Bed bugs are one of the varieties of parasitic insects that live in places where people or warm-blooded animals stay and feed on their blood. The appearance of such parasites in the home is an unpleasant and dangerous moment for the he alth of the whole family. Therefore, you need to know what bed bugs look like, where these insects come from, as well as methods of dealing with them - for example, you can order the destruction of bedbugs from the dezcenter-rus.rf.
What bed bugs look like
How to detect if there are bed bugs in the house. Where do these insects come from, of course, worries many people today. In order to understand these issues, you need to start with what this parasite looks like.
Bedbugs have a strongly flattened body structure, the length of which ranges from 3 to 8.5 mm. In this case, the body changes shape and size depending on how much blood the insect has absorbed formoment of measurement. Female bed bugs tend to be larger than males.
The color of the bug can be from cloudy yellow to dark brown. Among these parasites, unlike other insects, there are no albinos. If a bed bug is colorless, then there is only one reason for this. He had just been born and did not have time to pump blood. As soon as the bug receives the first portion of food, it changes its color to a darker one. And after the first molt, it gets even darker.
Bedbugs suck blood with the help of a special proboscis with which they are endowed. With them, an insect can easily pierce human skin or the skin of an animal. And the bug's jaw has two channels, one of which serves to receive blood, and the other to release a substance that anesthetizes the victim at the time of the bite. Due to this, the bug often has time to hide at the moment when a person or animal feels pain from its attack.
Lifestyle and nutrition of bedbugs
To better understand why bed bugs start in the house, where these parasites come from, you need to consider their features and lifestyle.
Bed bugs feed only on the blood of humans or warm-blooded animals, birds. Their lifestyle is nocturnal. Around 3-8 am bed bugs crawl out of their shelters and attack the victim. During the day, parasites hide in crevices, under various objects. Unlike many other insects, bed bugs do not have nests or burrows.
A feature of these parasites is that they can fall into anabiosis at low temperatures and completely exit it at 12degrees. Therefore, the bug is difficult to destroy.
How bed bugs breed
In order to understand where bed bugs come from in an apartment, you should also understand their nature, consider how they reproduce.
Often, when bed bugs appear, people destroy them using various methods, but after some time they again encounter their presence. And this is due to the fact that the parasites will hatch in four weeks from the eggs left by the previously destroyed females.
Insect females lay their eggs on a common base and glue them to it with a special substance that parasites are able to secrete. Thus, a kind of cluster is obtained.
Bug eggs are translucent, shiny, tiny cylinders that are slightly inclined to one side. At the bottom, they are slightly flattened and glued to a common base. The upper part of them has something like a cap that opens when small parasites appear.
It is difficult for a person to examine bed bug eggs without special instruments (loupe, microscope). They often blend into the stitches of the bed mattress and are almost invisible as they are the same size.
History of bed bugs
If we consider the history of the distribution of these parasites, then initially bed bugs were recorded in the caves of the Middle East. Where these insects come from, they didn’t know exactly then, and even now no one can say for sure.
In ancient Greecebed bugs were given a healing ability. Pliny even wrote about it in his writings. But later these theories were refuted.
The first mention of bed bugs in Europe can be seen around the 11th century in Germany. And on the American continent, bedbugs were brought from Eurasia already in the 16th century. Well, the last bug settled on the lands of Asia, around the 60s of the 19th century.
Bed bug habitats
Where bed bugs come from is also easy to understand if you know their habitats. And these are most often:
- places in close proximity to the sleeping place of the victim (beds, sofas, niches near cages and enclosures for pets);
- in places rarely checked, and items rarely used by a person (under carpets, under baseboards, under lamps and sconces, in niches and shelves with books).
In general, bed bugs always hide from a person in secluded places. But these parasites cannot get under tight-fitting human clothing, and are also unable to climb a smooth surface (glass or plastic).
Where do bedbugs come from in a home
There is no single correct answer to the question of where bedbugs come from in an apartment. But we can safely say that there are several reasons for the appearance of these insects in the home. The main ones are:
- Independent movement of parasites from one dwelling to another.
- The transfer of insects by a person from a public place to an apartment (house).
Beddingbugs can travel long distances, and very quickly (up to one meter per minute), and since they constantly need food, like any other living creature, in the absence of it, the parasites go in search of food. Therefore, insects often come from the apartments of residents who temporarily or permanently leave their home.
