When bedbugs appear in an apartment, many people feel helpless and do not know how to react. Many questions arise in your head, and on the Internet you can come across a lot of folk myths and ineffective recipes for combating these insects.

The appearance of bedbugs in the house

Even in the cleanest and most well-kept apartment you can encounter the appearance of bed bugs and other parasites. While poor sanitation often plays a role in the spread of bed bugs, it is not the only factor. Sooner or later, every person may encounter these unpleasant guests.

Here are several ways how insects can appear in an apartment:

• From neighbors: Bedbugs can move from one apartment to another through walls or cracks in the floor. Cooperation with your neighbors when dealing with bedbugs is important, as treating several apartments at once can be most effective.
• From travels: You may have picked up bedbugs in a hotel or public place. They could also get into your belongings from other travelers.
• With purchases: Used furniture or other goods may be infested with bedbugs. When purchasing things second-hand, especially through online platforms, you need to be especially careful.

• From the basement: Basements are typically a place where bedbugs and other pests thrive due to contamination. Treating not only your apartment, but also notifying your property management company about a problem in your basement can help prevent the spread of bedbugs.

The ways pests enter a home are varied. For prevention, it is recommended to seal cracks in the walls and install fine grilles on the ventilation holes.

If bedbugs have already appeared in your home, it is important to immediately take measures to eliminate them. An immediate response will help prevent the problem from spreading.

What do bedbugs look like?

The physique of a bedbug is significantly different from other insects. When hungry, bedbugs are flat and red or brown in color. Their length is 4-8 mm, with 4 mm being the average size of a hungry bug. After saturation with blood, the bug increases in size to 8 mm and becomes voluminous, darkens and acquires a blackish tint.

The bug's body is round in shape, although males are smaller than females and have a pointed point at the back of the body. The eggs of the parasite are white, up to 1 mm in size, and the larvae are whitish or yellowish and also reach 1 mm in size.

A bedbug has three main segments in its body:

1. Head: On the head are a pair of antennae and a pair of eyes. There is also a proboscis with sharp bristles, which the bug uses to pierce the skin and feed on blood.
2. Breast: The bug does not have wings and cannot fly, but it has elytra that are attached to the chest. There are three pairs of legs on the chest.
3. Abdomen: The abdomen of the bug contains the reproductive and digestive systems. This part of the body is covered with several chitinous segments, between which stripes are visible at the joints.

As you can see, bedbugs have a unique physique, which makes them easily recognizable and distinguishable from other insects.

How to distinguish a bedbug from other parasites

Why is it important to distinguish bed bugs from other parasites? This question has a simple answer. Different types of parasites require different methods of control, be it independent actions or professional measures.

Theoretically, bed bug larvae can be confused with adult body lice. However, they can be distinguished by their shade. Bedbug larvae are light-colored, with a yellowish tint, while adult lice are dark brown in color.

Bedbugs should also not be confused with cockroaches. These insects differ both in appearance and in their habitats inside the apartment. Bedbugs do not prefer to live under the kitchen sink, unlike cockroaches, which do not hide in mattresses.

For humans, all these pests are equally unpleasant and dangerous, especially when they are blood-sucking. However, it is important to remember that determining the type of insects affects the choice of methods for their destruction.

Where do bed bugs bite?

In order to quietly pierce the skin and feed on blood, bedbugs prefer the thinnest and hairless areas on the human body. Although parasites are able to bite the skin on the head, hair makes it much more difficult for them to move.

Most often, bedbug bites can be found on the bends of the elbows, on the arms, legs or on the back, forming characteristic tracks. Why is that? Bed bugs attack a person during sleep, allowing them to feed very quickly, in just a few minutes. The insects make a puncture using sharp bristles on the proboscis, suck out a small amount of blood and then move on to the next area of ​​skin, making a new bite. Thus, up to seven bites can form on one line with an interval of 3-5 cm.

Bed bug life cycle

The parasite's life cycle consists of three main stages: eggs, larvae and adults, and this cycle repeats again when the adult begins to reproduce.

The development stages of the pest are as follows:

1. Eggs: The eggs of the parasite are small, up to a millimeter in size, and white in color. They are shaped like grains of rice. The places where these eggs accumulate in the house resemble nests and require careful treatment. The eggs are protected with a special substance that prevents damage and makes them resistant to chemical attack, making them difficult to destroy with conventional means.
2. Larvae: The larvae of the parasite have an oblong shape and also reach 1 mm in length. At this stage, the parasite goes through several molts, each time increasing in size and shedding the old chitinous shell. Searching for shed membranes in the folds of bedding can confirm the presence of bed bugs in the home. The larval stage can last up to 30 days and, at low temperatures, can last for several months.
3. Imago: These are adult parasites. They live long lives and survive in extreme conditions, hibernating if temperatures become uninhabitable or their food source disappears. Hibernating bedbugs can live for a year or even longer.

Bedbugs have an outstanding vital capacity and reproduce quickly. One female is capable of laying up to 5 eggs per day and up to five hundred in her life. If action is not taken immediately, a huge population of these parasites may appear in your apartment.

Lifestyle of bed bugs

Bed bugs have been neighbors with humans for a very long time, and, accordingly, these parasites have adapted to survival. To avoid detection and the danger of being caught, they emerge from their hiding places only at night, when the room is dark and most people are already fast asleep.

