What Are Bed Bugs?
Most people under seventy years of age in the West will not have seen bed bugs.
This is mainly due to improved living conditions, DDT and good public education.
The DDT was used in the thirties and forties and wiped out the problem in the more wealthy countries.
Bedbugs are a part of the arachnid or spider family, although bed bugs are parasites that suck blood, not all bodily fluids.
They will dine on most warm-blooded animals and there is some evidence that humans are not their first choice of victim.
The most common variety of bed bugs are known as Cimex lectularius by their Latin name.
They are quite small but very fast moving bugs and they are members of the spider family, although many of them do not look like spiders at all.
Rather, most of them look like little beetles, until they have satiated themselves, after which they can hardly move and are at their most vulnerable.
Bedbugs feed in a similar way to mosquitoes.
They insert a tube into the skin of its victim and suck blood out.
It is not a great deal to you, about a quarter of a millilitre, but is a lot to them.
It permits them to live and procreate.
Bedbugs, unlike their relatives the ticks, are not known to convey any diseases.
In fact, they are one of the few insects that do not transmit a disease.
A bedbug bite is comparable to an ant bite in appearance, but it will itch similar a mosquito bite.
You will probably experience a slight swelling with a red dot in the centre and an itch.
Not much more.
You can check for bed bugs pretty easily by soaking a bar of soap in a little water for half an hour while you lie on your bed reading a book.
Then get up and fetch the soap, wet-side down and fling back the bed clothes.
Dab up the bed bugs, if there are any with the soft soap.
This is a speedy way of getting rid of a small number of bed bugs, but cannot be considered as a solution.
With regards to the annihilation of an infestation of bed bugs, it depends where you are.
If you are in a hotel, the bar of soap will be proof enough of a problem and it is the hotel manager's responsibility to provide a solution.
If they do nothing, report the hotel to the neighbourhood tourist bureau.
If you live in rented accommodation, it is your landlord's responsibility to resolve the problem.
If he or she is reluctant, then go to the council hall and seek advice.
If the issue is in your own home, then take the skirting boards and architraves off.
Spray or paint very strong insecticide onto the wall and refit the woodwork.
If you are still worried, seal the woodwork off on all sides with mastic or silicone.
These actions will ensure that your house will be free of bed bugs.
This is mainly due to improved living conditions, DDT and good public education.
The DDT was used in the thirties and forties and wiped out the problem in the more wealthy countries.
Bedbugs are a part of the arachnid or spider family, although bed bugs are parasites that suck blood, not all bodily fluids.
They will dine on most warm-blooded animals and there is some evidence that humans are not their first choice of victim.
The most common variety of bed bugs are known as Cimex lectularius by their Latin name.
They are quite small but very fast moving bugs and they are members of the spider family, although many of them do not look like spiders at all.
Rather, most of them look like little beetles, until they have satiated themselves, after which they can hardly move and are at their most vulnerable.
Bedbugs feed in a similar way to mosquitoes.
They insert a tube into the skin of its victim and suck blood out.
It is not a great deal to you, about a quarter of a millilitre, but is a lot to them.
It permits them to live and procreate.
Bedbugs, unlike their relatives the ticks, are not known to convey any diseases.
In fact, they are one of the few insects that do not transmit a disease.
A bedbug bite is comparable to an ant bite in appearance, but it will itch similar a mosquito bite.
You will probably experience a slight swelling with a red dot in the centre and an itch.
Not much more.
You can check for bed bugs pretty easily by soaking a bar of soap in a little water for half an hour while you lie on your bed reading a book.
Then get up and fetch the soap, wet-side down and fling back the bed clothes.
Dab up the bed bugs, if there are any with the soft soap.
This is a speedy way of getting rid of a small number of bed bugs, but cannot be considered as a solution.
With regards to the annihilation of an infestation of bed bugs, it depends where you are.
If you are in a hotel, the bar of soap will be proof enough of a problem and it is the hotel manager's responsibility to provide a solution.
If they do nothing, report the hotel to the neighbourhood tourist bureau.
If you live in rented accommodation, it is your landlord's responsibility to resolve the problem.
If he or she is reluctant, then go to the council hall and seek advice.
If the issue is in your own home, then take the skirting boards and architraves off.
Spray or paint very strong insecticide onto the wall and refit the woodwork.
If you are still worried, seal the woodwork off on all sides with mastic or silicone.
These actions will ensure that your house will be free of bed bugs.