It should be noted that since the bug is not a warm-blooded insect and does not need to maintain its own body temperature, it can go without food from several months to six months.
Sometimes bed bugs can eat the dried blood of another dead bed bug to survive in times of famine.
As for the second reason why bedbugs appear in the apartment, there can be a lot of special cases. One of the most common is that a person brings bedbugs on their clothes from public places such as a market, someone else's infested apartment, a break room at work or a dressing room.
It is worth noting that the presence of these parasites in the house does not at all indicate unsanitary conditions in it. Since the bugs absolutely do not care in what conditions they live and breed.
It is not known for certain why bedbugs start. The main reasons for the appearance, the living conditions of bed bugs, as you can see, can be different. The main thing is to detect their presence in the dwelling in time and eliminate the problem until the colonies of parasites have grown in dangerously large numbers.
How to detect bedbugs yourself
The first parameter by which you can determine the presence in the apartmentbed bugs are, of course, bites. As a rule, a person experiences pain and sees marks on his body. But many people do not feel bed bug bites due to their low pain threshold. But this absolutely does not mean that there are no parasites in the house and no harm is done to human he alth. Therefore, in order to recognize whether there are bed bugs in a dwelling, signs of the appearance of bed bugs, in addition to feeling direct contact with them, it is simply necessary for every person to know.
Such signs include:
- the presence of flocks of bedbugs in hard-to-reach places (under a mattress, baseboard, in crevices, under lamps and baguettes, under any items rarely used by a person);
- specific smell in the room (the smell of rotten raspberries or the smell of almonds);
- spread of bed bug waste products (small specks collected in heaps, feces, larvae, husks from bed bug eggs).
How to spot bed bugs with someone else's help
If it is not possible to identify the presence of bed bugs on your own, then a person can resort to outside help. For example, attract specially trained dogs that can easily cope with this task.
This method is often used by US citizens. There, the dogs are certified and very seriously trained in the skills of finding bed bugs.
What bed bug bites look like
Bed bug bites are the main reason why these insects are found by humans. As a rule, theythey do not look like single wounds, but like a path of red dots along the blood vessels. In this case, the distance between bites can be several centimeters.
If there is a large amount of these parasites in the room, then a person or animal living in it can experience up to five hundred bites per night.
In some people, bed bug attacks leave no marks on the body, while in others, the bite site can be swollen with a huge blister and not stop itching for up to several weeks.
How dangerous are bedbugs to humans
Bedbugs, like other blood-sucking insects, are carriers of infectious diseases, which poses a major threat to human he alth. Bed bugs can even carry such terrible diseases as smallpox, tuberculosis, hepatitis, typhoid fever, anthrax and many others.
In addition, bed bug bites cause their victim pain, itching, discomfort, which leads to constant lack of sleep and irritability.
Many people have an allergic reaction to bed bug excrement. It usually presents as a skin rash or chronic rhinitis.
From the above, it is easy to understand how harmful bed bugs are at home. The destruction of bedbugs in this regard is a prerequisite for a he althy and peaceful life for the whole family, including pets.
Methods for the destruction of bedbugs
Bedbugs can be in utility rooms, warehouses, bedbugs in an apartment, bedbugs at home. Where do they come frombugs, how to detect and destroy them, will be prompted, of course, by companies specializing in this. But if a person decides to get rid of these parasites on his own, then he must consider the following:
- Bedbugs are highly susceptible to high temperatures. To destroy them, it is necessary to poison them with dry heat for at least half an hour, with a temperature of more than 48 ° C. Clothes and toys can be processed for 10-20 minutes in a dryer at high temperatures.
- Bed bugs can be killed by steam.
- Chemistry (pyrethroids and insecticides) will help get rid of bedbugs. However, it is recommended to alternate their use.
- Only adults are removed with a vacuum cleaner, while the eggs remain firmly glued to the base.
Today, there is accessible and understandable information about where bedbugs come from, how to get rid of these parasites and how to generally recognize their presence in the room. But still, it is better to warn their appearance in the house in advance. Carry out a kind of prevention: frequent airing of the apartment, especially in winter, timely sealing of cracked baseboards, clogging of cracks and holes leading to corridors or neighboring apartments, as well as constant wet cleaning using chemicals, especially in rarely used places.
