What do domestic bed bugs look like?

None of us can immediately say what exactly a bed bug looks like. This is due to the fact that at different stages of development this pest undergoes metamorphosis, due to which its appearance radically changes. For this reason, it can be confused with a louse, small cockroach or tick. Residents of large cities who are not very well versed in the world of insects may not even be able to determine that they have encountered a bug. It is very important for everyone to have an idea of the appearance of a household pest, so that when detected, they can immediately take effective measures and drive it away from their home. People who enjoy walks in parks in the summer may recognize the wingless red bug, which likes to gather near tree trunks, on branches and stumps. All bugs have a common characteristic exterior - their body is elongated, there is a special ornate pattern on the elytra, the head clearly stands out from the body with a sharpened “beak”. A proboscis protrudes from the edge of the head, designed to pierce tissue and suck out blood.

Features of the appearance of bed bugs

Bed bugs have their own external characteristics, which are very different from their wild counterparts. Below are their features:

Bed bugs do not have wings. The wings would quickly give away the parasite; the flapping of their wings creates a special vibration that is easy to detect. When there are no wings, the insect is very difficult to detect, it is more difficult to grab or handle it. The peculiar evolution of insects tried to round out the shape of its body: in the absence of wings, the angularity disappeared.
The body color is usually brown, unlike its wild relatives. When a bug drinks blood, it acquires a dark color that can reach black. In a state of hunger, small bugs are even transparent; the color of their bodies can be light yellow. Because of this, people confuse them with cockroaches with similar colors.
The insect's abdomen has distinct segments in the form of stripes. In all types of bedbugs, the abdomen also has segments, but due to the presence of wings this is not so obvious. Bed bugs have distinct stripes on their bodies that increase in size and become distinct as the insect grows or when it becomes fed up with blood. Each segment expands, which leads to an elongation of the pest’s body.

What a bedbug looks like. Video:

It must be remembered that bedbugs have a very specific appearance, given its changes throughout the life cycle. You only have to see a bedbug once and understand that this is exactly the same household bed bug in order to remember it for a long time. In general, we can say that when an insect is hungry, its body seems to be pressed down, even flattened, but at the same time wide. It resembles a dirty small coin. When the bug fills itself with blood, the body becomes more protruding.

Often, satiety becomes fatal for bedbugs. They become defenseless and die in bed from the influence of the mass of sleeping people. In other words, crushing a well-fed bug is not difficult, but a hungry one is more difficult. A hungry bug has a flat body, it can press firmly to the surface, so you can’t just pick it up.

Armed with knowledge about the appearance of this household pest, you can always quickly make a decision to eliminate it.

The appearance of the bug is characterized by the presence of a proboscis on its head, which is a feeding organ. It is a jaw that has undergone evolutionary extension and has a two-channel system. This allows you to be saturated with blood through one channel, and through another to irrigate the bite site with your saliva.

With the help of this proboscis, the bug digs into the skin as close as possible to the vessel for one to two minutes. For complete saturation, he needs 4-5 such procedures, which he carries out slightly, moving over the skin. During digestion, the insect hides in a secluded place, and then repeats the whole process again.

Adult bedbugs are easily noticeable, as they measure 4-8 mm, and after eating their size increases up to two times. Juveniles are often mistaken for other insects. The larvae remain completely invisible to the naked eye.

Fighting methods

The discovery of bed bugs in the house definitely does not suit the residents, and they try to get rid of them in different ways. If it turns out that there are an incredible amount of them in the house, an independent fight will not be effective. Females lay eggs in places that are difficult to approach. In this case, it is recommended to entrust the destruction of bedbugs to the sanitary and epidemiological station or contact specialized companies that provide similar types of services. To treat premises, they have the necessary tools and modern, powerful drugs. One treatment will be enough to completely destroy insects. You can get rid of bedbugs using other methods.

Chemical insecticides

Chemical insecticides for bedbugs The market offers a fairly large number of modern products that can help in the fight against bedbugs. It is important to use them correctly according to the included instructions, otherwise bed bugs may spread throughout the house and will be difficult to eradicate. There is also a possibility that the insect will become accustomed to a certain type of chemical. Medicines for bedbugs are available in the form of:

Aerosols and sprays. The following products have proven their effectiveness: Dichlorvos, Clean House, Raptor, Combat, Raid, Carbazol. They are easy to use and penetrate hard-to-reach places. Aerosols should be used carefully, as they can cause an allergic reaction.
Liquid products. Substances offered on the market are usually diluted with water in proportions according to the attached instructions. The resulting solution is sprayed indoors. Particular attention is paid to places where the greatest concentration of bloodsuckers is observed. Liquid preparations are considered safe, they are often odorless, they do not have a strong toxic effect that has a negative impact on humans and pets. The advantage of using such an insecticide is long-term exposure (up to 16 hours). Some preparations contain a substance that gets onto the body of the bedbug and is transmitted to other individuals, eventually killing them. The most effective are Executioner, Karbofos, Get, Forsythe, Cucaracha, Fuanon.
Powders or dusts. They are used in their usual form, or suspensions can be made from them. In the first case, the product is scattered in places where parasites are most concentrated, in the second, the premises are sprayed. Prominent representatives of this category of drugs are Fas. When working with powders, you should be careful, as its particles can get into the lungs, causing complications including inflammatory processes.

Characteristic features of their eggs

The female lays 3-4 eggs at a time, which are transparent and about 0.5 mm in size. But despite this, they are noticeable, since they are among adult insects and their metabolic products. Each egg has an elongated shape and resembles an ant's.

Only the larvae that emerge from the eggs bear a strong resemblance to young cockroaches or lice. Initially they are translucent and light. At this time, they can no longer be confused with other insects. Larvae that have not received food for a long time have a uniform light yellow color.

