Bedbugs belong to the order Hemiptera. Until recently, pests were classified as a separate order, but modern classification has deprived them of their independence. Parasitic insects are united into five dozen families. There are more than 40,000 species of these creatures. Of these, about 2,000 live in the vast expanses of the former Soviet Union. Bedbugs are not concentrated in one place; their population covers the entire planet. Entomologists associate the intensification of pests, which began in the mid-twentieth century, with the development of tourism.
Signs of bedbugs in an apartment
Bed bugs are blood-sucking insects that feed primarily on human blood. They settle in private houses, apartments, hotels and other premises where people sleep. You can understand the presence of bedbugs by the following signs:
- Bites on the human body. They are discovered in the morning: bedbugs only bite sleeping people. They are usually arranged in rows because the insects make several bites in a row. The area of skin around the bite becomes red and swollen. There is severe itching in this area.
- Blood stains on the bed. Blood from a wound from a bug bite does not stop flowing immediately. When a sleeping person tosses and turns in his sleep, she smears herself on her underwear and bed. Therefore, in the morning you can see a few drops of blood on the sheet and blanket.
- Smell. A house infested with bedbugs smells of dampness, mustiness, and fermented fruit. The more bed bugs there are in an apartment, the stronger the smell. If the owners get used to it, then the guests will definitely feel it.
The surest sign that bedbugs live in an apartment is the detection of the insect itself. To see a living parasite, you need to lie motionless at night for a long time, not sleep and wait for bites. Dead bedbugs are easier to spot. They are usually found crushed in bed in the morning. Bedbugs that are saturated with blood become slow and clumsy. Therefore, a sleeping person can accidentally crush them by simply turning on the other side.
Bedbugs have a flat, round body, slightly pointed at the back and colored brown. They have 3 pairs of legs and one pair of whiskers. Body length reaches 5–6 mm in males and 7–8 mm in females. Females are more rounded than males. Bedbugs that have drunk blood take the shape of an elongated oval and acquire a dark brown, almost black color.
Attention! In an apartment where bed bugs live, you can also find shells from eggs and shells shed by larvae. The first have a length of up to 1 mm and the shape of an elongated oval. The shells look like husks, colored in different shades of brown.
Do bedbugs bite through clothes?
Bedbugs are nocturnal. As soon as the inhabitants of the house go to bed, they go out in search of the victim. The smell of blood and carbon dioxide is attractive to them. Do bedbugs bite through clothes? Parasites do not have such powerful jaws that would allow them to cope with tissue. To attack, they choose areas of skin not covered by underwear. Sometimes, in search of prey, adults and larvae crawl under the blanket. Children with delicate skin are most at risk of attack, as well as areas of the body in adults where blood vessels are located as close to the surface as possible.
Where do bedbugs hide in an apartment during the day?
During the day, parasites hide in their hiding places. They crawl out only at night, when there is no frightening activity in the premises. Therefore, it is difficult to find where bedbugs live. But they always settle closer to the place where a person sleeps. After all, bedbugs are slow insects. The less time the pest spends searching for food, the higher the chances of survival.
Parasites cannot fly, so they cannot travel long distances. They move along surfaces with the help of their paws. A hungry individual covers a distance of 1 meter in 1 minute. It takes her from 4 to 10 minutes to find a free area of skin, bite through it and drink blood. After saturation, the speed of the insect decreases by 2–2.5 times to 0.4–0.5 meters per minute. Therefore, even those bugs that live under the mattress will need from 6-8 to 14-16 minutes to saturate.
Bed
Bed bugs usually hide in the bed structure. For parasites, this shelter has ideal conditions due to its close proximity to humans. They often live in the following places:
- the space between the mattress and the headboard (headboard);
- the inner space of the mattress (if there are unsewn holes);
- bed frame, slats.
In rare cases, bedbugs hide under sheets, behind and inside pillows. They live under the bedding, if the bed is never remade, the pillows are not moved, but they sleep on them.
