Bed Bug Bites in Worsley, Walkden and Eccles in 2010
One of the most hated and least understood pest species known to mankind is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep at night as youngsters with the parting words of our parents in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to predate on people at about the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella largely fed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on man when our ancestors started living} in bat infested caves.
Until the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common stowaways in most low quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being generally restricted to budget holiday camps and student lodgings etc.
A lot of people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the unaided eye, with bed bugs which certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and very swollen after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs typically feed on our blood every few days, emerging in the early hours of the morning and locating their target by sniffing the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when closing in on their target, they sense infra red heat.
Without a suitable human host to dine on they can stay dormant for periods of up to a year or more.
The first signs of a bed bug problem are spots of blood on bedding and on the corners of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to their bites.
The early part of this century has seen bed bug numbers multiplying everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been blamed for the resurgence.
What is certain is that that are now making a real return not only in cheaper quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night stay in an infested hotel is all it takes, 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 journey to work on an infested tube or train can be sufficient to bring bed bugs to your own home.
They are an difficult pest to deal with as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny suitably close to a sleeping human target, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both tricky and time consuming. They have even been discovered found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the creases of flesh on grossly over-weight people.
They are not a pest that can be successfully tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.
Phone Harrier Pest Prevention on 0161 930 8814