Bedbugs leave their shelters only for a short time, only to quickly and quietly suck out a small amount of blood and just as quickly return back, hiding in their shelters. If you suddenly turn on the light, you can catch a parasite who has not had time to hide right at the crime scene.

What insects live in human hair

Only lice can be seen on people's heads with the naked eye. Their body structure allows them to be ideally hidden in the hair and securely attached to it.

These tiny lice are characterized by constancy: they rarely change hosts, and their entire life cycle takes place on a person, or more precisely, on his head.

Microscopic mites can also live on the head, but their size does not allow them to be seen with the naked eye without special optics. This way, you will definitely not confuse them with bedbugs.

Can bed bugs live on a person's head?

If you do not have knowledge about the structure and lifestyle of bloodsuckers, perhaps you could confuse bedbugs with lice. Let's clarify this issue.

As mentioned above, lice are extremely small in size, which allows them to remain unnoticed in the hair on a person’s head for a long time. Unlike lice, bedbugs are larger, and the structure of their legs does not provide them with the same invisibility. The human head and hair are an obstacle to these pests.

Bedbugs, unlike lice, are clearly visible on the hair and can be easily combed out with a comb. They can be destroyed instantly, for example, by spraying your hair with hairspray.

Bedbug eggs cannot be attached to hair, since the glue with which they are coated is not strong enough for this. However, they can be attached to other surfaces, such as walls, and remain there for a long time.

Of course, when the bug moves to its feeding site, it can run a little over the head and hair. However, its movements will be limited, since its paws are not designed to overcome such obstacles. In addition, the places where hair grows (for example, on the head) are rich in nerve endings, which allows a person to quickly notice the movement of pests through the hair and immediately get rid of them.

Can bedbugs live in hair?

Hack and predictor Aviator

Can bedbugs live on a person's body or hair? The answer is categorically negative: they are not capable of this.

If, after waking up, a person repeatedly notices a small insect on his head, especially among his hair, it is likely that these are not bed bugs, but body lice.

Getting rid of such pests is quite simple. To do this, you need to treat your head with special preparations that can be purchased at the pharmacy. It may take several treatments to completely eliminate the problem.

Bed bug hiding places

As has already been discussed, bedbugs do not live on a person’s head or hair. They are active only at night, when they suck blood, and during the day they hide in secluded corners of the room. Where do these parasites usually find their refuge?

Bed bugs can hide in a variety of places in your home, including:

• Details of the bed, folds of bed linen and upholstery of upholstered furniture, as well as in the mattress;
• Gaps in walls and floors, under baseboards and window sills;
• Behind cabinet furniture, behind paintings and old books.

Bedbugs secrete a secretion with a pungent odor, and their eggs are easily visible, so it is quite possible to detect insect hiding places. Processing of all detected areas must be carried out carefully and carefully.

Why is it important to fight bedbugs?

As already mentioned, these insects have a high survival rate and quickly increase their population. If action is not taken promptly, your apartment can quickly become a hub for bedbugs. In such a situation, their elimination becomes much more difficult.

When bedbugs infest your home, they begin to migrate to your neighbors, and it’s only a matter of time before they infect neighboring houses. Therefore, it is important to treat several apartments at once to prevent the spread of pests.

Bedbug bites can cause unpleasant sensations: sleep disturbance, fatigue and irritability due to nighttime insect attacks. The bite site can become inflamed, itchy, and in some cases lead to serious allergic reactions.

The sooner you find bedbug shelters and begin to fight them, the higher the likelihood of successfully getting rid of this unpleasant phenomenon.

How to deal with bedbugs yourself

Many people try to deal with bedbugs themselves. However, this process is extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming, and rarely leads to a positive result.

Some ways people try to get rid of bedbugs:

• Temperature method: Bedbugs cannot tolerate temperatures that are too high or low. Infected items are packaged in plastic and placed in the freezer for 6 months. Bedding can be boiled and ironed with a hot iron.
• Pitfalls: Place containers of water or oil under the legs of the bed. The bed is placed in the middle of the room so that the bedbugs have to climb down and then cannot escape from the trap.

People also use various household insecticides, but there is a risk that bedbugs have already adapted to them.

If independent measures do not bring results, it is recommended to seek professional help as soon as possible.

F.A.Q.

How to determine if there are bedbugs in a pillow?

Conducting a simple check and inspection of the bedding will help you determine the presence or absence of these parasites.

Signs of bedbugs on a pillow include blood stains, small black dots (traces of their vital activity) and shed chitinous membranes. If you notice such signs, it is recommended to get rid of the pillow. Although you can try to seal it and put it away, this method is not always effective as bedbugs can survive for quite a long time in such conditions.

Where do bedbugs most often hide?

Bed bugs prefer warm, dry, and dark places. They can live in cracks in walls and floors, under wooden window sills and behind furniture, especially old cabinets.

How to protect yourself from bedbugs at night?

Unlike lice, bedbugs are not repelled by conventional repellents. They are attracted by carbon dioxide, which is released when humans breathe. You can try to reduce the risk by placing the bed in the center of the room and installing liquid traps under the legs of the furniture, as well as traps that emit carbon dioxide. However, these methods do not always bring results.

The best solution is to turn to professionals who will rid you of bedbugs forever.

What happens if one person brings a bedbug home?

Often a person may inadvertently bring a bedbug back from a trip, and that bedbug probably won't be alone. Approaching more comfortable conditions at home, bed bugs begin to actively reproduce. Therefore, even if you notice just one bug, it is important to immediately treat the room.