A review of Bed Bugs in Worsley, Walkden and Eccles in 2010
One of the most detested and misunderstood pests known to the world is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as youngsters with the parting rhyme of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to dine on people at around the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella mainly fed on bats and it is likely that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on human beings when our forebears started staying} in bat infested caves.
Before the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace guests in most poor quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug call outs indeed, their presence being largely restricted to cheap holiday camps and student lodgings etc.
Most people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the unaided eye, with bed bugs which most certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddish brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and swollen after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs typically feed on our blood every week or so, coming out in the hours before dawn and finding their target by smelling the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when nearby their target, they sense infra red heat.
Without a suitable human meal to feed on they can lie in a period of dormancy for periods of up to a year or more.
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 the bites of these bugs.
The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug numbers explode all over the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is known is that that are now making a real resurgence not only in slum quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reports a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.
|One night away 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 all kinds of transport so a simple trip to work on an infested tube or train can be enough to bring these bugs to your own home.
They are an difficult pest to deal with 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 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 overweight 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 Prevention on 0800 019 8382