Where do bedbugs come from in an apartment: reasons for their appearance

• By Vil Malinoshevsky
• About bedbugs

Many people believe that bed bugs infest apartments for some specific reason. Some are looking for an explanation in esotericism and folk beliefs, while others believe that parasites appear due to animals, unsanitary conditions, dirt, dampness, or even the smell of urine (yes, there are even such assumptions). In fact, bedbugs appear indoors when all two very simple factors coincide:

1. Firstly, they can physically get there - either by themselves, or with the things they are in;
2. Secondly, they have something to eat there, that is, people live in the premises.

No other factors, such as the sanitary condition of the house, the presence of a garbage chute, the abundance of furniture in the apartment and various rubbish, affect the likelihood of contamination of the premises. People from a variety of houses and apartments turned to us for help and advice, and from their examples we were once again convinced that, no matter how dirty or, conversely, clean the house is, bedbugs appear in it if they have the opportunity .

Bed bugs: what they are and how to effectively get rid of them

In every clean and tidy house, “invisible neighbors” - insects and animals - live next to a person either constantly or periodically. Warmth and food attract many settlers. But among all the “uninvited guests” there are those who cause the greatest discomfort and bring a lot of trouble into the house - house bugs - where do insects come from in an apartment, what harm do they cause to household members, and how to get rid of them forever without risk to health. Let's consider these and many other questions.

We check the premises for the presence of parasites

Some lyrical digression that we offer will help you see a realistic picture of parasite detection.

When you wake up in the morning, you see new swollen places. They itch unbearably. “How annoying these mosquitoes are,” you think. But, having discovered a whole trail of swelling on the body, you begin to suspect that it was not mosquitoes that bit you, but someone else. At the site of the bedbug bite, 2 holes from the proboscis tubules are visible. And the path is built in a certain order: attacked, bitten, attacked again. Such a path will allow you to clearly identify the bites of bedbugs, and not fleas, mosquitoes or linen lice. But what are these blood stains on the bed, black dots? These marks are blood from a crushed insect, its excrement. On the floor, on the bedside table, you see a keratinized membrane, and not just one, but many. This is the chitinous cover shed by the larvae during molting. Nearby you can see transparent whitish oblong-shaped grains. These are bedbug eggs. They need to be destroyed urgently. The smell of almonds, with the sourness of berries, spreading throughout the room, convinces that bedbugs have appeared in the apartment.

Why do bed bugs appear in a clean house or apartment?

Contrary to existing opinion, the reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in a house or apartment are not at all related to the uncleanliness of the owners. Insects are ectoparasites of humans. They feed on the blood of warm-blooded creatures - domestic animals and humans. Therefore, the main instinct of the parasite is to answer the question of why bedbugs appear in a house or apartment. They came to find food, which they sense through their senses of touch. Having discovered it, the pest looks for secluded and hard-to-reach dark places near a food source, where it hides during the day and reproduces. The bedbug is a small nocturnal insect, which is why it is so difficult to detect.

But the description of a household pest does not answer the question of why bedbugs appear in an apartment, or how they enter a house where they have not been before. The answer to the question is extremely simple. There are many ways to infect premises:

• removal of bedbugs from neighboring apartments. To understand how bed bugs get into rooms and where they come from in a confined space, you need to imagine the paths of their movement - ventilation and sewer shafts, cracks and crevices in the walls and floors;
• relocation from the cold basement of an apartment building to warmer living quarters;
• presence of an animal in the house. When wondering where bedbugs might come from, remember that a pet can bring them from the street on its fur;
• Uncleanliness of pet owners. Don’t be surprised why bed bugs appear if your pet’s belongings are not disinfected;
• receiving a parcel or buying an item in a dubious place. When wondering where bedbugs came from in the apartment, remember that storage areas are not disinfected;
• staying in a hotel, public place, etc. In this case, the answer to the question of where bedbugs can come from in an apartment will have the most obvious answer - they were brought into the house on clothes and accessories;
• trips.

The most common reason why bedbugs appear in furniture and beds is that a person himself brought the pest into the house on the soles of shoes with dust. It is generally accepted that there are several types of domestic bugs - furniture, bed and linen bugs. But in fact, there is only one insect, but there may be several places where it is located in a person’s apartment. In nature, this type of insect is extremely diverse.

How long do house bugs live?

The average lifespan of a bed bug is 10-12 months. In particularly extreme conditions (for example, during a sharp cold snap or the absence of a person in the house for a long time), they fall into suspended animation, in which they can remain for more than a year until the return of a source of food or normalization of external climatic conditions.

IMPORTANT! Household bugs are also called bed bugs, and their clutches instantly die at temperatures of +50°C and -10°C.

