Treating Bed Bugs-How To Get Rid of Them

Bed bugs are known for living and hiding in and around our beds hence the name bed bugs. However, they can live in other places too. They thrive in tight dark places like behind picture-frames, curtains, baseboards, electrical outlets, furniture and everywhere else they can hide. These tiny little bugs need warm-blooded humans and animals in order to exist. Bed bugs are great hitchhikers and get to your home by catching rides on your clothes, luggage, clothing or furniture. Before you go about hiring a bed bug exterminator, it might be best if you educated yourself about this type of infestations.

Are Bed Bugs Dangerous

Having worked as a bed bug exterminator for many years, I have been asked this question probable a thousand times if not more. Are bed bugs dangerous? Well it depends. They certainly are irritating. First of all lets talk about bed bugs a bit first and what they do. First of all, bed bugs don’t fly, they are wingless insects, roughly oval in shape, 4-5mm long when fully grown, and are fast runners. They are rust brown in colour and change to a deeper red brown following a blood meal. Bed bugs are small insects that feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals, including humans and pets. You may wonder how you could have bed bugs and not know it. Bed bugs are hard to find because they hide in, under, and around beds. They also hide inside, under and behind furniture, and in small cracks or corners in furniture, floors or walls or in carpeting close to where they feed at night.

The Common Bed Bug

Bed bugs are small, brownish, flattened insects that feed solely on the blood of animals. The common bed bug is called Cimex lectularius. This is the most common bed bug as it is the one which is the most adapted to living with humans. Bed bugs are more irritating because they like feed on human blood. They can be than dangerous because they can transfer diseases. Also, they cause problems because people who are bitten suffer loss of sleep and discomfort. Bed bugs are nest parasites. Over time, bed bugs have evolved to develop resistance to many of the chemical pesticides currently used.