Posted By Connie on May 30, 2011

One of the most detested and least understood pest insect species known to civilisation is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us fell asleep to sleep at night as children with the parting rhyme of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?

Bed Bugs may have started to feed on human beings at around the time we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is likely that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human blood when our forebears started sleeping} in bat infested caves.

Up to the arrival of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common unwelcome guests in most slum quality homes.

The later part of the 20th century saw pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being generally restricted to cheap holiday homes and student lodgings etc.

Most people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the naked, with bed bugs which very definitely are.

Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after dining on human blood.

Bed bugs regularly feed on our blood every seven to ten days, appearing in the hours before dawn and finding their target by detecting the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when closing in on their target, they sense infra red heat.

In the absence of a suitable human host to feed on they can lie dormant for periods of up to 18 months.

Bed Bugs

The first signs of a bed bug presence are spots of blood on bed clothes and on the edges of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to their bites.

The early the 21st century has seen bed bug reports expoding across the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been argued as reasons for the resurgence.

What is positive is that that are now making a real return not only in slum quality housing but top class hotels, schools and even hospitals.

One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug infestations every year from 1995 to 2001.

One night stay in an infested premises is all it needs, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes and buses so a simple trip to work on an infested tube or train can be all it takes to bring these bugs to your own home.

They are an difficult pest to deal with as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They hide 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 laborious and time consuming. They have even been revealed found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the folds of flesh on very fat people.

A of stopping bed bug infestation is to equip your bed with bed bug moats.

Bed bugs moats stop bed bugs from entering your bed.

Visit to the Bed Bug Moat site for full details.

They are not a pest that can be eradicated by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.

Call us on 0800 019 8382

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: