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Bed bugs are small insects that feed on human blood. They are usually active at night when people are sleeping.

Adult bed bugs have flat, rusty-red colored oval bodies, no wings and are about the size of an apple seed. They are big enough to be easily seen, but hide in mattresses, box springs, bedding, cracks in furniture, floors, or walls. When bed bugs feed, they swell and become brighter red. They can live for several months to over a year without feeding. They don't jump or fly, and they crawl and move about the same speed as an ant.

Be aware that other insects, such as fleas, ticks, and mosquitos, can leave bites that look like bed bug bites. Bites alone cannot prove you have a bed bug infestation.

Important note: The only way to be sure you have a bed bug infestation is to find and positively identify a live bed bug.

If you suspect you have bed bugs, you will have to conduct a thorough search of your home. Bed bugs are hard to find because they hide in, under, and around beds. They also hide inside, under and behind furniture, and in small cracks or corners in furniture, floors or walls or in carpeting close to where they feed at night.

Newly hatched bed bugs are about the size of a poppy seed, pale yellow in color, almost transparent, and very difficult to see. Once they have fed, they become larger and are red or brown in color which makes them easier to see. Bed bug eggs are white and about the size of two grains of salt. When laid, they are cemented to surfaces making them difficult to remove.

A bed bug bite is painless and some people have no reaction to the bites at all. Most people have itchiness, red spots, or welts that look like mosquito or flea bites hours later. There may be an itchy bump but the tiny bite mark may not be visible. These usually fade after several days. A few people have severe allergic reactions.

Remember: Bites are only a clue that you may have bed bugs, but you can't tell from bites alone that you have a bed bug problem.

Bed bugs usually bite at night while you are asleep. If you wake up in the middle of the night and find a bug on your bed, don't squash it - instead, completely seal a live sample in a clean zip-style sandwich bag and have the bug identified by a pest control operator.

Bed bugs are not a result of poor housekeeping. Anyone can have bed bugs. People bring bed bugs into their homes unknowingly in infested luggage, backpacks, purses, furniture, bedding, shoes or clothing. They can also travel between apartments through cracks in walls and floors.

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Bed bug fact sheet - King County, Washington

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Summary: Bed bug bites can leave you with painful inflammation and since they love to hide in beds, you may be bitten a number of times before you wake up in the morning! If you have a severe allergic reaction its recommended that you seek professional medical assistance. Besides medical creams and pills, things like tea tree oil, baking soda and even lemon juice can also give you relief at minimal cost.

Since bed bugs can be found throughout the world, many people have suffered from their bites. Their primary diet is blood, which makes humans their meal of choice, definitely not good news for us! Based on personal experience, they can leave a rather nasty, red mark which can itch like mad. No wonder people say Goodnight and dont let the bed bugs bite!! What do these bites look like and what are some ways that you can get rid of them? This guide will answer these questions and teach you what to do if you are bitten by a bed bug.

In comparison to other insect bites, bed bug bite marks are usually in groups of three or more when they appear on the skin. This is sometimes called the breakfast, lunch and supper bites. As you can see in the picture below, the bites are rather close to each other. Their bites often look like little red bumps, pimples or even blisters and welts. Some people can also mistake them for flea bites. If one of these insects bite you, you usually wont even feel it as it uses a form of anesthetic which dulls the pain. Bed bugs also are known to leave bite marks in a straight line, also in close proximity to each other. A single bed bug can bite you a number of times during the night. However, if you have a bed bug infestation, there are usually a large number of these little pests and this can result in a multitude of bed bug bites which can pose a potential health risk. We will discuss this in more detail in a short while.

The biggest problem with these bites is that, depending on the persons skin and their tolerance to bacteria, their appearance is different on different types of people. For example, even doctors have trouble telling the difference between a bed bug bite and a couple of mosquito or spider bites. I have noticed in the past that if I get bitten by a mosquito, I get a rather large red mark (even without scratching), whereas my husbands skin hardly shows any signs of the bite. Likewise, if I get bitten by a bed bug, I usually get a rather bad rash which is extremely sensitive to touch while they are hardly visible on my husband. If your bites become very itchy, you need to resist the urge to scratch the affected area as this can make the problem worse and cause further inflammation, infection or even bleeding. According to the Center for Disease Control, bed bug bites can even cause insomnia due to the fear of being bitten. This can result in a lack of energy and dramatically increased anxiety levels.

