Amongst the most detested and least understood pest species identified by the world may be the bedbug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep in bed as kids with the parting rhyme of our parents inside our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have 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’s also likely that bat feeding species of bed bugs evolved to prey on human blood when our ancestors started living in bat infested caves.
Up to the production of DDT during the early 20th century bed bugs were common stowaways in most low quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century saw pest controllers dealing with very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to budget holiday homes and student lodgings etc.
Many people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the naked, with bed bugs which certainly.
Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after dining on the blood of humans.
Bed bugs usually prey on our blood every week or so, emerging in the early hours of the morning and finding their target by sniffing the exhaled CO2 from human breath and once close to their target, they sense body body heat.
In the absence of an appropriate human meal to feed on they’ll lay dormant for periods of up to 18 months.
The first signs of a bedbug presence are spots of blood on bed clothes and on the edges of mattresses and many people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The first part of the 21st century has seen bed bug infestations growing across the entire world, the easy availability of international and economic migration have both been blamed for the resurgence.
What is certain is that they are now making a real return not only in poor quality accomodation but high class hotels, schools and in many cases hospitals.
One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug infestations annually from 1995 to 2001.
One evening stay in an infested hotel is all it needs, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags.
Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transportation related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a straightforward ride to work on an infested tube or train can be enough to bring these bugs to your home.
They are an difficult pest to deal with as despite popular belief they do not just live in beds. They live in any nook and cranny conveniently 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 overweight people.
They are not a pest that can be tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.