Traces on the bed
On the bed, traces of bedbugs are visualized in the form of bloody spots formed after a parasite bite when blood oozes from the wound. Usually they are minor. But if you crush the bloodsucker, the stain can be large.
On the bed you can find chitinous membranes after molting nymphs and feces of parasites . These are clear signs of bedbugs in the apartment. If they are found, you should carefully inspect the apartment.
Important. During baiting, bloodsucker eggs do not die, since the protective layer protects the insect’s body. To completely get rid of pests, repeat disinfection is carried out after 1-2 weeks.
It is very difficult to remove bedbugs from your home, since adult bedbugs live for about a year, and during this time they can lay up to 500 eggs. Under unfavorable conditions, the parasite can go into suspended animation, which then extends its lifespan.
The most effective method of control is heat treatment of the room.
Life cycle of a bedbug
As they grow older, parasites go through several successive stages, during which they increase in length from 1.5 mm to 5.5 mm or more:
- egg;
- larva;
- adult.
The female lays up to 300 eggs during her existence - 4-5 eggs every day. On the 6-7th day, towards the end of the incubation period, larvae hatch from them, which gradually turn into adult bedbugs. This stage lasts 35-55 days. The larvae begin to drink the blood of the victim as soon as they shed their protective shells.
Causes of bed bugs
Often people who carefully monitor the cleanliness of their premises cannot believe that they have bed bugs. However, no one is safe from the appearance of these parasites. Usually, the rapid spread of bed bugs is observed in old houses. If there is at least one “unsafe” apartment in the building’s entrance, the risk of infecting other dwellings rapidly increases.
You can bring bedbugs back from a trip or “catch” them from your neighbors
When the number of parasites in one living space becomes critical, they begin to migrate. These insects do not have wings, but they can travel along ventilation ducts, looking for more comfortable living conditions. Thus, all neighboring apartments can quickly become infested with bedbugs.
Typically, migration periods occur in the summer. One fertilized female is enough to infect any “clean” room. Among other things, a person can bring these parasites into his home on his clothes. Often such insects are brought from vacations, where a person is forced to live in a hotel. In addition, in rare cases, bedbugs are brought into the apartment along with furniture and interior items. It is especially dangerous to buy used upholstered furniture, where a whole community of bedbugs can live.
Any person can bring parasites into a premises after visiting an infected premises.
Simple sittings on the sofa in this case can cause subsequent infection of your own home. Parasites are often brought into an apartment or house in the folds of clothing.
Despite the widespread belief that bedbugs are inevitable accompaniments of unsanitary conditions, this is not true. Clutter in a room is not capable of causing parasites to appear out of nowhere. At the same time, if the apartment or house is not cleaned, this can contribute to the rapid proliferation of bedbugs introduced under certain conditions.
For example, if bedding is not washed, even part of the population is not destroyed at the larval stage.
In addition, in this case, bedbugs have a lot of places where they can hide and wait for the optimal time to attack. If large groups of people constantly gather in an apartment or house and many of them stay overnight, bedbugs get a lot of food, so their populations rapidly increase.
How to understand that the bedbugs are gone
Many people do not understand whether the insects have left their apartment or whether additional control measures are required. You can easily check how effective the treatment was. If everything is fine, people stop finding bites on their bodies, and their underwear remains clean. It is recommended to do a control test with plates or glasses. It can be done in a few days. If after 3-4 times the result is negative, most likely the problem has been solved.
To prevent parasites from appearing again, you need to keep the room clean and pay attention to certain signs. The sooner bed bugs are identified and sanitized, the greater the chance of success.
What other traces do they leave?
Any traces of bedbugs should alert the owners. If you do not get rid of parasites in a timely manner, then within a few months a whole colony of bloodsuckers will form.
Characteristic signs of presence include:
- Bites on the body in the form of a track.
- Sweetish smell in the apartment.
- Black dots on the bed, wallpaper, furniture.
- Chitin shells.
- Clutches with eggs.
- Bloody traces of bedbugs on the sheet.
To ensure the presence of parasites, you need to carefully inspect the mattresses and sleeping areas. Sometimes bloodsuckers hide in baseboards or old furniture; if you turn on the lights at night around 2-4 o'clock in the morning, you can see adult individuals going out hunting.
Insects have a flattened body, about 1 cm in length, antennae, and three pairs of legs. Nymphs are smaller in size and lighter in color.
When they are full, their body takes on a characteristic bloody color. Adult insects are dark in color regardless of food intake.
Detection of the bedbug itself
Another important sign of the existence of bedbugs in an apartment is a one-on-one meeting with the parasite. It is very rare to encounter him, but it is possible, especially if you arrange a night raid. The essence of the raid is this: you need to lie under a blanket, put a flashlight next to it and freeze in anticipation. You don't have to wait until the parasite bites you. You can turn on the light and shake off the blanket after you feel a strange sound that is gradually approaching.
