Bed Bugs - the Toughtest Customers
According to the pest control experts, bed bugs are the ‘toughest customers.’ If your house has ever been infested by these little blood suckers, you will perhaps agree with them. Bed bugs are little non-flying, oval insects that belongs to the insect family Cimicidae. An adult bed bug is usually 5-7 mm while nymphs can be as tiny as 1.5mm.
They have flat bodies and they feed by sucking blood from both humans and animals. Contrary to the myth, bed bug infestation doesn’t depend upon the cleanliness of your home; they feed on blood, not waste. Keeping clean and tidy helps control infestation but does not eradicate them.
Bed bugs are most active at night and bite any exposed areas of skin while an individual is sleeping. They are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide and body heat. The face, neck, hands, and arms are common sites for bed bug bites. They hide away in cracks and crevices during the day because of their tendency to remain in close contact with hard surfaces.
Bedbugs produce an aggregation pheromone which brings them together. This attracts both male and females and thus is not a sex pheromone. This pheromone explains their grouping nature and why hundreds of eggs can be seen laid close together. Travellers often fear of bed bugs while staying in hostels. But there are no data to support that hostels have a higher incidence of bed bugs than hotels.
How to get rid of Bed Bugs:
A good variety of low-odour sprays, dusts, and aerosol insecticides can be used to kill bed bugs. These have to be applied to all areas where the bugs are observed and also the spaces where they may crawl or hide. Certain forms of deep-cleaning can be used such as scrubbing infested surfaces to remove eggs, dismantling bed frames and furniture, filling cracks in floors, walls, and mouldings and vacuuming cracks and crevices. Boiling your clothes into hot, hot boiling water can also eradicate the pests hiding in
your clothes.