Bed Bugs Whitefield, Prestwich and Swinton.
One of the most reviled and misunderstood pest species known to mankind is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us fell asleep to sleep at night as young ones with the parting rhyme 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 period we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella mostly fed on bats and it is likely that bat feeding species of bed bus evolved to feed on human beings when our forebears started living} in bat infested caves.
Until the production of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace guests in most low quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest controllers having very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to cheap holiday hotels and student housing etc.
A lot of people mistake dust mites, which aren’t visible to the unaided eye, with bed bugs which most certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddish brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and very swollen after a feed of human blood.
Bed bugs typically feed on our blood every week or so, coming out in the early hours of the morning and finding their target by sniffing the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when closing in on their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.
In the absence of a suitable human host to dine on they can lie dormant for periods of up to a year or more.
Signs of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on sheets and on the edges of mattresses and many people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations explode everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of overseas and economic migration have both been put forward for the resurgence.
What is positive is that that are now making a real comeback not only in poor quality housing but first class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug reports every year from 1995 to 2001.
One night stay in an infested hotel is all it takes, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Stretford Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on transport of all kinds so a simple trip home on an infested tube or train can be enough to spread these bugs to your own home.
They are an expensive pest to deal with as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They hide in any nook and cranny suitably 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 discovered found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the folds of flesh on flabby people.
They are not a pest that can be successfully tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.
Contact us on 0161 930 8814