Bedbugs have a flattened body, the length of which reaches up to 9 mm. The shape and length of the body depend not only on the age of the insect, but also on the sex. Females have a more rounded body, and males are oblong. The color of the body is predominantly brown, although the larvae are characteristically yellowish or colorless. With each subsequent meal, the young individual becomes more and more brownish.
If you are interested in a night raid, it will be useful to know that parasites of this kind attack mainly after 2-3 o’clock in the morning. The hunt can continue until sunrise, although occasionally insects can attack after 7 a.m. if the victim likes to sleep. After meeting an insect, you can simply stun it or put it in a jar, and then examine it in detail. By the way, you can test the effectiveness of some pest control products on a caught specimen.
To make sure that the caught pest is indeed this blood-sucking bed bug, it is necessary to study its body shape in detail. The characteristic features of the bedbug include the following:
- The abdomen of the bug is flat or oval, which when saturated with blood acquires a reddish tint.
- The parasite has three pairs of legs.
- The head of the parasite is small in both females and males. On the front of the head there is a characteristic proboscis, with which it pierces the skin and feeds on blood.
- A standard bug has a size of 6-8 mm, but often with intensive feeding they can grow up to 10 mm. The photo below shows a bed bug.
Once the enemy is known by sight, you can begin to select the optimal type of weapon to fight him, or rather, to clear the apartment.
Processing methods
There are several types of treatment for bedbugs and clothes.
Use of chemicals
Use of chemicals
Chemicals are what you can use to treat things and clothes against bedbugs at home. Insecticidal preparations such as Dichlorvos, Clean House, Raptor, Kombat, Dobrokhim FOS, Reid or Eslanadez have a good effect. There is no white or sticky residue or odor left on clothes after Medilis. The safest ones include Lambda Zona, Delia Zona and Get.
On a note!
Bed bugs on clothing will not be a nuisance if the chemically treated item is placed in a plastic bag and kept in it for 24 hours.
After this, thorough cleaning of the seams and folds where insects lived is required. After several days, items that have been infected with bedbugs are treated with a soda solution and washed.
Main traces of life
Traces of bedbug activity are found on bedding and next to the bed. They are dense to the touch and resemble black dots in appearance. This is parasite feces. When a bug becomes saturated, its digestion is activated and defecation occurs.
The excrement is initially liquid, but upon contact with air masses it hardens . The smell is reminiscent of low-quality cognac. The same excrement is found in nests where pests go to digest food and reproduce.
Specific smell
You can detect bed bugs in an apartment by the sweetish almond aroma in the room. It feels especially bright after the street. Bloodsuckers have special glands that are activated at the moment of danger.
They create a specific smell. Thanks to these glands, pests find their clan after moving a long distance. Bedbug feces also have a similar aroma.
Chitin shells
Chitinous shells also indicate the presence of parasites. The larva has an exoskeleton in the form of a shell. When the nymph is older, it gradually grows after each meal. This shell becomes too small for her, she throws it off.
The first skin is light and thin; the larger the insect, the darker and denser its chitinous shell . During the process of growth to adulthood, several stages of molting are observed. The skins help to distinguish bedbugs from other living creatures in the apartment that can harm people.
Since bloodsuckers love to settle in old things, the shell can be found in these places. If the room is heavily infested, skins can be found on the sofa, bed, and furniture.
Infection through clothing
Being in a dysfunctional apartment is not enough for bedbugs to appear in things. Parasites do not like light and prefer to be nocturnal. During the day they hide in their shelters and go out hunting only after dark. Therefore, bedbugs can appear in clothes only if a person spends the night in such a place. Such a need may arise during travel, vacation or business trip. Returning home with such “baggage” promises to soon be in the vicinity of an entire population of domestic bugs.
On a note!
Another way of infection by bloodsuckers through things is through parcels. Considering that bedbugs themselves do not live in clothes, this does not prevent them from staying in them for some time. The folds of the product can serve as a good refuge for the parasite.
We cannot exclude the possibility of finding eggs in such places, from which larvae will appear after a certain time. The likelihood of such a situation occurring is especially high when the premises are highly contaminated.
Bed bugs in clothes
Clutches of eggs
Adults, after receiving the next portion of blood, begin to reproduce. Their eggs resemble small translucent grains of rice.
Bed bugs nests are located close to the food source - near beds, sofas . Sometimes females protect their offspring from possible detection and hide eggs in old things, behind baseboards.
If masonry is discovered, it must be destroyed using boiling water or mechanically. If this is not done, new bloodsuckers will hatch from the eggs and continue their population.
