More on Bedbugs - How To Know When You Have Them

Other articles on this topic:

How To Detect Bedbugs In Your Home

How Can I Tell If I Have Bedbugs?

You may say that you regularly clean your household and there is no way that bed bugs could possibly invade your home. Wrong. Having bed bugs at home does not mean that your home is filthy. Both clean and unclean house can be infested with bed bugs. So, how would you know if you have bed bugs? I get this question a lot.

Many people do not know when they have bed bugs. They don't even know what bed bugs look like. (Try Google Images and search them) Bed bugs are 'shy' insects. They crawl out from their hiding only when you are asleep at night. Bed bugs will crawl back to their homes when finished feeding or when you move from your position.

Before you stress yourself in knowing how to kill bed bugs by yourself, get proper information, try to answer first the basic question of how to know if you have bed bugs. After that, it will be time to get rid of the bedbugs.

How to know if you have bed bugs - Fact 1: Know thy bug.

Would you know a bed bug if you see one? Of course, the answer is no, unless you have experience with them or have searched out their pictures for identification. Few people these days have seen a crawling bed bug unless they are living in a bed bug infested home.

Even in hotels and motels, the bed bugs initial havens, you won't see one crawling at your bed towards your shoulders unless you wake up and turn the lights on to catch them out. As mentioned earlier, bed bugs are shy. And it won't go after you to withdraw blood from your skin even if it is hungry if you are moving. They wait until middle of the night when you are asleep or lying still.

Description of bed bugs - Bed bugs can be seen by the naked eye. Forget what your grandfather had told you that they are so small that no person can actually see them. The only reason why only a few people can see bed bugs is that bed bugs are nocturnal insects and can rarely be seen walking in daylight.

They are as small as appleseeds (which means they can be seen), reddish brown in color, oval shaped, flat and wingless. The distinctive characteristic of bed bugs is its oval-flat shape. Most bugs are rounded at the top.

-- How to know if you have bed bugs - Fact 2: Know how they behave.

Bed bugs are nocturnal. They feed during the night, and are most active before dawn breaks.

Bed bugs can have this offensive, sweet-like, musty scent. Some people can smell this odor in a room or area that has bed bugs infestation. This is one of the best answers to question how to know if you have bed bugs. Some pest control companies have specially trained dogs that can determine a bedbug infestation in it's early stages.

Bed bugs want to be near to their hosts. So, to know if you have bed bugs, check out the area where people usually sleep. The bedroom, living room sofas and chesterfields are the usual hiding places of bed bugs. In serious infestations though, they can be found just about everywhere in the home.

-- How to know if you have bed bugs - Fact 3: Catch one if you can and get it identified.

So the first thing to do if you suspect that you have bed bugs, check the seams and undercover of your mattress and edge lining, box spring if applicable, anything around or under your bed, night tables and headboard. You know that you have bed bugs if you can see dark reddish brown stains on these area and some shed insect skins. The dark reddish brown stain is bed bugs dried excrement.

If any female bedbugs have laid eggs, you will see some white creamy colored eggs and maybe some nymphs there. There is no need to further ask how to know if you have bed bugs if you see excrement stains and shed skins. Not to mention eggs and nymphs, this pretty much cinches it. You have a case of bedbugs.

To absolutely know if you have bed bugs and you want to catch them, try to wake up in the middle of the night. Try to be still, though it is okay to breathe. Shine a flashlight on your area and see if any bugs are advancing toward you.

If you have a bed bug infestation you will see maybe one or two bed bugs crawling towards you. Keep still. It will move toward you. Truly most people would not be able to stay still after seeing a bedbug advance in their direction so kill them if you can.

There, you got your bed bug problem diagnosed. More on treatment and preparation for treatment in the next articles.

True Or False, Proliferation Of Bedbug Articles Are HittingThe Web

The Truth Behind Articles On Bed Bugs - Be Careful Of What Your Read

There are many written articles on bed bugs either in science journals or online. The growing interest in finding out what these creatures are, how they affect our lives and how we can stop them from spreading has lead to numerous articles on bed bugs. It seems that the internet is filled with information, some of it is very good, some of it is misinformation.

Articles on bed bugs may tackle many areas concerning bed bug biology, and just what a bed bug is and does. A physical description of the parasite can help give us differentiate it from other parasites.

Adult bed bugs are 1/4 inch long and are reddish brown in color, with oval and flat bodies. Often these articles on bed bugs provide photographs that make it easier for us to identify the insect. Actually all you have to do is to go to Google Images and use the search term "bedbug images" or pictures, and you will find all the pictures you will ever want to see.

