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Bed Bug Identification
  
Adult Bed Bug
Male Adult Bed Bug Female
Bed Bug Nymph
How do Bed Bugs get into your home?
- Bed Bugs
can be transported into an uninfested home by you or other people.
- If you are
traveling, be wary of any hidden infestations in the home or hotel you are staying
at.
-
When purchasing used furniture, check the enviroment and the piece thoroughly before
bringing it home.
- Bed frames
and matresses make excellent places for Bed Bugs and their eggs to hide.
-
Bed Bugs also hide in luggage, clothing, pillows, boxes, and any other container
when moving between places.
- Bed bugs will
move betwen apartments via cracks and voids in adjoining walls as well as holes
for pipes and wires.
-
If you have an infestation, check you neighbors house or apartment.
- Bed bugs can
go months without feeding, therefore, they may already occupy a "clean" apartment
or home.
Signs of Bed Bug infestation.
Bed Bugs are suspect if the following are
appearant :
- Residents
complaining of bug bites when they wake up.
- Dark
brown or reddish fecal spots are appearant on linens, matresses, or the walls near
the bed.
- A peculiar
odor can be detected in heavily infested areas.
- Inspect
bed frames, creases and folds in bedding, matresses and particularly the seams and
tufts of your mattress and box springs.
-
Inspect pleats of your curtains, beneath loose wallpaper
by the bed, in corners of dressers and desks, spaces in wicker furniture, behind
cove molding, and any items on or around the floor.
Bed Bug Solutions and Prevention
Bed Bug Pest
Control Solutions :
- Call a GD
Pest Control Pvt.Ltd. company.
-
Clean infested rooms thoroughly, as well as the rest of your residence.
- Scrub infested
areas with a stiff brush to dislodge the eggs.
- Vacuum cracks
and crevices to remove bed bugs.
- Dismantle
and thoroughly clean bedframes.
- Remove desk drawers
and turn furniture over to clean all hiding places.
- Clean up clutter
on the floor and around the residence - clutter provides excellent hiding places
for Bed Bugs.
-
Encase matresses and boxsprings in special matress bags, make sure all holes are
repaired with permanent tape. Any Bed Bugs trapped in there will eventually
die.
- Pull the bed
frame away from the wall and tuck bedding in so it has no contact with the floor.
-
Place frame legs into dishes or cups of mineral oil.
- Caulk and
seal all holes where pipes and wires penetrate the ceiling, walls, or floors.
-
Fill cracks around baseboards and cove molding.
- Check with
your neighbors about possible infestation of their residence.
Bed Bug Characteristics
 Cimex lectularius
Characteristics:
- Nymphs (Hatchlings)
are the size of a poppy seed
- Normally
1/4 inches long / Engorged - up to 3/4 inches
- Oval and
flat in shape
- Generally
brown in color, after eating they turn a dark red color
- Piercing
mouthparts inject a salivary fluid containing an anticoagulant that helps them obtain
blood
- Exoskeleton
- Bed
Bug nymphs (hatchlings) have 5 major feedings before maturity, they molt in-between
each feeding leaving behind a cast exoskeleton
Piercing Mouthparts
Bed Bugs Feeding
 
Cluster Of Bed Bugs Stains
and Excrement Left Behind
 
Eggs
Shedded Exoskeleton
Habitat
- Bed Bugs most abundant
in rooms in which people sleep
- Bed Bugs are
most active at night when people are sleeping
- Bed Bugs hide in
and around beds, in clutter around the room, cracks, crevices and holes, loose wallpaper
and covemolding
Diet
- Bed Bugs feed on blood, preferably
human but in a pinch, animal blood will suffice
Effects of Bed Bug bites
- Repeated
exposure to Bed Bug bites can cause anemia in children
- Consistent
exposure to Bed Bug bites over a period of several weeks will cause a sensitivity
to the saliva of these bugs
- Additional
exposure to Bed Bug bites can cause a slight to extreme allergic reaction
- The
affected person should resist scratching the skin lesions caused by Bed Bug bites
Reproduction
- Female Bed
Bugs lay 1 - 5 eggs PER DAY and up to 200 eggs in her lifetime
- Bed
Bugs nymphs have an incubation period of 10 days
Life History:
- Eggs are elongated about 1 mm long & slightly covered with a rim at the anterior end, which is pushed off upon emerging. Eggs are not placed on the body of the host but are found in the cracks & cervices or in rough surfaces where the host sleeps. Eggs are fastened to the surface with a quick drying cement, which is exuded by the female while laying eggs.
Each female lays about two eggs per day until she has laid approximately 200 eggs. At normal temperature eggs may hatch in 6-15 days. Egg produces small colorless nymph having the general body
Appearance similar to that of the adult. Nymph undergoes a gradual metamorphosis through five instars, with a nymph period of 33 to 45
- Days before becoming an adult. Nymph must have a blood meal during each instar to moult to the next stage. Both sexes are fully mature. After the final molt mating may take place before either sex having fed but eggs are not laid until female has had a blood meal. A male is capable of mating several females in a day
Both adult & nymphs of bed bugs can survive prolonged periods without food or under unfavorable temperature. Adults can live for a year or longer without food or can survive over winter. Nymphs are not as hardy as adults but can survive for considerable period under adverse conditions. Thus they can survive long period in unoccupied places. In the absence of man they can feed on poultry, canaries mice & also rats.
Health Aspects:
- Though bed bugs can be infected experimentally with causative agents of disease like plague, relapsing fever, leprosy, kalaazar, it is established that they do not pay any significant part as vectors in transmission of the disease to man.
Bedbugs Prevention and Measures:
- Inspection thorough inspection of the area should be carried out to located the infestation of bed bugs. Beside cracks & cervices they can also be found in the floor under carpeting, behind electrical switch plates, in folds of mattresses & draperies, in unused ovens or boilers & in motor compartment of refrigerators.
Insecticides like Synergized Pyrethrins & Pyrethrum can be used for the control of bed bugs in dust, spray or aerosol form. All places of bugs hiding should be treated well, beds should be treated sa as to cover each tuft in the mattresses & the folds at the edges as well as at the top & at appropriate spots on the bottom side. Loose baseboards around all windows & doors especially near the infested bedding areas should be thoroughly sprayed.
Apply insecticides early in the day so that there is enough time for spray to dry & dusts to settle before the room can be used for sleeping. Dry the mattress & covers completely in open under the sun before use.
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