Controlling bed bugs
The number of infestations of bed bugs has risen sharply in recent years. The tiny pests are notoriously hard to get rid of, and even the thought of sharing a bed with them is enough to make most people feel uncomfortable.
Bed bugs are about half a centimetre long, and are light tan in colour. They feed only man blood, using two feeding tubes to inject the victim with an anaesthetic and anticoagulant while at the same time sucking their blood. After feeding, they swell in size and turn a reddish-brown due to the volume of blood inside them.
While the effects of a bed bug bite are not seriously harmful to health, they can be itchy and irritating, leaving a small red mark with a white centre. Occasionally, in cases of severe infestation over a long period of time, the constant draining of small amounts of blood can lead to anaemia in the host.
According to recent research, the reason for the surge in bed bug infestations is the increase in travel. People are now more mobile than they have ever been before, and bed bugs are taking advantage of this fact by stowing away in luggage and hitching rides to new locations.
Modern upholstered buses and trains are an ideal habitat for bed bugs, and the fact that journeys now have shorter turnaround times means that vehicles are rarely properly cleaned between trips. Ideally, all soft furnishings should be thoroughly vacuumed between each journey, but this is rarely done.
Once they have gained a foothold in your home, bed bugs are very difficult to eradicate.
Washing your laundry regularly and vacuuming thoroughly every few days will help to keep their numbers down, but their small size, breeding habits and sheer tenacity means that the only way to be sure of ridding your home of them is to call in pest control professionals.
Bed bugs are about half a centimetre long, and are light tan in colour. They feed only man blood, using two feeding tubes to inject the victim with an anaesthetic and anticoagulant while at the same time sucking their blood. After feeding, they swell in size and turn a reddish-brown due to the volume of blood inside them.
While the effects of a bed bug bite are not seriously harmful to health, they can be itchy and irritating, leaving a small red mark with a white centre. Occasionally, in cases of severe infestation over a long period of time, the constant draining of small amounts of blood can lead to anaemia in the host.
According to recent research, the reason for the surge in bed bug infestations is the increase in travel. People are now more mobile than they have ever been before, and bed bugs are taking advantage of this fact by stowing away in luggage and hitching rides to new locations.
Modern upholstered buses and trains are an ideal habitat for bed bugs, and the fact that journeys now have shorter turnaround times means that vehicles are rarely properly cleaned between trips. Ideally, all soft furnishings should be thoroughly vacuumed between each journey, but this is rarely done.
Once they have gained a foothold in your home, bed bugs are very difficult to eradicate.
Washing your laundry regularly and vacuuming thoroughly every few days will help to keep their numbers down, but their small size, breeding habits and sheer tenacity means that the only way to be sure of ridding your home of them is to call in pest control professionals.