On average, one egg takes 2 weeks to mature, so in a month entire armies of bloodsuckers will be traveling around the house.
Where do bed bugs hide in the house?
Typically, bedbugs look for secluded places to wait out daylight hours in close proximity to food sources. Often these insects can be found on the frame under the mattress, under bedding. They can also accumulate in the gap between the bed frame and the mattress. Refuges for bedbugs include:
- cracks in the walls;
- space under the wallpaper;
- grooves in cabinets;
- cloth;
- books;
- Appliances;
- upholstery seams.
This is not a complete list of places where these insects can hide at all times of the day. This feature makes them invisible. Some housewives who carefully monitor cleanliness, even during general cleaning, may not identify where these creatures accumulate in the house.
Most often, bedbugs hide in beds, bedding, and furniture crevices.
Once the insects are detected, a stubborn fight against bed bugs begins. This process is very labor-intensive, but if desired, you can quickly get rid of these parasites.
How can you find out for sure whether bedbugs live in an apartment?
Surely there is only one way to be sure of the presence of bedbugs - to see the insects with your own eyes, since all other signs are not 100% reliable. Marks on the body may not be from bedbug bites, but, for example, from fleas or linen mites. The excrement may be cockroaches. But you shouldn’t ignore the discovered traces, because after the bugs start, they begin to multiply at lightning speed, and the colony is constantly growing.
Nest
If alarming signs appear, you should try to find a nest of parasites, and to do this you should check:
- mattress;
- bed frame;
- space under the upholstery of upholstered furniture;
- back walls and bottom of cabinets;
- the space behind the baseboards and under the edges of the flooring;
- back walls of household appliances.
In addition, you should examine the books on the shelves, mirrors and paintings hanging on the walls, and large toys.
Traces on the human body
So what traces do bedbugs leave on the human body? According to doctors, after an insect bite, a red bump remains at the site of penetration. It is very itchy, swollen, and painful.
Therefore, a large red spot makes people think that mosquitoes have settled in the house. Residents begin to actively fight flying bloodsuckers, while bedbugs continue to increase their population.
In some people, bedbug bites cause an allergic reaction, then it is difficult to correctly differentiate a harmless wound . After insects, red spots resemble bumps, but not pimples.
The swellings are very painful, itchy, and inflamed. If you scratch the penetration site, there is a risk of infection, which complicates treatment.
When pests settle, the number of bites gradually increases, being located chaotically on the body in places accessible to penetration. The allergy covers areas of the skin completely, it is smaller and is localized not only in open areas of the body.
Bites
To understand that it is a bug that bites and not another insect, it is worth examining the wound. Bloodsuckers leave a kind of trail. They produce 2-5 bites about 5-10mm apart. After drinking a sufficient amount of blood, the insects retreat to their nest.
Bedbugs attack in colonies, so in the morning there may be several grooves, but all of them are located only on open areas of the skin, since the pest is not able to bite through clothing. It also does not touch skin that is heavily covered with hair.
Parasites attack only at night, although if there is a large infestation, bloodsuckers can come out during the day. Adult bedbugs have a proboscis with two sections, through one they suck in blood, and through the other they inject a secretion that blocks nerve endings, which causes an analgesic effect. Thus, a person does not feel pain and notices the appearance of bite marks only in the morning.
Bloodsuckers love to attack children because they have delicate, thin skin that has no specific odors. The duration of the meal can be 15-20 minutes, during which time the bloodsucker receives 0.5-7 ml of blood.
Bedbugs do not attack every night; the dose of food they receive lasts for 5-7 days, after which they return to the victim. The female requires more frequent feeding to lay eggs.
Bedbugs drink human blood; parasites do not harm animals except for the lack of food.
Signs and symptoms of bed bugs
You can determine the presence of bedbugs in an apartment using many methods, which we will consider further.
Bedbug bites on the body
The bites of such bloodsuckers on humans have much in common with mosquitoes, but still it is not difficult to distinguish them. During a bug bite, a special substance called local anesthesia is released into the human body. When a bug bites and drinks blood, most people do not feel it, especially if the process occurs at night. Only after the parasite is satiated do minor signs of itching of the skin appear at the site of the bite. As a rule, when a mosquito bites, a person feels pain, thereby preventing the insect from continuing its meal.
Signs of bedbug bites can also be distinguished by their characteristic mannerisms. The main behavior of a bedbug is to make several bites on the victim. During the night, one bug can inflict up to 10 bites, and they inflict them side by side. As a result, you can track the characteristic path of movement of each parasite that feasted on your blood. The bite site is a red spot up to 15 mm in diameter, in the center of which there is a dot. This point in the center of the red spot is the site of the bug bite. The photo shows the location of the bug bite.