Its important to note that bed bugs can easily be transferred from other locations (such as hotels, friends, etc.) into your bedroom, something your definitely want to avoid! Its important to always check your skin, clothing and bags for any signs of bed bugs (and their bites) before entering your bedroom after sleeping away from the home. If you have been bitten a couple times, there is usually no urgent need for medical care. In fact, there are a number of effective home remedies that you can use to treat these insect bites. However, sometimes medical assistance is required. When is this the case and how can you identify when professional help is needed?

Firstly, its important to remember that, despite their daily diet of blood, bed bugs will not transfer blood based diseases (such as AIDS, etc.). However, in very rare cases, these bites have been known to cause anaphylaxis, which is an adverse allergic reaction that covers the entire body in a rash. After being bitten by a bed bug, be alert for any of these potential complications:

While I understand that these reactions may have other causes, if you have just had a number of bed bug bites symptoms (listed above), I highly recommend contacting a doctor as you may be having an allergic reaction. However, the good news is that its rather rare so there is usually no need to worry yourself.

Lets have a look at few products you can use to alleviate the itchiness of these bites and ultimately get rid of them. However, before trying anything, something that you should do immediately is give the affected area a quick wash with water and a mild soap. This will ensure that any bacteria is killed and there wont be any potential infections.

There are also a number of natural bed bug bite treatments that have proven to be very effective. I personally love these! Here are a few that work well:

See more here:
Finally, An Easy Solution For Bed Bug Bites That You Can Use Now!

Make sure you really have bed bugs, not fleas or ticks or other insects

You can compare your insect to the pictures on our bed bug Web page or show it to your local extension agent.

Eliminating bed bugs is difficult, but its not impossible. Dont throw out all of your things because most of them can be treated and saved. Throwing stuff out is expensive, may spread the bed bugs and could cause more stress.

Be comprehensive in your approach. Try other things first. Integrated pest management (IPM) techniques may reduce the number of bed bugs and limit your contact with pesticides. If pesticides are needed, always follow label directions or hire a professional. There is help available to learn about treatment options. (4 pp, 480k, About PDF)

A cluttered home provides more places for bed bugs to hide and makes locating and treating them harder. If bed bugs are in your mattress, using special bed bug covers (encasements) on your mattress and box springs makes it harder for bed bugs to get to you while you sleep. Leave the encasements on for a year. Be sure to buy a product that has been tested for bed bugs and is strong enough to last for the full year without tearing.

This reduces the number of bed bugs. Bed bugs and their eggs can hide in laundry containers/hampers, so clean them when you do the laundry.

While freezing can kill bed bugs, temperatures must remain very low for a long time. Home freezers are usually not cold enough to kill bed bugs. Putting things outside in freezing temperatures can kill bed bugs, but it can take several days when the temperature is 0 F and almost a week when the temperature is 20 F.

Raising the indoor temperature with the thermostat or space heaters wont do the job. Special equipment and very high temperatures are necessary for successful heat treatment. Black plastic bags in the sun might work to kill bed bugs in luggage or small items, if the contents become hot enough (about 110F for at least 3 hours).

Bed bugs are good hitchhikers. If you throw out a mattress or furniture that has bed bugs in it, you should slash or in some way destroy it so that no one else takes it and gets bed bugs.

Thorough vacuuming can get rid of some of your bed bugs. Carefully vacuum rugs, floors, upholstered furniture, bed frames, under beds, around bed legs, and all cracks and crevices around the room. Change the bag after each use so the bed bugs cant escape. Place the used bag in a tightly sealed plastic bag and in an outside garbage bin.