Sofa
The second most popular place where bed bugs live in an apartment is the sofa. Usually bedbugs infest it if they sleep on it. Here's where insects can hide from humans:
- Spring block. Bedbugs enter through damage to the upholstery. They will not be able to gnaw holes in the tissue on their own due to the structural features of the oral apparatus.
- Upholstery folds, gaps between the horizontal and vertical parts of the sofa.
- Drawers - If the space under the sofa is used to store things that are rarely taken out, bed bugs can take up residence there.
Attention! If people do not sleep on the sofa, bedbugs very rarely infest it.
Soft chair
Upholstered furniture provides good shelter for bedbugs. But insects are even less common in chairs, because people don’t sleep on them. They are rarely found even in a reclining chair used for sleeping. After all, due to daily assembly and disassembly, bedbugs run the risk of being noticed. If they still decide to settle in the chair, then they crawl under the upholstery, into the folds, and into the storage box.
Furniture and the space behind it
All objects in the apartment move. This does not apply only to furniture, which is moved only when the interior is updated. Therefore, the space between the walls and the back wall is a habitat with suitable conditions for the life of bedbugs.
Here's where you can find insects:
- behind the closet;
- behind the chest of drawers;
- behind the wall in the living room;
- behind the bedside table;
- behind the bed, sofa, chair (if they are located against the wall).
You can see bedbugs not only behind furniture, but also inside it. Pests hide in closets among bedding and underwear, clothes, and other things. For bedbugs, it is important that stored items are not disturbed. Otherwise, they will find a quieter place.
Interior decoration
Crevices in the floor, walls and ceiling are secluded places where bedbugs hide. They create colonies:
- behind the baseboard;
- under the wallpaper;
- on carpet;
- under MDF panels;
- behind door jambs;
- under a suspended ceiling.
Bedbugs usually live under the decoration in the bedroom in the immediate vicinity of the bed or sofa. But when there are a large number of individuals, they hide in remote places. The older the finish, the higher the likelihood of it becoming infested with parasites.
Interior decor
Bedbugs in an apartment hide even behind decorative elements. Very often during pest control they are found under paintings, photographs, panels. Bed bugs can be found under wall or floor carpet.
Interior textiles
Curtains and curtains become a habitat for bedbugs if they are thick, dense, and have many folds. It is important that the curtains are not touched. If they cover a window that is regularly opened, bedbugs will not dare to settle in them.
Wiring and electrical appliances
Sockets, switches and electrical appliances are rarely inhabited by bed bugs. But sometimes this happens. Therefore, they also need to be checked before pest control treatment, which will help get rid of pests in the house.
Types of bedbugs
The planet is inhabited by about forty thousand different species of bedbugs. They differ so greatly from each other in lifestyle, eating style, and appearance that often only a specialist is able to recognize a bug in an insect. Of the few unifying features, one can name the structure of the oral apparatus common to all species. Regardless of the species, it piercingly sucks on all bedbugs. Some species feed on blood, others on plant juices. Nutrient fluids are different, but the principle of their absorption is the same. Another striking sign of a bug is a specific and rather strong odor, which is secreted by special glands located on the insect’s abdomen between the first and second pairs of legs. On the one hand, they perform a communicative role between individuals of the same species at the chemical level - the composition of the secreted liquid is close to pheromones. On the other hand, they scare away enemies. That, perhaps, is all that makes representatives of different species similar, and then the peculiarities begin. Among the bugs that live in gardens and vegetable gardens, there are both pests and protectors that can save the crop from other insects. Such defenders include the bug soldier
.
It faithfully serves gardeners by eating the eggs of insect pests. Some bedbugs are specially bred in gardens and vegetable gardens. Such “privileged” species include Podisus
bug .
He is the only one who hunts the Colorado potato beetle, which earned him fame as the best savior of potatoes. The antipodes of beneficial bugs include cruciferous bugs
, which destroy cabbage seedlings with full confidence that they were planted specifically for them.
