What are bed bugs?

Cimex lectularius or as it is more commonly known, the bed bug, are reddish brown in colour, about 5-6mm in length and cannot fly. They are dorso-ventrally flattened enabling them to hide in many small places and they have 6 long well developed legs for walking and gripping surfaces,.this means they can move quite quickly over floors, walls and ceilings. When unfed they have a pale brown appearance, but when engorged with blood they take on a deep mahogany colour, the young bugs are called nymphs and are almost colourless, but become darker as they mature. Unfortunately for humans, the bed bugs preferred meal is that of human blood, although they may feed on domestic animals, cats, dogs and rodents.

Bed bugs exhibit an incomplete metamorphosis life cycle. This means the adult lays eggs and from the eggs emerge nymphs, a smaller version of their parents that go through several nymphal stages before becoming mature and finally reaching adulthood. There are 5 stages of development the young nymph has to pass through before it can reach maturity and to pass through each stage, a meal of blood is required. As the bug develops it becomes larger and and darker until reaching full adulthood. Under the right temperature 70-90°F, bed bugs can complete their full development from egg to adult in just a few months.

Where the climate is colder or access to a blood meal is more limited, the whole process of development from egg to adult will slow down. Adult bugs can survive for up to a year without feeding and nymphs for about 3 months, although the typical life span of a bed bug is between 12-15 months.

Adult female bugs are very prolific in their egg laying throughout their lifespan, depositing as many as 500 eggs during her life time, typically a female will lay about 10-15 eggs in a day and will leave them in many different locations. The eggs are covered in a glue like substance so they can be cemented into place, they are very small, a little smaller than the size of a pin head and light in colour, if the climate is right these eggs on average, will hatch within 6-10 days.

The bed bug is more or less a nocturnal insect, being mostly active between the hours of midnight and dawn, (although they may feed during the day if the conditions are right or if the bug is desperately hungry.) Because they are a lot more active at night, it could be a considerable time before an occupant realises they have uninvited guests. They like to live in close proximity to their host, places such as the cracks and crevices of bed frames, headboards, mattresses, picture frames, under loose flooring and wallpaper, in fact, anywhere large enough to slide a credit card. Bed bugs detect carbon dioxide emitted from warm-blooded animals and respond to warmth and moisture as they approach the potential host. With humans, they tend to feed on exposed skin, an adult bug will feed on a human host for about 10-15 minutes and their mouth parts are especially adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Like most blood sucking arthropods, they inject saliva during feeding, which has anticoagulant and anaesthetic properties and can ingest up to 7 times its own body weight in blood before retreating to their harbourage where they will take about 3-7 days to digest their meal before venturing out again.

Don't let the name Bed Bug fool you because they can and do live pretty much anywhere! under floorboards, skirting boards, carpets, in or under furniture, wardrobes, chairs, behind picture frames, between the pages of books etc and its not just in the bedroom where all the action takes place, anywhere the occupant/host of the property likes to spend a considerable amount of time, so does the bed bug, such as bedrooms, sitting rooms, lounge, study, office even the car!

Night night sleep tight And don't let the bed bugs bite.

A simple rhyme that we all know and have said to someone at sometime before letting them drift off to sleep. For something to slip into popular rhyme and verse like this, usually means that it has a long history of association with us, and this is true of the bed bug, we go back a long, long way. It is believed that bed bugs feasted on the blood of our ancestors when they lived in nothing more than caves. As time went by human intelligence created and experimented with various types of habitat-caves, tents, huts, and finally moving into the modern properties that we have today, the bed bug came along with us.

Long lasting powerful insecticides used during the 1930's, 40's & 50's did a great job of keeping bedbug infestations at bay, so much so that most people living in the United Kingdom today have very little knowledge of them. However, these pesticides proved to be harmful to the environment, animals and humans, so they were removed from the market. This now means that most property owners of the modern era and many pest controllers have not had to deal with bed bug infestations for a long time, much of the specialised information involved with the treatment of these pests has been lost or forgotten.

Times have changed in recent years, scientists from all over the globe have noticed that there has been a significant rise in bed bug activity. Infestations in the UK and London are on the rise, increasing in some areas as much as 800%.

Why has this happened?

As already stated, one reason could be the fact that the insecticides used in the 1930's, 40's & 50's are no longer available for use.

Another factor is that the world is a smaller place, global travel is now common and affordable to the masses, whether they be business travellers or holiday makers, bed bugs can be picked up from local buses, hostels, B&B's, cruise ships and even expensive hotels! High expense does not mean you are safe or immune from the bedbug problem, guests unwittingly bring them home via suitcase/backpacks or clothing.

NEED HELP?

Call Bed Bug Technicians now on:

London office : 020 3287 8485

Mobile : 07977 846 888

Cornwall & Devon office : 07980 793 451

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