One of the most hated and misunderstood pests known to science is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dozed off to sleep at night as young ones with the parting rhyme of our guardians in our ears “sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite”?

Bed Bugs may have started to predate on people at around the period we moved into caves, the bat bugs Cimex pilosellus and C pipistrella largely fed on bats and it is a fair chance that bat feeding species of bugs evolved to feed on human beings when our forebears started sleeping} in bat infested caves.

Up to the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common unwelcome guests in most slum quality homes.

The later part of the 20th century saw pest operatives called out to very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being largely restricted to budget holiday hotels and student lodgings etc.

Many people mistake dust mites, which cannot be seen by the unaided eye, with bed bugs which very definitely are.

Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a few milemetres in size and engorged after feeding on human blood.

Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every week or so, appearing in the hours before dawn and finding their target by detecting the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when closing in on their target, the heat from the body of their intended target.

Without a suitable human host to dine on they can lay dormant for periods of up to a year or more.

Bed Bugs

Often the first sign of a bed bug problem are spots of blood on bedding and on the corners of mattresses and many people can react badly to bed bug bites.

The early part of this century has seen bed bug infestations multiplying all over the planet, the easy availability of overseas and economic migration have both been given as reasons for the resurgence.

What is certain is that that are now making a real fightback not only in lower quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.

One London borough cited a doubling of bed bug problems every year from 1995 to 2001.

One night away in an infested premises is all it takes, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Stretford Pest control companies are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes and buses so a simple trip to work on an infested tube or train can be sufficient to spread bed bugs to your own home.

They are an tricky pest to deal with as contrary to popular belief they do not just live in beds. They live in any nook and cranny anywhere close to a sleeping human being, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed side telephones etc and dealing with them is both laborious and time consuming. They have even been discovered found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the folds of flesh on flabby people.

They are not a pest that can be tackled by an amateur and a pest control professional will almost certainly be needed.

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