Bed Bugs Blackpool, Southport and The Fylde.
One of the most feared and least understood pest insect species known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as children with the parting words of our parents in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?
Bed Bugs may have started to feed on man at around the period we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella mostly fed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on human blood when our forebears started sleeping} in bat infested caves.
Before the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace unwelcome guests in most low quality homes.
The later years of the 20th century saw pest operatives called out to very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being mostly restricted to low quality holiday camps and student housing etc.
Most people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the naked, with bed bugs which most certainly can be seen.
Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a quarter of an inch in size and swollen after dining on human blood.
Bed bugs usually feed on our blood every week or so, emerging in the hours before dawn and homing in on their target by detecting the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when nearby their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.
Without a suitable human host to dine on they can stay in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.
Signs of a bed bug problem are spots of blood on bed clothes and on the base of mattresses and many people can react badly to bed bug bites.
The early the 21st century has seen bed bug reports multiplying everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of world travel and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.
What is known is that that are now making a real fightback not only in lower 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 away in an infested bed is all it requires, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Stretford Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes and buses so a simple journey to work on an infested tube or train can be all it takes to bring the infestation to your own home.
They are an tricky pest to eradicate as contrary to popular notion they do not just live in beds. They hide in any nook and cranny suitably close to a sleeping human target, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both difficult and time consuming. They have even been revealed found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the folds of flesh on grossly over-weight people.
They are not a pest that can be eradicated by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be required.
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