Bed Bug infestations in Bury, Bolton and Radcliffe in 2010
One of the most reviled and misunderstood pests known to civilisation is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as kids with the words of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to feed on man at about the period when we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is likely that bat feeding species of bed bus evolved to feed on man when our forebears started living} in bat infested caves.
Up to the arrival of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common guests in most low quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest controllers having very few bed bug call outs indeed, their presence being generally restricted to low quality holiday homes and student accomadation etc.
A lot of people mistake dust mites, which aren’t visible to the naked, with bed bugs which deinitely.
Adult bedbugs are reddish brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and very swollen after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs regularly feed on a target’s blood every seven to ten days, emerging in the hours before dawn and finding their target by smelling the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when close to their target, they sense body body heat.
Lacking a suitable human host to dine on they can stay in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.
The first signs of a bed bug problem are spots of blood on bedding and on the base of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early the 21st century has seen bed bug reports expoding all over the planet, the easy availability of international and economic migration have both been argued as reasons for the resurgence.
What is sure is that that are now making a real comeback not only in poor quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug problems every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night stay in an infested premises is all it needs, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes and buses so a simple ride to work 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 eradicate as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They live in any nook and cranny anywhere close to a sleeping person, 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 folds of flesh on very fat people.
They are not a pest that can be dealt with by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.
Phone Harrier Pest Control on 0161 930 8814