Bedbugs bite mainly in places where the skin is thin. These places include the face, neck, buttocks, back and arms. After waking up, bites make themselves felt in the form of itching and inflammation of the skin. Often, single bites are not dangerous to humans and after a few days they simply go away. It is only recommended to treat them with alcohol or peroxide to avoid infection from penetrating into the skin. A mass attack of bedbugs is much more dangerous, which can cause unforeseen consequences; therefore, you must immediately go to the hospital for examination.
Bedbugs are carriers of many serious diseases, so special attention should be paid to each lesion on the skin.
During the day, bloodsuckers attack the victim in rare cases; this mainly happens at night. During the daytime, parasites hide in their habitats, and at nightfall they come out to hunt. It is possible to detect a bedbug on a bed in rare cases, mainly at the moment it bites, if the person is not sleeping. Blood is sucked through a special two-channel proboscis, in which one hole serves to supply a special anesthetic substance, and the other is intended to pump blood into the insect’s body. In one night, an adult is able to suck up to 7 ml of blood. At the same time, for complete saturation, the night bloodsucker needs only a few minutes (from 5-10 minutes).
Presence of marks on furniture
Symptoms and signs of the presence of bedbugs in an apartment are determined by the presence of characteristic marks. It’s unlikely, but it’s true: during a night’s sleep a person tosses and turns, so the possibility of crushing a small bloodsucker or an entire flock cannot be ruled out. The next morning, you can find characteristic spots on the sheet or the body of the parasite itself. You can tell by your body who is bothering you every night.
A person in a dream can crush a bedbug larva, since their chitinous skeleton is softer than that of an adult insect
Symptoms of bed bugs in an apartment are manifested by the presence of excrement. The waste products look like mostly tiny balls of a dark brown hue. It is impossible to detect single excrement, but when you come across the parasite’s habitat, their quantity will be sufficient to be noticed by the naked eye. The main habitats of parasites are cracks, places under the bed, on the floor, in closets, etc.
In most cases, it is these signs of the appearance of night parasites that make it possible to diagnose the current problem. After all, despite the fact that the bites are more noticeable, people mostly attribute them to mosquito bites. Few people want to believe that their clean and well-kept apartment is home to a whole colony of blood-sucking parasites.
Detection of bedbug eggs
Another way to determine the presence of bedbugs in an apartment is to detect the offspring of these parasites, or rather their eggs. If waste products are easier to detect, then to find eggs you will need to check almost all the nooks and crannies in the apartment. The eggs are translucent in color and oval in shape. At one time, the female can lay up to 20 eggs. The eggs will subsequently hatch into larvae, which immediately turn into mature parasites. The larvae have a translucent color, so detecting them is much more problematic.
The larvae also feed on blood, so over time they can detect an increasing number of spots on the body from insect bites over time. The duration of maturation of the larvae is several weeks, after which a whole army of adults is formed. The lifespan of one individual reaches up to 1 year.
The appearance of an unpleasant odor in the apartment
During their parasitic activity, nocturnal bloodsuckers have one peculiarity - the release of an unpleasant, pungent odor. The room in which cockroaches live has a characteristic smell of rotten nuts. The situation is similar with bedbugs, but a person is not able to smell the smell of one parasite, and when they multiply, it will not be possible to hide the smell.
The characteristic smell of these insects serves as a means for them to scare off enemies, although for humans it is another symptom of diagnosing bloodsuckers in the apartment. The smell is released by glands, which saves bedbugs from various dangers, such as cockroaches. The smell of bedbugs is a kind of locator through which insects find each other and sense each other from a distance. In addition, along a paved path with a characteristic odor, parasites can travel considerable distances and still return to their habitat.
Detection of settlement sites
Despite the fact that bed bugs have this name, they still live in other more secluded places. A priori, parasites cannot live in bed linen, because a person makes it every day and washes it periodically. Bedbugs find more secluded places to live and reproduce near the bed.
The main places where bedbugs can live include:
- under baseboards; in window door openings; in sockets; on wall lamps; in paintings; near heating systems; under the wardrobe.
If you decide to look for bedbugs or signs of their existence, then you need to start with the mattress. Lift the mattress and carefully inspect it in the corners; if bedbugs live in the apartment, then they must be here. The photo below shows the most common places where bedbugs live. Based on the photo, you can try to find insects in the apartment.
How to remove bedbugs with dichlorvos?
Dichlorvos is a remedy whose name almost everyone has heard. This is a universal drug that copes with any domestic parasites. It is quite toxic, but at the same time, long experience in household use has shown that dichlorvos is safe for humans.
Now dichlorvos is produced as a ready-made spray. The drug with this name is produced by several different companies - since the active ingredient is the same, it is better to focus on the price and volume of the bottle.
