Bed bugs are efficient
hitchhikers and are usually transported into dwellings on luggage, clothing,
beds, furniture, and other items. This is a particular risk for hotels and
apartments, where turnover of occupants is constant. Bed bugs are small and agile,
escaping detection after crawling into suitcases, backpacks and belongings.
Acquiring secondhand beds, couches and furniture is another way that the bugs
are transported into buildings. Attention to clothing, shoes or wheelchairs.
Help
can be on the way from a Pest Control Services company just by
immediate notification.With Expert Pest management for bed bugs
infestation for apartment dwellers.
Information
is provided to help residents understand how to prevent and control the
bedbugs:
Adult bedbugs are typically a
brownish-reddish color and 3/16 inches in diameter that look like a,small
apple seed with legs.
Bedbugs are tiny insects that
puncture human skin to feed on blood, not unlike mosquitos. Only come
out to feed late at night when people are asleep. Favorite hiding and
breeding places are the folds and crevices of mattresses and
box springs.The pests hide in many tight, dark places, like baseboards,
between couch cushions, under piles of clothing or even in the spaces
between the corrugations of cardboard boxes.The bedbugs can live for many
months without a meal.
As bed
bugs grow they molt, shedding their skin five times before reaching maturity. A
blood meal is needed between each successive molt. Adult females also must feed
in order to lay eggs. Under favorable conditions (70-80°F), the bugs can mature
fully in as little as a month, producing multiple generations per year. Cooler
temperatures or limited access to blood prolong the development time.
Bed bugs
are very resilient. Nymphs and adults can persist months without feeding which
is unusual for most insects. The ability to survive without a blood meal is
longer at cooler temperatures potentially up to a year or longer at 55°F
or less. In temperature controlled buildings, a more typical duration is about
3 to 7 months. Consequently, it is usually impractical to leave buildings
unoccupied in hopes of ‘starving out’ an infestation. When infested dwellings
such as apartments are vacated, bed bugs often disperse to nearby units, or
reduce their activity until the unit is reoccupied.
Bed
bugs are active mainly at night. During the daytime, prefering to hide close to
where people sleep. Their flattened bodies enable them to fit into tiny
crevices especially those associated with mattresses, box springs, bed frames
and headboards. Bed bugs do not have nests like ants or bees, but do tend to
congregate in habitual hiding places. Characteristically, these areas are
marked by dark spotting and staining, which is the dried excrement of the bugs.
Also present will be hatched and unhatched eggs, the tannish shed skins of
maturing nymphs, and the bugs themselves. Another possible sign are rusty or
reddish smears on bed sheets or mattresses from crushed engorged bed bugs.
Although it’s often stated that bed bugs have a telltale odor, the smell is
seldom evident except in extreme infestations and should not be relied upon for
detection.
Bed
bugs usually bite people at night while sleeping. Hungry bed bugs may also feed
during the daytime, especially if this is when the occupant normally sleeps.
Feeding by piercing the skin with an elongated beak through which blood is
withdrawn . Engorgement of the bed bug takes roughly 4 to 12 minutes, but
because the bite is painless, the person seldom realizes being bitten.
Bed bugs normally do not reside on people like head or body lice do; instead,
immediately after feeding, bed bugs crawl to a secluded location to digest
their meal. Symptoms after being bitten by bed bugs vary from person to person.
Many develop an itchy red welt within a day or so of the bite. Others have
little or no reaction. Sometimes the reaction is delayed days or even weeks
after the actual bite occurs, which can make it difficult to determine where or
when bites actually occurred. Studies conducted in bed bug-infested apartments
suggest about 40 percent of people do not react even when bitten repeatedly
over time, and there is still higher incidence of non-reactivity among the
elderly. Unlike flea bites, which occur mainly around the lower legs and
ankles, bed bugs feed on any skin exposed while sleeping (face, neck,
shoulders, back, arms, legs, etc.). The welts and itching are often wrongly
attributed to other causes, such as mosquitoes. For these reasons, infestations
may go a long time unnoticed, and can become quite large before being
detected.
The
likelihood of bed bugs increases if the affected individual has been traveling,
or if they have acquired used beds or furnishings before symptoms started to
appear. Bed bugs also are suspect with itchy welts that did not have
before going to sleep. It’s important to recognize, however, that not all
bite-like reactions are due to bed bugs. Confirmation requires finding and
identifying the bed bugs, shed skins, fecal spots, etc., which often requires
the help of a professional pest control service.
Unlike
cockroaches and flies that feed on filth, there is often no relationship
between bed bugs and cleanliness. Since the bugs feed solely on blood, pristine
dwellings can be as vulnerable to infestation as are places of squalor. That
said, poverty and privation can lead to increased risk of bed bug problems, as
can the inability to hire a professional exterminator.
Some
bed bug species are parasites of bats or birds, and may bite people if the wild
hosts are no longer available. Although similar in overall appearance, the
species of bed bugs that normally feed on bats, swallows, chimney swifts,
pigeons or other wild hosts can be differentiated from those that prefer
humans. Entomologists and knowledgeable pest managers can make this
determination. If bat bugs or bird bugs are present, roosting and nesting sites
should be the primary focus, and the animals should be removed and excluded
from the building.
Report bed bug activity to the
property manager and cooperate with Pest Control treatments. Learning how
to recognize bedbug activity and promptly calling for treatment is
important for residents so that small numbers of bedbugs don’t expand into
a bigger problem that is much harder to treat and can affect neighbors and
the rest of the building. “Do it yourself” products or remedies are no
replacement for the methods used by professional pest control services,
and can just make matters worse by scattering rather than eliminating
bedbugs.
Make sure the bed is
raised off the ground, on a bed frame, for example. Eliminate the hiding
places. Known favorite hiding and breeding places are in beds, but the
bedbugs can also hide in many other tight, dark places behind furniture,
between couch cushions, under piles of clothing or even in the spaces
between the corrugations of cardboard boxes. Arrange the apartment to cut
back on potential hiding places. The ways some people store possessions
and arrange apartments can provide places for bedbugs to hide, especially in
the compact spaces offered in most apartments. If items are piled high or
there are areas that remain undisturbed for a long time, bedbugs can find
the places it needs to multiply, out of reach of pest control treatments.
Bed bug Identification picture