There are a few different types of bed bugs. Aside from the common bed bug that preys on human blood, there are bed bugs that prefer animal blood like birds or bats. We are concerned only with the bedbugs that prefer human blood here.

Female bed bugs lay in hidden areas. They can give birth to 500 eggs during a lifetime that could be 10 -12 months. The eggs are very small, whitish, and may need magnification to be identified.

These eggs are sticky when first laid; making them stick to whatever surface or crack they are placed in. When they hatch, they are no bigger that a pinhead. As these bed bugs grow, they shed their skins. Some articles on bed bugs say that this shedding can happen five times before becoming adults. Five stages of bedbugs before they reach adult. Ouch!

Articles on bed bugs suggest that the speed of bed bug’s development rely on the right temperature, about 70 - 90° F. At that rate they can complete their transition from eggs to adult bugs in a month.

Cool temperatures and limited access to a prey can delay the full maturity of the bed bugs. Immature Bed bugs can survive months at a time, even though they are not feeding. They do need a blood meal to change from one stage to another. Adult bedbugs can even stay alive for a year or more without a blood meal. Some suggest up to 18 months but I haven't seen any science on that.

Bed bugs are nocturnal creatures. As parasites, they move unnoticeably within our homes, furniture, carpets, bed, etc. mostly at night.

Bed bugs are very patient parasites. When the bed bugs feed, they pierce the human skin with their beaks and suck the blood through. They get engorged after three to ten minutes. Most people do not wake up from a bed bug bite. There is a numbing agent used by the bedbugs so we do not feel the initial piercing.

The most helpful articles on bed bugs are the ones that show us how to detect these pests in our homes. One sure sign that there are bed bugs under the sheets are dark brownish stains and spotting on the mattress. This is their excrement, droppings, or is otherwise known as their poop.

The physical manifestations of a bed bug bite can be mistaken for other types of insects, such as fleas, or mosquitoes. But if tiny drops of blood on the sheets, pillowcases or walls accompany the itchy, swelling welt on your exposed skin, then you just may be sleeping with this pest in your bed.

Once you have confirmed that bed bugs do exist in your mattress, many articles on bed bugs strongly suggest that you throw your bed away. This is not always necessary!

There are many options that are less expensive than discarding you mattress and box springs. We will get into these in more detail as some of these descriptions will take a whole article to discuss the alternatives.

Where one bed bug lives usually there are hundreds more. It always depends on the length of time you have had this issue. You may want to hire professional pest control to check your entire home for any infestation if you are not sure.

It pays to get the right information just like reading the right articles on bed bugs. Be careful where you get your information. We will investigate this pest further and in greater detail in future articles.

Bedbugs Are Here Again . . .

Received a newsletter from InfoBreaks Solutions and they had an interesting video about Bedbugs and how they can seek you out.

The video is from the National Geographic channel who did a piece about bedbugs and how the bedbug has returned from obscurity.

I thought it might be interesting for you to watch. Here it is, by the way if you are squeamish about insects, especially bedbugs crawling over your flesh, you might just give this video a pass.



There is more great information coming on bedbugs biology, bedbug habitat, bedbug control, bedbug history, and how to inspect for bedbug problems. Bedbugs are getting to be a serious problem in most large North American cities.

How to Detect Bed Bugs in Your Home

How to Detect Bed Bugs in Your Home
By Ben Anton

A resurgence of Cimex lectularius, better known as the common bed bug , has turned playful bedtime sendoffs into truly fearful warnings.

This resurrection can largely be attributed to the halt in using the pesticide DDT that nearly eradicated bed bugs in the United States in the 1950s, leaving little to no defense against the uprising miniscule offenders today. Adding to this effect is the fact that bed bugs are nocturnal in nature, preying on sleeping people across the world.

They feed on human blood, leaving only a trail of red itchy welts or localized swellings on the skin as calling cards of their appearances.

While red marks may be an indication of an infestation, they are definitely not a confirmation. Finding these critters is no easy task, as they are approximately 4-5 mm in length with a flattened form, allowing them to hide in crevices and creases with ease.

While often found hiding all over the house, their favorite spot to conceal themselves–in the event that a mattress cover or pillow cover are not being used–is in or around the bed, hence their name. Being so close to their primary food source gives them the opportunity to feed every 5-10 days, though they are able to live up to 18 months without eating. .

A bed bug will dine on human blood for approximately 5-15 minutes before it will be fully engorged, more than tripling its size. This change has been known to cause misidentification as it becomes round in shape, different from its naturally flat shape.

