How Do You Recognize Bed Bugs? If you wake up one day with itchy bumps on your body, you will in all probability think that you had been bitten by mosquitoes or ants the night beforehand, but there is also a possibility that bedbugs have got at you. If this happens in your own bed, then you have problems. If you are in a hotel, go and complain to the boss. You can be sure that the majority of hotel bosses will take issues about bed bugs very gravely, because it is well known that the numbers of bedbugs are increasing rapidly and have been since 1995. It is also everyday knowledge that large compensation payments have been given against hotels. Some of them were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most so-called 'bed bugs' will only feed on people if their favourite host, often poultry, are not available, but there is one that just sucks human blood and that species is called Cimex lectularius. Cimex lectularius was virtually extinct in the Western world by the late 1950's because of the extensive use of DDT in residences and hotels to eradicate all insects such as ants, bed bugs, silverfish, millipedes and cockroaches. However, there has been a massive revival in the number of bedbugs since 1995. In fact, between 1995 and 2001, one report on bedbugs in London stated that incidents of bedbug call-outs had doubled each year. The recovery in bedbug numbers has been attributed to global travel and immigration from Asia and Africa. However, it is also likely that they were never completely eradicated and that they have become tolerant to modern insecticides. There is not much you can put down or spray around now that will kill bedbugs. So, what do bed bugs look like? Well, there are plenty of different forms of bed bugs, but most of them are brownish, unless they have just eaten and then there is a red tinge to them. However, they may also be white to yellowish. Occasionally, they look striped because bedbugs are covered with short hairs which reflect light like a stripy lawn. Bedbugs have a beak-like mouth-piece with two tubes. One tube squirts saliva into you and the other sucks blood out. The saliva contains anti-coagulant and an analgesic, so that you do not know that you have been bitten until long after the bedbug has left. Some people never know they have been bitten, because they are not allergic to the spittle, others get a bump or slight swelling almost right away, but once in a while the swelling may take a few days to appear. These bites may or may not become itchy. If you travel far, or if you go to regions of the world that are less worried about hygiene, you must be cautious about not taking bedbugs home with you. They will not stay on your body, but they may lay eggs in your clothing or hole up in your suitcase.
Therefore, either before you go home or immediately on arrival have your clothes laundered at a temperature above 46c and blast your suitcase with a jet of steam or hot air. Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is currently concerned with Bed Bug Covers For Mattress. If you want to know more, visit our website now at Pest Management at Home.