This right is not disputed even by birds who do not risk tasting an insect that emits a strong and unpleasant odor. Another common pest of gardens and vegetable gardens is the turtle bug
.
Young trees and seedlings suffer from it. It attaches itself to green shoots and sucks out all the juices from them. Waterfowl bugs include the water strider
and
smoothie
, which is also called the water wasp.
Both species are predators, hunting mosquitoes, their larvae, midges and other small insects that live above the surface of water bodies. Both species roam the watery expanses of ponds and lakes, occasionally venturing onto land. Both species have well-developed wings, allowing them to move long distances in search of better places to live. They are similar in almost everything except appearance. An elegant water strider, easily gliding across the surface of the water as if on ice, looks like a graceful ballerina in comparison with the “wide-shouldered, heroic build” smoothie. They cannot be called a harmonious couple. Apparently this is why they prefer to settle in different ponds. A large group consists of parasitic bugs that feed on the blood of larger organisms. About 30 species parasitize animals, birds, and bats. And only some species prefer human blood. A prominent representative of them is the house or bed bug.
Bed bugs
Bed bugs are synanthropic insects. They parasitize humans and cannot exist outside human habitation. Eras, human living conditions, the exterior and interior of houses, engineering communications change, and only the presence of bedbugs remains unchanged. The instinct of self-preservation leads them to humans, and this is the most accurate compass in the world! The bug knows that next to a person it is always warm and satisfying. And it is not so important what is the source of heat in the home - a fire in a cave or central heating radiators in a fashionable house. Where a person is comfortable, a bug will be comfortable there. And everything else is not significant and does not in any way affect the magnetic attraction of parasites to their victims.
Rating of places for bedbugs to nest in an apartment
Here is a rating of places where house bugs live in apartments:
Place for a person to sleep (bed, sofa) - 71%. Moreover, in 35% of cases you will find bedbugs in the spring block, in 26% - in or behind the mattress, in 10% - behind the headboard or in the frame.
Upholstered furniture (sofa, armchair that is not used for sleeping) - 22%.
Wall finishing (under wallpaper, panels, in cracks) - 3%.
Floor covering (carpet, carpet, baseboard) - 2%.
Wardrobe, bedside tables, chests of drawers - 1%.
Electrical appliances, electrical wiring components and other places in the house that are not typical for bedbugs - 1%.
Why are bedbugs dangerous?
An allergic reaction of the body to bedbug bites is the most harmless consequence of contact with parasites. Everything can be much more serious and sad under certain circumstances. Much depends both on the state of health of the person and his immune system, and on the degree of infection of the bug with various viruses.
FACT
It has been scientifically proven that the bedbug is a carrier of viral diseases such as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, anthrax, and hepatitis. All these viruses enter the insect’s body along with the blood of a sick person on whose body it has parasitized.
The bug feeds on blood, so there is a chance of contracting any of the diseases that are transmitted through blood. And although some virologists do not see a direct threat of infection through the bite of an infected bug, this possibility cannot be completely dismissed. Not only bedbug bites are dangerous for humans, but even its excrement, in which the hepatitis B virus persists for a long time. Feces can be in a person’s bed, because the insect defecates in the same place where it eats, without bothering itself with creating a special latrine. A sleeping person may involuntarily inhale small particles of excrement or accidentally introduce them into the mouth. Once in the human body, the virus will begin to develop, causing disease and destruction.
What do bedbug bites look like?
Not all bedbugs bite their victims the same way. The classic option is a path of several consecutive punctures. That is, the bug is not satisfied with the blood sucked from one wound, and therefore makes several of them in one meal. However, this academic version of bites is not always found. Bedbugs, like any living creature on the planet including humans, have their own distinctive characteristics, taste preferences and feeding habits. Therefore, more often than not, a bug bite differs little from the bite of any other blood-sucking insect. An inflamed swelling of pink or red color with a pronounced skin puncture site inside. This is what a bite from any blood-sucking insect, including a bug, looks like. You can learn more about how to distinguish a bedbug bite from other insects in our separate article.