Additionally, when it is an adult it becomes brown in color, except after feeding when it takes on a dark red hue due to the intake of human blood.

Because of their miniscule size and innate ability to hide, bed bugs can enter the home in a multitude of ways, including any type of object that can be transferred from one home, apartment, condo, hotels, etc., to another.

This transferability, coupled with their hyperactive reproduction, allows their wrath to be widespread very quickly, especially in homes that are older or have many cracks and crevices, messy cluttered homes, and homes where mattresses or pillows are not covered with some sort of allergen-reducing encasements.

To get a feel of their ability to infest an entire house, here are some reproduction facts:

•Females lay eggs in clusters of 3-5 in just one day
•The eggs are whitish in color, pear shaped and approximately 1 mm in length
•A female will lay up 500 eggs during her lifetime
•Eggs hatch in 1-2 weeks time
•In one year’s time, three generations of can be produced
•Newly hatched nymphs—as they are called–begin to feed on human blood immediately
•Nymphs are colorless and the size of a pinhead
•A nymph will go through five molting stages before becoming a full adult, feeding during each stage

Though these wingless vampires have been known to be brimming with pathogens—hepatitis B and plague included—they have not been shown to be a transmitter of disease. Unlike mosquitoes, they are not thought of as being a medical threat, making them more of an annoyance then anything else.

Some people try to live with bed bugs in their lives, though they often are covered with welts and scars from scratching all over their bodies.

No distance is great enough to be protected once they have entered your home. They have been known to travel over 100 feet on their own to feed, making merely disinfesting your bed and using mattress and pillow covers a futile act.

In order to be fully rid of these pests, a home needs to be thoroughly cleaned, ensuring that every crease, crevice, floorboard, outlet and corner has been cleaned and rid of them and their eggs.

Furthermore, every hole and crack should be filled and caulked, leaving little to no room for already existing eggs to penetrate the home. Once your house is rid of infestation, you should use a complete, zippered mattress encasement, a complete zippered pillow encasement, and a zippered encasement for your box spring.

This traps any existing critters inside, essentially permanently removing them from their food source, and disallowing new bugs from hiding in their beloved hotbeds.

-Ben Anton, 2007

Want to learn more about how to prevent bed bugs in your home? Visit the CleanRest website to view a wide selection of mattress covers and other allergen-reducing encasements.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ben_Anton

Have You Been Getting Bit By Pesky Fleas?

Flea Control
By Elizabeth Morgan

Fleas are small insects that are capable of giving humans and their pets big troubles with a little stab of their proboscis. There are over 2,400 species of fleas worldwide, but fortunately, there are just four or five species of fleas that are a threat to humans. The most commonly found species in America is the cat flea, which feeds on cats and dogs, as well as humans.

An infestation of fleas can be a serious threat, not merely an annoyance, in some cases. Flea bites can cause skin irritations as well serious allergies in pets and humans. Sometimes, more dangerous fleas pass on serious diseases. So it becomes very important to prevent them from breeding, or destroying them once they are present, by using various measures.

The first step towards stopping the growth of the fleas is through vacuuming the house on a regular basis. This helps in keeping the flea population low by killing adult and egg-stage fleas, although vacuuming has not proven very effective in killing the flea larvae. As a more advanced step, cracks should be sealed after vacuuming, to permanently eliminate these favorite breeding areas for fleas.

In cases of severe infestation, steam cleaning and other measures might be required. Research shows that if a cat flea larva is exposed to 103*F for one hour, it dies. Some commercial devices are available in the market to produce such lethal temperatures. As this tool that generates heat consists of a loose shaft, it can only be applied locally. Therefore, fleas may escape by hiding in the carpet or elsewhere.

Another method of killing fleas is by using insecticide on the organic matter accumulated outside the house. Another product, named Insecticidal Dust, containing silica aero gel, is also successful in killing fleas by rupturing their skin and absorbing the oil and moisture.

The direct application of products containing citrus peel extracts, d-limonene, and linalool on pets’ bedding are useful in killing fleas in all the stages of growth. Finally, pest control products sold by veterinary doctors, like sodium poly-borate, applied on carpets, are also useful in killing fleas.

Taking preventative steps at the right time can save us from the annoyance and troubles caused by these tiny creatures; but if we already have them, there are a number of ways to eliminate them.