To get the maximum effect, you need to spray dichlorvos over the entire surface of upholstered furniture, not forgetting the cracks, back surface, seams and space under and above the pillows.
Dichlorvos kills pests almost immediately, but has no residual effect - therefore its effect is temporary. It is best to use it in combination with another drug. Or re-process after some time.
Folk remedies
They are used for scaring, not killing. Strong-smelling substances (for example, vinegar, valerian, wormwood, wild rosemary) are not liked by bedbugs. If there is an aromatic plant in the room, there is a chance that bedbugs will look for another place to nest.
A product such as vinegar is well suited for treating furniture - it does not leave marks on the fabric. It can also be poured into cracks and hard-to-reach places - vinegar is not dangerous to humans, and the smell quickly disappears.
It is important to remember that folk remedies do not help get rid of bedbugs, but can prevent them from spreading throughout the apartment.
What methods of fighting bedbugs are known today?
Chemical preparations can rightfully lead among all known means of protecting and getting rid of bedbugs. On the Internet you can find a large number of reliable and proven drugs that will effectively destroy the bedbug population.
Folk remedies. These include, for example:
- Table vinegar, wiping surfaces with it can help repel them;
- Dried herbs such as thyme, rosemary, wormwood, valerian. It is recommended to set them on fire in a deep bowl and leave them indoors for a while;
- The pleasant smell of lavender and eucalyptus essential oils can also poison bedbugs (more details here);
- Some people suggest spraying areas where bedbugs accumulate with gasoline or kerosene.
You can read more about ways to get rid of bedbugs here.
The most effective and recognized way to get rid of bedbugs has always been and is to call a special service that will carry out high-quality and professional disinfection of sofa bedbugs throughout the apartment. Most people, realizing the futility of independent attempts to get rid of bedbugs in one room, come to the conclusion that it is advisable to sanitize the entire apartment for bedbugs from a specially trained service that uses professional means in their work that are almost impossible to find on the open market. Types of treatments may vary: low temperature freezing, high temperature treatment, insecticide application.
If you are faced with the problem of unsuccessfully fighting bedbugs in your apartment and contact us, we will always recommend that you treat the apartment completely, since it often happens that bedbugs do not bite all family members (read more about this here) and do not appear in all rooms, As a result, people mistakenly believe that bedbugs only appear in one place in the apartment.
The best solution would be to contact the sanitary and epidemiological service, whose specialists are ready to help legal entities and individuals at any time of the day.
The price for treating an apartment by special services is usually determined based on the chosen method and the size of the room being treated.
Before starting to treat the room, the specialist will definitely talk to you and find out the details of the problem (how long ago the bedbugs appeared, whether you have already poisoned them with something, where you saw them and where they bit you). After an introductory conversation, the expert will inspect your apartment together with you, find nests of bedbugs, select a preparation, and only then begin treatment.
The selection of the drug is always carried out individually for each specific case. When selecting preparations for disinfecting sofa bugs in your apartment, services are guided, first of all, by ensuring that the preparations have a detrimental effect on pests, but at the same time cause minimal (zero) harm to residents, pets and indoor plants.
Where do house bugs come from?
Before starting the fight against bedbugs, it is advisable to find out where they came from in the house in order to also remove the source of their invasion and in time to exclude the possibility of reappearance of parasites after measures have been taken to destroy them.
The most likely routes for bedbugs to enter a person’s home:
- with old furniture, things, bed linen, books;
- with guests, strangers;
- with pets;
- from a neighboring apartment, basement, through windows, balcony, ventilation grilles.
There is an opinion that most often bedbugs appear in places where hygiene rules are not followed. You can also purchase an apartment on the secondary housing market with bedbugs. Moreover, at first it will seem clean, because in the absence of food, bloodsuckers hibernate for up to a year. When a new victim appears, they are activated.
How to get rid of house bug excrement?
Hello, dear readers! Bed bugs are now very common and plague people all over the world. These parasitic insects feed mainly on human blood. Next we will talk about the unpleasant consequences for your home due to the infestation of bedbugs. In addition to the undeniable harm to humans, they also simply bring destruction to comfort with their excrement.
The appearance of bedbugs in your home can be detected by the waste products they leave behind. They can be easier to spot than the insects themselves. Externally, bedbug excrement looks like tiny black dots, slightly reminiscent of poppy seeds. But feces can be easily distinguished from them by the characteristic unpleasant smell of spoiled cognac.
The most common place to spot excrement is on the bed. They are released soon after feeding, and the bug usually drinks blood when a person is sleeping. But this is not the only place. The epicenter of the location of feces will necessarily be the insect's nest, along with the laid eggs and chitinous “skins” after molting.