Safety precautions for chemical processing

When using chemical compounds or preparations that contain substances hazardous to health, a number of safety measures should be taken to ensure that family members do not become ill after treating the premises. Some activities should be carried out before the start of manipulations aimed at expelling insects:

Children and pets are sent to relatives for the next few days.
Before starting the manipulations, wear thick rubber gloves and a respirator.
The upcoming work is carried out in tight and closed clothing. Not a single piece of skin should be exposed. Headwear is required.
After completing the manipulations, wash your hands and face thoroughly with soap. Clothes are removed and hung outside for a while, after which they are thoroughly washed.
The room is ventilated after a few hours.

How to distinguish bed bugs?

Having a general understanding of the features of the appearance and life activity of bedbugs, it is possible to easily distinguish them from other insects:

Adult cockroaches are clearly distinguishable against their background due to the presence of wings, giving them an even more elongated shape. The larvae of rufous cockroaches, which are wingless, have a characteristic red spot, a clearly visible effect on the upper side of the body. Juveniles of the black cockroach species have a characteristic black color and are darker in appearance even compared to adult bugs.
Lice and adult bed bugs come in different sizes and colors. Difficulties are caused by small bedbug larvae due to their visual similarity, but in this case one should not forget about the lifestyle characteristic of each type of parasite. Thus, the vital activity of lice is connected with the hair, so they are found only on the hair and are characterized by difficulty in removing from the surface of the head. For bedbugs, a comfortable place to stay is open areas of the body, where it is much easier for them to move and exist.
House ants have a slight resemblance to bedbugs only in the egg stage. And even the barely hatched larvae are easily distinguishable from bedbugs in appearance due to the body structure characteristic of an ant.
Ticks, a special type of arachnid, have 8 legs, which are larger in relation to body size compared to bedbugs. Bed bugs, like all insects, have only 6 legs.
Fleas are smaller in size compared to bedbugs. Also, the latter have a pronounced feature - the ability to jump and greater motor activity.

Photo

In the photo below you can see what house bugs look like and in what places in the apartment they can live:

Appearance of a bug

Types of house bugs

Places in the apartment where bedbugs can live

Bedbugs and their larvae in furniture

In addition to bedbugs, other indoor pests also cause considerable trouble for people. Read detailed materials on our website about what cockroaches, ants, moths are, as well as dust mites, fleas and woodlice.

What does a bedbug bite look like?

In addition to all this, the presence of bedbugs can be determined by the condition of the bite site. Although each person has an individual reaction to insect bites, there are still features characteristic only of a bug:

They leave behind trails consisting of 3-5 bites, located at a distance of 2-3 cm from each other.
Since these are collective insects, many such paths appear during the night.
Upon careful examination of the injury site, a trace of a puncture through which blood was sucked is noticeable.

Bedbugs are active at night, so after sleep, burning and itching of the damaged surface appears. The main thing they bother a person with is their bites, which are very painful, and the resulting wound can subsequently itch for a long time. In addition, sensitive people may develop allergies. To avoid such troubles, you should always carefully inspect the premises of hotel rooms or rented apartments.

You can find a bedbug if you know what it looks like and where it might be hiding. An important factor in the appearance of bedbugs is the condition of the host’s skin; healthy skin attracts bedbugs.

To make sure whether there are bedbugs in the room, just carefully inspect such places and everything will become clear.

More often you can see not bedbugs, but chitinous shells remaining after their molting is complete. Whole clusters of dry skins may be found. This is direct evidence of the presence of bedbugs.

Their presence is revealed by brown spots on the bed linen.

During the day, you can see insect excrement, similar to poppy seeds - small, looking like dark dots.

Nutrition and reproduction

Insects usually attack prey at night . Entomologists even managed to find out during what period they are most active - from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. During one meal, the bloodsucker drinks an amount of blood that is twice its body weight and makes several bites. Parasites feed once every 5-10 days.

REFERENCE! The bites are not harmful to humans, but can cause severe itching and, in children, an allergic reaction. Therefore, they must be processed.

Parameters to rely on when choosing funds

All chemicals are formulated for individual use. There is no universal remedy that will eliminate the problem under any conditions and degrees of neglect. List of criteria for choosing a product:

First of all, safety. Due to the fact that many stores sell substances for household use, high toxicity can lead to negative consequences on the body of residents.
Efficiency is the very property that is most important when choosing a product. If the drug does not produce results, then its use will be ineffective.
Deadline for destruction. If you need to get rid of “unwanted guests” in a short time, it is recommended to use aerosols.
Price. The phrase “quality - price” is not always true. Funds should be selected not by amount, but by quality.

How to properly destroy bed bugs. Video:

Distribution methods

Reasons for the appearance of bedbugs There are several options for pests to enter an apartment or house:

Due to the fact that a bed bug can migrate, it crawls from one apartment to another from neighbors.
You can bring it home from a store, hostel, along with your luggage, or from the market.
The insect can crawl and hide in the folds of clothing while traveling on a bus, train, or train.
It can appear in the house along with clothes purchased in stores, especially second-hand stores. You should carefully check it for the presence of bed bugs, their larvae and eggs.
Old furniture purchased from an antique shop can also be favored by them.

Insect habitat conditions

It is a mistake to think that bedbugs necessarily require unsanitary conditions to live. They feel great both in a rustic barn with animals and in a luxurious apartment with expensive renovations.

If insects appear in an apartment building or in one of the apartments, then soon their invasion is expected in other apartments. Walls and floors for bedbugs are not an insurmountable obstacle. Insects move easily around the house. Residents of neighboring apartments should immediately prepare for problems with bedbugs. The fight ahead will not be easy.