Fleas provides detailed information about fleas defined, cat fleas, dog fleas, flea bites and more. Fleas is the sister site of Pitbulls Info.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Elizabeth_Morgan

A Good Story - A Mouse In The House

I came across a good story of someone's personal experience with rodents invading his house. I thought that you might enjoy it as I did. Here is an excerpt of the article and there is a link to the rest of the story below. I don't know how long the story will be on his site but have a look. Enjoy!

Mouse in the House
By: Hubert Crowell

Day One

I awoke early in the morning about 3:00 A.M. to the sound of stirring above the drop ceiling in our basement bathroom, the weather-had turn cold and had driven something into our warm home. We have lived in the same house for more than thirty years and have had only one mouse get in during the first few years that we occupied the house, so I was surprised.

As I do most of the work or had in the past, I was sure that there were no openings that a mouse could get through but apparently I was wrong. Our parents live upstairs on the main floor and we no occupy the basement.

Over the years we have on two occasions a squirrel came down the chimney and at that time with a cat in the house it caused quite a sene with the cat guarding the fire place and the squirrel starring back through the screen. Before it was out the door, the squirrel ran down the hall and into the bedroom, bounced off the wall and then returned to the front of the house and out the front door.

The second squirrel came down the chimney after we had an evening fire or maybe during the fire. The next morning we could hear him in the chimney and he did not sound too good. Later in the day it got quite and I knew that something had to be done. Chimneys' have a space behind the flue to prevent rain water from entering the fireplace and I assumed that must be where he was, dead I hoped.

I put on a glove and tried to see if I could get my arm up and through the flue opening. After twisting and turning my arm, I manage to get my elbow up above the flue, now to find the squirrel. I was not sure if he was dead, but at least he was not moving.

Back to the mouse, we found mice droppings in the upstairs kitchen and a box in the pantry behind the stairs that had been chewed into. He had found his food supply. After cleaning up the mess all agreed that something had to done immediately. So I headed off to the closest store to find a mouse trap. Do you know how hard it is to find a mouse trap today, after checking four stores I finely located a package of two old fashion spring loaded mouse traps?

That night I set one in the kitchen loaded with fresh cheese and another above the drop ceiling in the basement bathroom . . .

Day Two And Beyond of the Mouse In The House . . .

Rodents! How to Keep Them Out Of Your Home

I was cruising around the pest control sites today researching some material for a quotation I am working on and found some excellent information on rodent proofing your structures.

Here is a tiny bit of it and believe me when I say that if you are looking into rodent prevention there is a ton of things you can do to protect yourself against the little critters.

The Importance of Rodent-Proof Construction
Rats and mice cause serious damage to all kinds of structures if they are allowed access to them. Damage by rodents has been documented in homes, apartments, hotels, office complexes, retail businesses, manufacturing facilities, food processing and warehouse facilities, public utility operations (especially power and electronic media operations), farm and feed storage buildings, and other structures.

In urban settings, rodents most often cause damage to older, inner-city buildings and utilities in poor repair. New housing developments may experience commensal rodent problems, but problems are more noticeable in neighborhoods 10 to 12 years of age or older. Ornamental plantings, accumulation of refuse, woodpiles, and other such sources of harborage and food are more quickly invaded and occupied by rodents when adjacent to an established rodent habitat.

Many types of land, air, and water transportation systems and their infrastructure also face serious rodent infestation problems. Infestations are of particular concern in the transportation of foodstuffs, feed, and other agricultural products. Commensal rodents consume and contaminate human and livestock feed. One rat can eat about 1/2 pound (227 g) of feed per week, and will contaminate and waste perhaps 10 times that amount.

Rodents destroy insulation, electrical wiring, plumbing, and other structural components of buildings (Fig. 1). Insulation damage alone may amount to a loss of several thousand dollars in only a few years. Energy loss from damaged buildings results in added annual costs. Rodent-induced fires from damaged electrical wiring or nest building in electrical panels cause loss of property and threaten human safety.

Rodents also serve as vectors or reservoirs of a variety of diseases, such as salmonellosis, leptospirosis, and murine typhus, that are transmittable to humans. Additionally, they may be sources of swine dysentery, brucellosis, sarcoptic mange, and tuberculosis, all of which affect livestock or pets.

The most effective means of limiting rodent damage is rodent-proof construction. New buildings should be designed and built to prevent rodent entry. Rodent-proofing is a good investment. Designing and constructing a rodent-proof building is less expensive than adding rodent-proofing later. Nevertheless, poor maintenance or management practices, such as leaving entry doors and unscreened windows open, will make the best constructed building susceptible to rodent entry.

Read more here