How to find bedbug hiding places in your home
To get rid of bedbugs, first look for their nests. Since in 7 cases out of 10 bedbugs in an apartment settle next to the place where a person sleeps, the search begins with the bed or sofa. The following signs will help you find where insects live faster:
- Smell . Take a sniff. Try to find a room in your apartment that smells stronger of fermented berries. In most cases this will be the bedroom.
- Excrement s. Dark, almost black spots can be found near the nest - this is digested human blood.
- Husk. Bed bugs molt 5 times during their life cycle from hatching the egg to reaching sexual maturity. Therefore, reddish-brown husks often fall out of the nests in the form of small shells that the larvae have shed.
In an apartment, bedbugs often make not one, but several nests. They may have different localizations. Therefore, you need to inspect all the rooms in the apartment, all upholstered furniture, cabinets, decoration and other items. Finding bedbug habitats is an important step in the fight against parasites.
How long do bedbugs live and what are they afraid of?
The average lifespan of a bedbug is approximately 12 months. Although this figure is very arbitrary. Any changes in the temperature in the room affect its lifespan. An increase in temperature accelerates development and thus shortens the life cycle. A decrease in temperature, on the contrary, slows down the maturation and development of the new generation, increasing the overall life expectancy.
We should not forget that under unfavorable living conditions, the bug hibernates and can remain in a state of suspended animation for quite a long time. The bug does not die, but all life processes slow down so much that there can be no talk of any activity. This ability to fall into lethargic sleep has helped the bug survive many natural disasters on the planet, unlike humans. When entire civilizations perished, the bug preserved its life until better times and was revived for active activity and reproduction at the first opportunity.
ATTENTION
A bug can remain in a state of suspended animation for a year. If his hibernation is associated with a strong drop in temperature, then his lethargic sleep can last indefinitely - until it gets warmer. The bug can easily tolerate low temperatures ranging from minus 5 to minus 10.
The bug turns into ice, but it is this condition that keeps him alive. As the temperature rises, the resilient parasite thaws and attacks food with redoubled appetite. Temperatures below minus 22 degrees or above plus 40 can kill him.
In addition to extremely low and extremely high temperatures, bedbugs are afraid of sharp and strong odors. Of course, the odors of bedbugs will not physically destroy them, but they can scare them away and force them to migrate. Such odors include: table vinegar, acetone, perfumes with a strong aroma, ammonia, denatured alcohol, kerosene, turpentine.
The smells of certain plants can also repel bedbugs for a while. The most effective of them are wormwood and tansy. You can learn more about what smells bedbugs are afraid of in a separate article.
However, for serious control of a large population of bedbugs, it is better to use professional insecticides and appropriate equipment.
Questions and answers
People who encounter bedbugs in an apartment for the first time have a lot of questions. Let's look at the most popular questions and answer them.
Once the nest is found, can we not look anymore?
No. The number of bedbugs could increase, and their colony could split. With a rapid increase in numbers, insects spread throughout the apartment. To get rid of bedbugs at home, you need to find all the places where they live.
Mikhail D.E.
Exterminator, 15 years of experience
Ask a Question
If you find a nest far from your sleeping place, there is a high probability that it is not the only one in the house. Check other hiding spots closer to the bed. After all, bedbugs colonize remote areas after the food source has run out of free nesting places.
The nest was found and destroyed. Will bedbugs bother you anymore?
Fighting bedbugs using the “sneaker” method will not give a positive result. Physical destruction only helps to curb population growth. And treatment with household insecticides in the form of aerosols only affects larvae (nymphs) and adults (imagoes). Insecticides do not affect eggs. Therefore, after a few days or weeks, new individuals will appear from them. Because of them, the treatment is carried out again. Otherwise, the apartment will be re-infected.
Local control of bedbugs in found nests is ineffective. Disinsection of all premises will be required with the involvement of a specialist from the sanitary and epidemiological station. With the help of modern technologies for spraying insecticides, complete destruction of bedbugs is achieved.
