One of the most feared and least understood pest species known to civilisation is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as children with the 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 human beings at around the period when we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella largely feed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bed bus evolved to feed on human blood when our ancestors started sleeping} in bat infested caves.

Before the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were commonplace guests in most low quality homes.

The later part of the 20th century saw pest control companies having very few bed bug call outs indeed, their presence being largely restricted to low quality holiday homes and student housing etc.

A lot of people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the unaided eye, with bed bugs which most certainly.

Adult bedbugs are reddish in colour, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after a feed of human blood.

Bed bugs typically feed on our blood every week or so, emerging in the hours before dawn and homing in on their target by sniffing the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when closing in on their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.

In the absence of a suitable human meal to feed on they can lie in a period of dormancy for periods of up to 18 months.

Bed Bug Bites

The first signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bedding and on the edges of mattresses and a lot of people can react badly to their bites.

The early part of the 21st century has seen bed bug numbers multiplying everywhere on the planet, the easy availability of international and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.

What is sure is that that are now making a real return not only in poor quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.

One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug reports every year from 1995 to 2001.

|One night away in an infested premises is all it requires, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a simple trip to work on an infested tube or train can be sufficient to bring the infestation to your own home.

They are an difficult pest to eradicate as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They hide in any nook and cranny anywhere 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 discovered found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the folds of flesh on flabby people.

They are not a pest that can be dealt with by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.

Telephone Harrier Pest Prevention on 0161 930 8814