What are bedbugs? Bedbugs are small, elusive insects that belong to the insect family Cimicidae. They feed on the blood of warm blooded animals including humans. Cimex lectularius are commonly called Bedbugs because they are mainly active at night between 2am and 5am.
Bedbugs are a growing source of aggravation, particularly in the developed Western world, because bedbugs were by and large wiped out in the late 1950s with the widespread use of DDT. Prior to 1995, most people under 50 years of age had never seen a bedbug. Bedbugs have since begun making a major comeback worldwide.
What Do Bedbugs Look Like? Adult bed bugs reach 5-8mm in length, while nymphs are as small as 1.5mm. Bedbugs have flat bodies, are wingless, and are sometimes mistaken for ticks or small cockroaches. Bedbugs feed by sucking blood from humans or animals. Adult bedbugs are reddish brown in color while nymphs are clear in color but appear bright red after feeding. Newly hatched nymphs are translucent, and as the bedbugs grow moult, they become a deeper brown.
Symptoms of Bedbug Bites: Bedbugs bite and suck blood from humans. Bedbugs are most active at night and bite any exposed areas of skin while an individual is sleeping. The face, neck, hands, and arms are common sites for bed bug bites. The bite itself is painless and is not noticed. Small, flat, or raised bumps on the skin are the most common sign; redness, swelling, and itching commonly occur. If scratched, the bite areas can become infected. A peculiarity of bedbug bites is the tendency to find several bites lined up in a row. Infectious disease specialists refer to this as the breakfast, lunch, and dinner sign signifying the sequential feeding that occurs from site to site.
History of Bedbugs: Bedbugs were common in the U.S. before World War II and became rare after widespread use of the pesticide DDT began in the 1940s and 1950s. They remained prevalent in other areas of the world and, in recent years, have been increasingly observed again in the U.S. Increases in immigration and travel from the developing world as well as restrictions on the use of stronger pesticides may be factors that have led to the relatively recent increase in bed bug infestations. Bedbugs have been resurgent in the past decade and are nearing epidemic proportions.
Where are bedbugs found? While bed bugs are often reported to be found when sanitation conditions are poor or when birds or mammals (particularly bats) are nesting on or near a home, bed bugs can also live and thrive in clean environments. Crowded living quarters also facilitate the spread of bed bugs.
Bed bugs can live in any area of the home and can reside in tiny cracks in furniture as well as on textiles and upholstered furniture. They tend to be most common in areas where people sleep and generally concentrate in beds, including mattresses, box springs, and bed frames. Other sites where bed bugs often reside include curtains, the corners inside dressers and other furniture, cracks in wallpaper (particularly near the bed), and inside the spaces of wicker furniture. As bedbugs can live for months without feeding, they can also be found in vacant homes.
Methods for Killing Bedbugs:
Bedbugs are very difficult to kill because of two main factors: (1) their natural resilience and (2) their resistance to contemporary domestic chemical pesticides.
Their resilience is largely due to a waxy coating on their bodies which protects them from surface pesticides and the chemical tolerance bedbugs developed during the 1940s and 1950s to chemical pesticides during the widespread spraying of DDT.
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