Sometimes people confuse insect droppings with eggs and larvae. Eggs, unlike feces, have an oblong shape and a transparent pearl color. There are cases when excrement was not noticed in time and such a quantity has accumulated in such places that it becomes necessary to glue new wallpaper, restore repairs and furniture.
The insect's feces, before they harden into dark globules, can stain a sheet, mattress, or other surface. How to wash off bedbug excrement? First, use only cold water. Hot water provokes the absorption of organic stains. Secondly, blot the stain with a cloth soaked in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution. This method is recommended for use on surfaces that you cannot wash: carpet, wall, sofa. Next, put all bedding in the wash with cold water.
Stains on other surfaces should be wiped with microfiber to dryly remove all residues and excess moisture. Most importantly, start removing stains only after the parasites have been removed, otherwise your work will not be justified and fecal stains may appear again.
What to remember from the article:
- Bedbug excrement looks like black dots and smells like low-quality cognac.
- When removing fecal stains, use cold water, peroxide and microfiber.
- Removing the consequences should be done no earlier than removing insects.
See you in the next article!
Preventing bed bugs
Many people don’t even think about the need to prevent bed bugs until they experience the problem themselves. To prevent the occurrence of bedbugs in a house or apartment, first of all, you need to carefully check mattresses and upholstered furniture purchased at second-hand stores for the presence of insect nests. In addition, after checking into a hotel room while on vacation, you should carefully check the corners of the mattresses for the presence of bedbug excrement. If they are discovered, it is advisable to change your place of temporary residence. For advice from experienced people, watch this video:
Among other things, it is necessary from time to time to carry out a general cleaning of the apartment, during which you should move away all the furniture and thoroughly vacuum all the corners and cracks where adult insects can hide.
In addition, it is advisable to periodically treat all blankets and pillows with a steam generator.
This will not only prevent the appearance of bed bugs, but also reduce the number of linen mites living in the home, which, although they do not cause serious harm to humans, are still not the most pleasant neighbors.
Compliance with all rules for treating residential premises can significantly reduce the risk of bedbugs. Among other things, it should be taken into account that if there is a sanitarily unfavorable apartment in the entrance and there are cases of bedbugs spreading from it, you need to install special fine-mesh meshes in the ventilation ducts, which will prevent parasites from entering an uninfested home.
What is the difference between bed bugs and other parasites?
The differences between bed bugs are as follows:
From cockroaches:
- A bug cannot run fast like a cockroach.
- The bug has a wider and rounder body.
- The bug has no wings.
- The color of bedbugs is lighter than the color of the larvae of black cockroaches, and they do not have a red spot on the upper part of the body, like the wingless larvae of red cockroaches.
For lice:
- Adult bedbugs differ from lice in size and color.
- Small larvae of bedbugs can be confused with lice, but lice live in the scalp, on the head, and are difficult to separate from the hair. Bedbugs prefer exposed areas of the body.
From ticks:
- The main difference is the number of legs: house bugs have 6, like all insects, while ticks have 8 (ticks belong to the class of arachnids).
- Ticks have larger legs relative to their body size than bedbugs.
Preparation before removing insects
Before you begin the process of eliminating bloodsuckers in the sofa, you need to prepare the entire living space for this. Its competent processing will contribute to the effectiveness of the procedure.
Preparation includes the following steps:
- Carrying out wet cleaning of surfaces to remove dust, eliminating all deposits of things.
- Preventing curtains and curtains from insect eggs by washing.
- Wash bed linen at temperatures from 60 C° to 90 C°.
- Processing of all decorative items located on the walls (paintings, carpets, etc.).
- Moving the location of furniture so that it is not pushed close to the wall.
- Emptying cabinets of items followed by heat treatment.
- Packing dishes in polyethylene.
- Place all food products in the refrigerator, including salt and cereals.
- Providing protection for household appliances using polyethylene film.
- Removal of all people and pets from the premises.
- De-energization of electrical wiring due to processing of sockets.
- Separating skirting boards from walls.
- Hermetically sealing doors and windows.
- Complete removal of the sofa from all textiles that are on it. These are covers, pillows, blankets.
It is important to note the need to ensure free access to water supply. It is possible that during the treatment of the premises from parasites, toxic substances will get into the eyes or onto human skin.
Do bedbugs carry diseases?
As with all blood-sucking insects, there is a theoretical possibility of transmission of the hepatitis B virus - however, scientists note that more research is needed to determine whether the virus transmitted by the insects is contagious.
Scientists from Canada have discovered that bedbugs can carry enterococci, as well as MRSA, which is resistant to all available antibiotics. However, researchers are not sure whether bedbugs transmit bacteria to patients or vice versa.
There is currently no evidence that bedbugs carry any diseases. However, their presence can cause anxiety and fear in people. They can disrupt sleep and even lead to insomnia.
How dangerous are couch bug bites?
