How to detect bedbugs in an apartment on your own: searching for couch bloodsuckers
The appearance of bedbugs in the apartment is an unpleasant phenomenon. It is difficult to notice the appearance of parasites, because they come out at night and hide in secluded places during the day. There, insects breed and you can notice their movement in a dwelling when there are a lot of them. How to find out if there are bedbugs in the apartment, what are the signs of their presence and how to detect them - selected below.
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Where do bed bugs come from
Bedbugs - small bloodsuckers, getting into the apartment, make their way to secluded places and hide there until nightfall. Their goal is to get to the place of a person's overnight stay and feed on blood. In an apartment from those places where they have already settled, they can get there in different ways:
- from neighbors, through cracks in walls, around sewer pipes, through ventilation;
- from shops, with new furniture or things;
- after staying in hotels, sanatoriums, hospitals, gyms, if they are there;
- with old furniture that somehow appeared in the apartment;
- clinging to the fur of domestic animals;
- bedbugs move to places where people live.
How bedbugs find a person
Bedbugs feed on human blood, come out of hiding at night, find a source of food according to such landmarks:
- a person exhales carbon dioxide, and the bugs go to the smell of carbon dioxide, which they hear, despite the great distance;
- parasites react to the heat of the human body, being close;
- Bedbugs distinguish the smell of the human body from other odors and go to it.
The main signs of the presence of bedbugs in the house
Parasites, being in the dwelling, leave traces of their presence. Characteristic places of bites on the human body, a specific smell and traces of vital activity. It is important to pay attention to these signs, and if they are present, immediately begin the fight against insects.
Bedbugs bite only on open areas of the body, leaving marks similar to mosquito bites. Several bites in a row, red dots arranged in the form of paths, 1 cm apart from each other. The bite site turns red, slightly swollen, itchy. Some people may be allergic to bed bug bites.
In a room where there are bugs, a specific smell is felt: sour raspberries, fermented jam or low-quality cognac. This smell appears when there are a large number of parasites. It will be especially strongly heard in places where their nests are located.
Bed bug waste accumulates in places where they hide during the day. But traces, in the form of small black dots, will be visible on the wallpaper, curtains and curtains. Bedbug feces - black balls, traces of blood and crushed bedbugs, on the bed. In secluded places, under the bed, behind the sofa, under armchairs, bedside tables, you can see excrement, the remains of a chitinous cover, bedbug eggs.
Where can parasites hide?
First of all, you need to look for bedbugs next to the sleeping place. At night, they come out to feed on blood, and during the daytime they hide in secluded places.
In places of accumulation there are females that lay eggs, larvae, leave waste products there.
How to find a nest of bedbugs in an apartment
Bedbugs come out of secluded places at night, but they can be found in the apartment by the presence of traces:
- left excrement;
- dead individuals;
- remnants of chitinous cover, eggs, and empty egg capsules.
Carefully inspect the entire apartment:
- bedroom;
- gaps behind skirting boards;
- the space behind the paintings;
- areas, under carpets lying on the floor and behind carpets - hanging on the walls;
- curtain folds;
- sockets and switches
- furniture;
- shelves with books;
- places where wallpaper has peeled off the wall;
- computer, microwave
- other electrical appliances.
Folk methods for finding bedbugs in an apartment
It is not always possible to detect bedbugs, but folk methods will help not only to detect parasites, but also to catch some. But to combat them, it is worth using folk methods or chemical means. Devices for catching bedbugs are not complicated and easy to make.
| eight glasses | For the trap, you need to take 4 large glasses, 4 smaller glasses. Small glasses are inserted into large ones, vegetable oil is poured into the small ones and talc is sprinkled on top. In the evening, one trap is placed near each leg of the bed. Bedbugs that go hunting at night get into a glass of oil, but they cannot get out. |
| plate method | Lubricate several disposable plates on the outside with petroleum jelly or other greasy cream, pour talc or baby powder into the plates. Place traps in rooms. Bedbugs, disappearing into a plate, rolled in talcum powder, I can’t get out of it. Having noticed in which room the most parasites are trapped, in that room they first of all begin to look for nests. |
| Early rise | Bed bugs come out to feed at night, between 3 and 6 o'clock. Rising in the early morning, turning on the light, you can find insects that will come out of their hiding places or, having fed on blood, will hide back to secluded places. |
What to do after finding bed bugs
Having found bedbugs and their nests in the apartment, you need to take immediate action. There are many available methods of dealing with bedbugs, these are folk remedies, some of them destroy insects, and some repel and chemical agents that are quite effective. But if the number of parasites is very large, then it is better to resort to the services of pest control specialists.
