugs
One of the most reviled and misunderstood pest species known to civilisation may be the bedbug (Cimex lectularius). What number of us dozed off to rest by night as children with the words of our parents in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to dine on people at about the period we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella largely fed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human beings when our ancestors started staying in bat infested caves.
Until the invention of DDT during the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace stowaways in most poor quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest control companies having very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to budget holiday homes and student lodgings etc.
A lot of people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which most certainly can be seen.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a quarter of an inch in size and swollen after dining on the blood of humans.
Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every seven to ten days, coming out in the hours before dawn and locating their target by detecting the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when closing in on their target, body heat.
Without an acceptable human host to dine on they’re able to remain dormant for periods of up to 18 months.
Often the first sign of a bed bug problem are spots of blood on sheets and on the base of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The first part of this century has seen bed bug numbers expoding across the entire world, the easy availability of international and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is positive is that they are now making a real comeback not just in lower quality houses but first class hotels, schools and also hospitals.
One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug bites infestations each and 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.
Pest control businesses are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on transport of all kinds so a straightforward journey home on an infested tube or train is often enough to spread bed bugs to your own house.
They are an difficult pest to deal with as despite popular opinion they don’t just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny conveniently close to a sleeping human, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both difficult 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 dealt with by a novice and a pest control professional will almost certainly be essential.
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