The main problem that bedbugs cause in the home is the disruption of adequate sleep. Of course, the bites of bedbugs themselves cause very painful sensations, but the objective possibility of infection through bedbugs with any infectious diseases is almost zero; there have been no such precedents in history.
Consequently, the main difficulty when an apartment or house is infested with bedbugs is sleep disturbance, a pessimistic mood, and scratching at the bite sites. Accordingly, this affects the general condition and performance of a person. Concentration decreases, a person becomes irritable, and their physical condition leaves much to be desired.
In addition to the above, the following points may be of concern:
- Excruciating itching.
To live, bedbugs must constantly bite a person and feed on his blood. In this case, the skin piercing itself is completely painless, but a few minutes later the victim will feel severe itching, because In the process of sucking blood, the insect injects saliva into the wound, the enzymes of which prevent it from coagulating.
- Mental disorders.
Psychiatrists regularly document the development of phobias in young children and adolescents who have experienced serious bedbug bites. In this case, victims of bloodsuckers become overly excitable, aggressive, sleep poorly at night, they may develop nervous tics, nervousness, a feeling of constant fatigue, stress, decreased performance, and deterioration of mood.
- Allergic reaction.
With increased individual sensitivity of a person, an allergy can go far beyond a simple rash - headaches, nausea, fever, and enlarged lymph nodes appear.
- Hepatitis B.
The hepatitis B virus and some other infectious agents can survive in bedbug excrement for up to several days, which means that a person accidentally touching the place where they were left with his hand may well “catch” the infection. This fact has not been proven, but many support the opinion that there is a risk of infection.
- Iron-deficiency anemia.
Numerous bites by children can lead to iron deficiency anemia, which sometimes results in various difficult consequences for a vulnerable child’s body. However, in some adults this factor cannot be discounted: serious bites of pregnant women can lead to unpredictable consequences for both the mother and the unborn child.
- Purulent inflammation.
With constant scratching of bedbug bites (which is especially important in young children), open wounds form in their place, into which various pathogenic bacteria can penetrate, causing pustular inflammation.
Features of removing bedbugs from various places
You can remove bedbugs using different methods. They should not all be used always and not everywhere. You need to understand when it is better to do heat treatment and when to use chemical insecticides. There are cases in which the problem can only be solved with the help of special services. In another situation, a person can cope with such a misfortune on his own. It depends on the degree of infestation, sources and the desire of the person to try to remove bedbugs for a long time and painfully or leave it to specialists.
What do adults look like?
Bed bugs are not just one type of insect. There are many varieties in it. But from a visual point of view there are no significant differences. The house bug is not an ordinary beetle. It differs from such insects in the absence of wings. This feature distinguishes it from one of its natural enemies - cockroaches, as well as from other types of bugs (water striders and soldier bugs). Since it does not have wings, the boundaries between the abdominal segments are clearly visible. It may seem that his entire body is covered with thin stripes.
An adult bed bug is dark brown in color. Unlike the toy soldiers, there are no patterns on its back. There is one more feature in which it differs from ordinary, non-bloodsucking insects. For example, an ordinary beetle always has the same body parameters. But for a bug, this indicator depends on whether it is hungry or not. This is all because the tissues of his body are elastic. The size of a bedbug when it is hungry is only 5-6 mm. And after the insect is full, its abdomen stretches greatly, and its body length increases almost 2 times. Moreover, this insect has an excellent appetite. In one meal, a bug can drink almost 2 times its own weight in blood.
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Interestingly, the color of an insect also depends on whether it is hungry or not. Usually only well-fed bugs are dark brown, while hungry ones have a light red tint.
Bed bugs are not just one type of insect.
House bugs belong to the order Hemiptera. Therefore, they have a number of common characteristics with the same “soldiers”. It is a small flat triangular head. Below it there is a long proboscis, which represents fused jaws. The proboscis of bedbugs is hard and durable, since it is needed to pierce the skin. True, they only bite humans, since dogs and cats have thicker skin, and the insect cannot cope with it.
The bug has 2 channels in its proboscis that ensure survival. Through one channel, the bug sucks out blood, and through another channel, a substance with analgesic properties enters the human blood. This is what masks the bug bite. A person may not feel any pain or itching for several hours, so he will not crush the troublemaker.
NOTE! To quickly get rid of bedbugs and other insects, there are only three effective options:
- Calling a pest control service (expensive);
- Buying an inexpensive one (1390 rubles);
- Chemicals (doubtful effect).
Interestingly, only the bites of adult individuals have such properties. Young larvae, called nymphs, cannot introduce such a component into the blood. Therefore, their bites are more noticeable. Allergy sufferers and people with thin skin are especially affected. Because of this, they may notice the bug while it is still feeding. But this does not always happen. The proboscis of the larvae is not yet so dense and sharp, it is smaller in size than that of an adult, and people with less sensitive skin may indeed not notice anything.
