Bed Bug infestations in Bramhall, Cheadle and Poynton in 2010
One of the most hated and least understood pests known to the world is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as children with the parting rhyme of our parents in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs probably started to dine on human beings at about the period we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella mostly feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on man when our forebears started staying} in bat infested caves.
Before the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common guests in most low quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest operatives having very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being generally restricted to low quality holiday camps and student lodgings etc.
A lot of people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the naked, with bed bugs which deinitely.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs regularly feed on human blood every week or so, coming out in the hours before dawn and homing in on their target by sniffing the exhaled CO2 from human breath and when nearby their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.
Without a suitable human meal to dine on they can stay dormant for periods of up to a year or more.
The first signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bedding and on the corners of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early the 21st century has seen bed bug reports explode everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is sure is that that are now making a real fightback not only in cheaper quality housing but first class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night away in an infested bed 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 home on an infested tube or train can be sufficient to spread the infestation to your own home.
They are an difficult pest to eradicate as contrary to popular opinion they do not just live in beds. They live in any nook and cranny anywhere 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 eradicated by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
Telephone Harrier Pest Control on 01257 230637