Lifespan of insects
The problem of parasites appearing in the house becomes urgent when people find out how long bedbugs live in the sofa. After all, given comfortable living conditions, life expectancy is about a year. In a cool room this period even increases.
You should not leave your apartment if you suddenly discover that there are bedbugs living in it. There is no need to hope that bloodsuckers will go without food and soon disappear. It is necessary to start fighting them as quickly as possible and only then will you be able to get rid of bedbugs and live and sleep peacefully.
What bloodsuckers live in hair?
Lice are among the parasites that live in human hair. These insects, depending on the species, live on the head or pubis. They spend most of their lives on their hair. Lice descend on the skin only to drink blood.
The louse is attached to the owner's hair using three pairs of strong, tenacious paws. The parasite has sickle-shaped claws at the ends of its limbs, which allow the insect to easily hang on to them. Female lice also lay eggs on hair, attaching eggs with a special sticky secretion.
Healthy hair
What to do to prevent bed bugs from appearing again?
After the long-awaited victory over bed bugs, you should not relax, and you need to follow six simple rules to never encounter this problem again .
- If you or someone close to you has traveled, then after returning home, carefully inspect all your belongings and suitcases for signs of bedbugs. As mentioned earlier, these are black spots of excrement of processed blood.
- If you are going to purchase a piece of used furniture, be sure to check it for traces of bedbugs.
- If your neighbors suddenly started unplanned repairs, then most likely this is due to the appearance of bed bugs. Ask them about their availability, and if they have them, advise them to invite a pest control specialist.
- If you live in an apartment building, then survey your neighbors to see if they have bed bugs. If they don't know how to detect them, then you can help them do it.
- Be careful with service personnel. If a housekeeper or a repairman comes to you, then under no circumstances leave them overnight.
- If you have school-aged children, check their backpacks and school bags every time you return home. Because bed bugs can get there from other students.
Not a lot of statistics:
The Unified City Disinfection Service keeps statistics on the number of received and processed applications from the population of Moscow and the Moscow region for the destruction of bedbugs in the period from 2006 to the present. With the help of these data we understand that these harmful insects have not lost their interest throughout the entire time and with every Every year we have to fight them more and more difficult, because their immunity quickly gets used to various active insecticidal substances, in other words, poisons directed against them. Along with manufacturers of chemicals, we carry out constant monitoring and consult with employees of the research institute on the quality and crossing of various derivatives in order to reduce drug resistance in bedbugs. We use ovicidal and prolonged action drugs. Below you can see the dynamics of the number of completed bed bug disinfestation requests:
Number of applications:
Reasons for the spread of bed bugs.
Scientists attribute the surge in the number of bedbugs in the last century to 3 factors:
- Social problems of man. This includes an increase in tourism and migration from the southern regions, Central Asia, China and Vietnam . Also a secondary sales market such as second-hand stores, flea markets and message boards. The movement of goods and services actively contributes to the spread of bed bugs.
- Environmental changes - climate warming and an increase in the number of heated rooms in cold weather. In a warm room, bed bugs can reproduce throughout the year.
- The use of insecticides contributes to the development of resistance or addiction in insects. For example, in the South-Western District of Moscow, the immunity of bed bugs to cypermethrin has increased 100 times.
Distribution routes
Bed bugs are carried on clothing if it has been in an infested room for some time. You can bring a bug into your home even on a new one from the store.
Bed bug parasitism
During the day, pests hide away from the sun's rays in secluded places. They intensify their activity late at night, when the victim is fast asleep. During the day, infection is minimized, even if a person has been indoors for a long time. But to catch a bug, it is enough to spend the night in such a room, or leave your bags and suitcases there.
Pests will live in things until they get into a person’s house. Initially they hide in folds and seams. There the female can leave eggs during her stay. Then he looks for a more comfortable place to live permanently. It takes a few days to settle in, take a closer look, and form a nest.
On a note!
Bed bugs can live in clothes if they are not washed for a long time, or if they are immediately put into a closet with other things from a suitcase after being in another place.