By the way, outside of feeding, the proboscis is difficult to notice even in adult insects; it is pressed to the lower part of the cephalothorax.
Considering the structure of the insect, one should note its flattening. It is because of this that the body length is short, and crushing the bug is quite problematic. Those brown spots that remain on bed linen from crushed insects are traces of well-fed and therefore clumsy individuals, which, moreover, increasing in size, become denser and more voluminous.
Photos of bedbugs
Linen bugs are another name for house or bed bugs. Each parasite is equipped with an elongated proboscis, which was formed during the process of evolution. Previously, these were the lower and upper jaws. The proboscis has two channels designed for sucking blood and introducing saliva into the body of the victim. The bug chooses a place closer to the capillary and pierces the skin with its proboscis, sucks blood, then moves a few centimeters and repeats its actions. In 8–12 minutes, the insect is completely saturated and hides in a shelter, where it digests food for several days.
This is what bed bugs look like
Bed bugs can be 0.5–8 mm in size. In a hungry state, adult individuals are approximately 4 mm in size; after saturation with blood, the body of the parasite approximately doubles in size, reaching a size of 8 mm. It is more difficult to see and recognize the larvae of bedbugs; the youngest ones may be invisible at first glance.
Best Chemical Insecticides to Eliminate Bed Bugs
There are many types of insecticides available in the market these days that are found to be very effective in controlling bedbugs. In order to be sure to get rid of these unpleasant insects, it is recommended to use a combination of aerosol and liquid products. Aerosols are perfect for killing insects found on clothing and bedding, as well as those hidden in secluded places. Liquid products allow you to cope with parasites that have clogged up in cracks and other nooks and crannies.
Combine liquid products with aerosols
When the question arises of how to get rid of bed bugs yourself, you need to use all available possibilities.
To kill bedbugs, it is best to use the following aerosol insecticides:
- Raid;
- Clean house;
- Combat;
- Raptor;
- Dichlorvos.
These aerosols can quickly destroy adult parasites and their hatched larvae. Among other things, it is advisable to use liquid preparations designed to treat areas where these insects accumulate. Typically, such products are sold in powder form and require dilution with water. The most effective drugs of this type include:
- Tetrix;
- Executioner;
- Forsyth;
- Digital;
- Fufaron.
With these preparations, diluted with water, using a spray bottle, you can easily treat all hard-to-reach places, including seams and folds of sofas, carpets, cabinet joints, cracks, etc. Such products must be used strictly following the included instructions. It is imperative to wear gloves and a respirator. Processing an apartment or private house may take time. In addition to the bedroom, other rooms in the apartment need to be treated, as there may be adult bedbugs and their larvae.
How to poison bedbugs
You need to poison bedbugs together.
First of all, you should find out in what area the bedbugs were found. To do this, talk to your neighbors. Often, bedbugs enter a new apartment from the rooms adjacent to it. If at least one apartment has bedbugs, then all the apartments closest to this room are in the danger zone. We will have to carry out the entire range of measures throughout this entire territory. If you find out that there are many apartments in the building infested with bedbugs, then be sure to call a pest control service: it will be impossible to cope with the parasites on your own. Only if you call a specialist can you be sure that the premises of neighboring apartments have been treated properly. Otherwise, there is a risk that your neighbors will buy ineffective cheap drugs or be too lazy to carry out the treatment.
If you find out that bedbugs live only in your apartment, or if you live in a private house, then you can use special preparations to combat bedbugs. However, you should prepare for a long confrontation.
Processing should be carried out as completely as possible. The choice of drug is also very important. It must have maximum effectiveness against bedbugs and at the same time be safe for humans and animals.
Particular attention should be paid to the smell of the drug used to combat bedbugs. Even if the drug is very effective, but its smell is unpleasant and too strong, it will be impossible to save the furniture. There have been cases where owners removed bedbugs, but were forced to throw away the furniture due to the persistent unpleasant odor of the insecticide.
Furniture bugs: photo
Knowing what furniture bugs look like and traces of their vital activity, it will be easier for you to identify the type of pests that have settled in your home.
- The body length of a bug varies on average from 0.5 to 3 millimeters.
- The color can range from beige or dark brown before feeding and burgundy or black after feeding.
- In their habitats they leave characteristic brown mud, shed chitinous plates, excrement and skins similar to walnut husks.
- Bedbugs accumulate close to the source of food - humans, so most often they can also be found in groups, and not one by one.
If you suspect that you have furniture bugs, but a photo and a quick inspection of the apartment did not give you 100% confidence that it is them, the most reliable way is to analyze the type of bites.
