What does a bed bug look like: a photo and a detailed dossier on blood-sucking parasites
The classics of Russian literature described inns with rooms infested with bedbugs. And in our time, many residents of city apartments suffer from the invasion of these parasites. Bed bugs feed on blood and multiply rapidly. Settling in an apartment, during the day they hide in secluded places, and at night, they crawl onto the bed and bite, disturbing a person’s sleep. Often, bedbug bites have unpleasant consequences.
Content
- All about bed bugs
- The main reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in the house
- Where the linen bug hides: habitats of parasites
- Signs that you have bed bugs in your home
- Why are bed bugs dangerous for humans and animals
- Methods for dealing with household bed bugs
- Prevention and protection of the home from bed bugs
All about bed bugs
To defeat the parasite, it is important to know what it looks like, where it hides, how it reproduces, and what it fears.
Distribution history
It is believed that bedbugs inhabited the caves of the Middle East. Scientists find messages about them in ancient Greek sources. Aristotle wrote about bedbugs.
Linen bugs: description
Lifestyle and diet
Bed bugs move around at night looking for a source of food. Harvest parasites sit in secluded places, go hunting in the dark, from 3 to 6 o'clock. In a matter of minutes, they climb onto the bed from the floor, saturate themselves with blood and run back to the shelter. Bedbugs arrange nests, and their habitat can be detected by the presence of remnants of the chitinous cover.
Females, males, and larvae feed on blood. It is enough for bed bugs to feed on blood once every 5-10 days, they drink twice their own weight in blood at a time.
Reproduction and type of development of bedbugs
Differences between a house bug and other insects in the house
Bedbugs look like bugs, but their body is flat. The size and structure of their body differs from the body of cockroaches, most cockroaches have wings on their bodies, and bugs are wingless. Centipedes have a long body and many legs, woodlice have an oval body, are light gray in color and have 7 pairs of legs.
To distinguish the bug from other insects living in the house, you need to take a photo of the insect, take a good look at it and compare it with the description of the bug.
The main reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in the house
It is generally accepted that bedbugs appear where it is dirty. But parasites will settle down in a clean apartment, as soon as they get there. Parasites can appear in an apartment at any time, as this can happen:
- When buying furniture or new clothes in a store. Bed bugs may live in new furniture or there may be eggs if the store has parasites. Also, clothes may contain bedbugs or larvae.
- It is possible to bring bedbugs along with things from a trip. They can settle in a train, hotel or station.
- Bedbugs can be brought in a bag when visiting. Or those who have bedbugs in the apartment came to visit and accidentally brought parasites with their things.
- Kindergartens, hospitals, sanatoriums can be infested with parasites and upon returning home after visiting such places, you can bring them home.
- Bed bugs travel through vents or cracks in floors. Can move from neighbors.
Where the linen bug hides: habitats of parasites
Once in a human dwelling, bedbugs hide in secluded places and live and breed there. Therefore, it is necessary to inspect such places from time to time, and if you see parasites or traces of their vital activity, immediately begin to fight them:
- in the bedroom, a mattress on the bed, a crib, any folds, seams - a favorite place for bedbugs. Having settled there, they will quickly get to the source of food, and, having sated, they will also quickly hide;
- corners, cracks behind skirting boards;
- windows, cracks on or under window sills;
- in sockets;
- under paintings hanging on the walls, in the folds of curtains, behind carpets hanging on the walls, or under carpets lying on the floor;
- closets with clothes, with books.
Signs that you have bed bugs in your home
Signs of the appearance of bedbugs and their number can be determined by the presence of waste products in their locations.
| Chitin shells | In places where bed bugs gather, you can see chitinous shells. After hatching from eggs, the larvae molt several times before becoming adults, and brownish remnants of their chitinous cover appear where they are. |
| egg laying | One female can lay up to 5 eggs, they are white and small in size. And if there are several females in the family, then there will be more clutches and they can be seen by carefully looking at the places of possible accumulation of eggs. |
| Specific smell | Bedbugs have a specific smell. And if they appeared in the apartment, then you can hear a sweet cognac smell. The stronger this smell, the more parasites in the room. |
| Blood stains on the bed | After a bug bite, blood oozes from the wound for some time, and blood stains can be seen on the bedding. Parasites go hunting at night, and after a bite, a sleepy person can crush a bedbug that has fed on blood and blood stains will remain on the bed. If such spots appear, then you need to look for a place in the apartment where the bugs are hiding. |
| Bed bug marks on wallpaper | Parasites along the way of movement leave behind excrement, in the form of black dots. On the wallpaper, dirty marks left by bedbugs are clearly visible. They are difficult to wash off with water. In the excrement of parasites there are pathogens of infectious diseases, and they should not be allowed to come into contact with the skin. |
| Signs of vital activity | In places of a large accumulation of bugs are waste products. In one place, you can find the remains of a chitinous cover, the remains of egg capsules, from which larvae appeared, excrement, egg laying. It all looks like a big pile of dirty rubbish, and an unpleasant smell comes from it. In this place, the bugs spend time during the day, and at night they come out in search of food. |
Why are bed bugs dangerous for humans and animals
Bed bugs are bloodsuckers. Dangerous for humans and animals bites, and their excrement. But the greatest harm to people at night is caused by their bites, depriving them of sleep and normal rest.
There is a possibility of contracting blood-borne diseases:
- smallpox;
- Hepatitis B;
- tularemia;
- brucellosis;
- typhoid fever;
- anthrax.
Dangerous bacteria that cause Q fever can enter the body with excrement. Chitin shells, once in the human body, can also cause an allergic reaction.
Animals become restless after being bitten by bedbugs, they comb the bites, they may become allergic to bites.
Bed bug bite symptoms
Not all people notice bedbug bites, but in their place there is a trace of several wounds in a row. Some suffer from allergic reactions to bites, and a rash may appear in their place.
Methods for dealing with household bed bugs
One of the effective means of dealing with bedbugs at all stages of development is high temperature. Chemical preparations and folk remedies are also used. Such herbs repel bedbugs: tansy and wild rosemary. For greater effectiveness in the destruction of bed bugs, several methods can be used simultaneously.
All ways to deal with bedbugs in the house - here to register:.
Prevention and protection of the home from bed bugs
From the appearance of bedbugs in the apartment, no one is immune. But preventive measures will help protect your home, and following some simple rules will help you not to bring parasites home.
- When buying new furniture, carefully inspect it for the presence of parasites.
- Do not buy old sofas, mattresses, other upholstered furniture, it can be infested with bed bugs.
- Returning from a trip, carefully inspect the bag and things, especially the seams, pockets, folds.
- If friends or relatives have bedbugs in the apartment, then if possible, postpone the visit until such time as they get rid of them. But if you need to be in a room where bedbugs live, then upon returning home, wash all things in hot water at a temperature above 50 degrees and iron.
- Protect your home from bedbugs as much as possible. Close the ventilation holes and vents with a mesh, close up the cracks in the floor and walls, glue the wallpaper.
- In the event of a mass invasion of bedbugs, contact the pest control service. Experts with knowledge of the matter will process the premises.