There is a lurking menace that hides in the shadows and strikes at night to feast on your blood. Fortunately, bedbugs are relatively small and their nasty little habits can go largely undetected. That is until you have a full blown infestation in your home.
Because they are so small, they can hide in the fabrics of your mattresses and upholstery. They are very hard to see without the help of a magnifying glass and most often go completely undetected until their cover is blown by their voracious eating habits.
Once bitten by a bed bug, it can still be difficult to place the blame for the small red lumps and skin irritation. This is another reason bed bug communities are allowed to thrive for so long. Then it can sometimes take a longer time to discover which variety of bed bug is infesting your bed and how to best get rid of the menace.
If you are wondering how to tell if your home is infested or what to do in case you find these awful little blighters in your home, read on. The following post contains a well of information on detecting the bed bug threat. Once you have determined that bed bugs are the cause of the problem, you can begin thinking of a proper remedy.
Signs of a Bed Bug Infestation
- Bed Bug Bites
The first thing to know about these little buggers, is that they are really good at hiding. You could be living with an infestation for many months and possibly never see an actual bed bug. Most often the bed bug can keep their presence completely hidden. But, eventually, they will come out to feed and this is where their dastardly deeds are detected.
If you do have bed bugs in your home and furniture, you may begin to notice that you are having a harder time than normal following to sleep and when you wake up you may feel itchy and uncomfortable on the neck, and back. This is the first and most important signs of a bed bug infestation, but it also means the problem has been around for a while.
It is easy to confuse the bed bug bite, with a flea bite from your pets conditions, or even mosquito bites. The only way to identify who was behind the bite will be to take a close look. Or, better yet, get a close friend to do this for you. You will need to use a magnifying glass and examine the bite. A bedbug will leave behind a long welt with a series of bite marks in a neat row and there should be a few of these about the neck and back area.
- Bed Bugs Blood Stain
After they crawl forth from their foul caverns and gorge themselves on enough blood to last them as long as eight days or more, the engorged bed bugs must then make the arduous return trip to their lair. This means traversing the body of a sleeping human, shimmying down to the bedsheets and then sprinting for dear life across the bed and back home in the crevices of your furniture. Not all will make this journey successfully.
Slowed by their inflated dimensions, getting back off the bed is harder on those little legs than it may seem. As the sleeper rolls and twists in their nightly repose they will do a successful job of squashing many of the bed bugs returning from their feast. Evidence of bed bug activity can then be seen in numerous reddish brown stains across the bed sheets where the bloated bodies of squashed bed bugs have been relieved of their bloody prize.
Of course, this is not the most definitive sign of bed bug activity as there are many other vampiric insects that will meet a similar fate, namely mosquitos. But, you will notice the bed bugs leave a very small spot as their drinking capacity is much smaller than that of a mosquito.
- Unplasant Odor
Have you got an extra sensitive olfactory function? Then sniff those buggers out. Bed bugs are salacious lot always emitting clouds potent pheromones in an effort to boost their population caps. To you and me, this will smell a bit like a musty old rag or laundry hamper. If you smell this in the joint work and cracks of your furniture and upholstery, you could be looking at a problem.
- Bedbug Eggs and Empty Eggshells
The blasted bed bug breeders can lay as many as 500 eggs throughout their lifetime and this can result in a large amount of egg casings being blown about on the floors and found in great quantities in hidden recesses of your furniture. Look for a small egg about 1mm long and somewhat deflated with a translucent skin. If you find these on the surface of your mattress or across other fabrics and upholstery, you can bet the infestation has gotten severe.
Over to You
If you have noticed two or more of the aforementioned symptoms, it is quite possible that your home and furniture is being inhabited by the bed bug. You will need to take immediate action to avoid the serious health conditions these parasites can cause. You should also know the bed bug has evolved to be immune to most pest control methods made by humans. It will take an expert with experience to deliver you from the bloodsucking vermin.
Call an expert exterminator today! The gratuitous use of household’s pesticides and insecticides is harming the planet and killing important insects like bees. Call in the professionals and make sure only what must be eliminated is eliminated.