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Top Ten Bed Bugs Tips | Pesticides | US EPA

Bed Bugs Health Risks

Bed bugs draw blood from their hosts by piercing the skin with a small beak-like apparatus. The saliva of the bed bug may be introduced to the human body during the bed bugs feeding and may cause some redness or swelling, most bed bug bites are harmless. Since bed bugs are not generally known to carry disease, they are not generally considered to be health risks. There have been some reports of allergic reactions occurring after being bitten by bed bugs, and anaphylaxis is always a concern with any type of allergic reaction.

Bed bugs usually attack their hosts at night while the host is asleep. Often times humans awake with very little or no knowledge at all of the bites for hours. Later, as the bed bug bite starts to itch or swell, it may be attributed to fleas or mosquitoes. This makes it very difficult to diagnose an infestation, until the infestation reaches considerable size.

If there is any good news, there are no confirmed cases of disease being spread by bedbugs in the same manner as mosquitoes and ticks (also common blood meal enthusiasts who can spread West Nile, Malaria and Lime Disease).

There are some individuals who are highly allergic to the bite of bed bugs and may experience anaphylaxis which is a highly allergic reaction that can lead to anaphylactic shock (much like a bee sting might in certain individuals).

Treating Bed Bug Bites

Bites and Treatments In the mean time, bed bug bites can cause welts to rise on your skin along with a patch of redness around the bite itself. There may also be scabs from where you were bit, especially if you have been scratching the bites (you might also be scratching in your sleep). If you have small, itchy red bumps, particularly ones that tend to cluster or form lines of several bites, you may have bedbugs.

If you have bites that itch, treat them with a topical antiitch cream like cortisone, and apply antiseptic ointment to any breaks in the skin to prevent infections from your scratching. If you are experiencing any severe reactions, talk to your doctor to see if you might need further treatment. You may need to take antihistamines to relieve mild to moderate allergic reactions until the infestation can be cleared up

Bed bugs can be a very creepy problem, but the bites are easily treated at home in most cases, and while the infestations can be hard to cure, a professional exterminator can help you to identify and treat your bed bug problem and get you back to sleeping tight. Bed bugs arent usually known to spread any blood-borne pathogens. However their bites can be itchy and stressful.

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Bed Bugs Health Risks - Bed Bug.org

Bed bugs are little bloodsucking parasites -- really, it's not a commentary on their personalities. They only eat the blood of humans and other mammals and they feed mostly at night when you're sleeping. Dad wasn't kidding when he turned your light off at bedtime and said, "Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

Bed bugs aren't necessarily just active at night (nocturnal) but that's most likely when you happen to be in bed. If you're sleeping during the day, however, they're just as happy to have breakfast or lunch as they are to have a late dinner.

Bed bugs like when we sleep because we're easy targets. We're like room service for them. We show up for hours at a time and quietly lie flat so they can munch away in the dark.

Often, the only way to know you've been bitten by bed bugs is to see the little red spots on your skin. Unfortunately, the bumps can take as much as two weeks to show up after the bites. Bed bug symptoms are similar to other bug bites:

Some folks can have allergic reactions to bed bugs, but it usually takes multiple bites.

Bed bugs are not picky eaters when it comes to location -- any exposed skin will do -- but they won't necessarily go farther than they have to. Expect to see bites more often on the face, hands and feet, but they can -- and do -- bite anywhere. The only way to know for sure if the symptoms are from bed bugs is to find the bed bug infestation in your room or furniture.

There are some telltale signs of bed bug infestations:

If you walk into a hotel room and it stinks, look for signs of a bed bug infestation. It's not a bad idea to take a look at your mattress and bedding whenever moving into a new hotel room for the night, regardless if it stinks and is dirty or not. Bed bugs can be found in luxury hotels and by-the-hour joints alike.

To see how bed bug bites look, check out the Bed Bug Picture Gallery.

Bed bugs are the epitome of the old saying: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Bed bug bites aren't dangerous by themselves. Like any bug bite, they run the risk of becoming infected and some people have allergic reactions. However, bed bugs aren't known carriers of any specific disease.

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Bed Bugs - About.com First Aid