Lifestyle

Bed bugs are predominantly nocturnal. Only a certain danger or alarm can force them to become active during the daytime, for example, destruction of their habitat or the action of third-party chemicals.

The parasites are most active between 3 am and 6 am. At this time, they are especially dangerous for humans, since they go out in search of food, this is their feature. Insects are mobile and fast, they can get from any corner of the apartment to the bed in a matter of seconds, spend about half an hour feeding and return to their previous shelter.

Bed bugs spend most of their life cycle preferring to hide in various shelters, emerging at night to satisfy their hunger or to find a new home if the old one has been destroyed.

IMPORTANT! Parasites usually eat once every 5-7 days. If you notice new bites on your body every day, this is a sure signal that there are a huge number of parasites in the house.

After a single feeding, bedbugs digest the blood somewhere in a secluded corner of the home.

Reproduction and development

Bed bugs mate through traumatic insemination:

1. The male, using his genital organ, pierces the female’s abdomen and injects seminal fluid into it.
2. After a few weeks, the female begins to lay eggs (up to 5 eggs daily). Over the entire life cycle, one adult female is capable of laying about 250-500 eggs.
3. An insect in an egg will develop to the adult stage on average 30-45 days, but in extreme conditions development can take up to 100 days.
4. Bedbug larvae immediately begin to look for food on their own, because to move to the next stage of development (and to molt) they need a certain amount of blood they drink.

Where do bedbugs hide in a house or apartment?

It is not enough to know where bedbugs come from in an apartment to avoid their appearance. You need to find out where to look for them in order to periodically carry out preventive measures.

Exterminators recommend checking 1-2 times a year:

• bookcases and shelves with bed linen, towels;
• mattress and carpets. You need to examine folds, edging, fringe, etc. The test will be effective if you stir up the accumulation of tissue;
• pet bed (at least once a month);
• places where wallpaper has come off the wall;
• cracks in the baseboard or walls, floor, ceiling;
• clothes that are stored in the closet for a long time;
• area around the battery, etc.

Furniture, bed and linen bugs hide in an apartment where ultraviolet rays and cleaning cannot reach them. Therefore, if blood-sucking insects are found among your neighbors, you should thoroughly clean the living quarters, paying special attention to treating the above-mentioned areas with insecticide.

Basic myths associated with bedbugs

There are several common misconceptions that you should be aware of:

• Bedbugs don't start in clean conditions. No, as we wrote above, they can migrate from neighbors or arrive on your clothes or pet fur. They don’t care whether your place is dirty or clean, the main thing is to gain access to the body.
• You can get rid of bedbugs by treating furniture and boiling laundry. Alas, such actions will not be enough - pests hide under baseboards, under wallpaper and in many secluded places.
• You can get rid of bedbugs by leaving furniture in the cold. This approach is still practiced by owners of private houses - they expose upholstered furniture to the cold in the hope of killing insects. At the same time, bedbugs continue to live and reproduce in many other places in the house.
• If your neighbors have bedbugs and they don’t want to invite exterminators, nothing can be done. It's not that easy, but it's still possible - you can force your neighbors to call the service without fail. To find out more, contact our managers - they will tell you everything. It’s even easier if they have minor children in the apartment.

How to detect a bug in an apartment: signs of the insect and its description

Having found out where bedbugs come from in a clean and tidy house, we will figure out how to detect the pest. The human ectoparasite has a flat, spherical body with short legs and a long trunk. It is very difficult to crush a hungry insect due to the shape of the body, but when it drinks blood, you only need to lightly press it down. Therefore, having decided what causes bedbugs in the apartment, pay attention to the bloody spots on the bed. This is the main sign of the presence of a parasite in the house.

The insect's body color ranges from transparent white (larvae) to burgundy brown (when saturated with blood). The body can be 3-8 mm in length, but often these are adults up to 5-6 mm. One individual drinks up to 5-7 µl of blood. This is 1.7-2.5 times larger than the pest itself. To accommodate such an amount of food, the insect's belly stretches in height. This type of ectoparasite is clearly distinguishable from other household pests due to the shape of its body.

Bedbugs leave other signs of their presence in the apartment:

• black dots and “poppy seeds” on wallpaper, furniture, bed linen - feces;
• body parts;

• an unpleasant almond odor - an enzyme that is secreted by an insect at the moment of fright;
• a feeling of mustiness and dampness in the room or from the linen.

But the main sign that bedbugs have settled in the house is bites on the human body. They have a pronounced character - the insect bites along a line. The female lays approximately 250-300 eggs in six months, so within a week two adult individuals can flood the room with bloodsuckers. This means that, having discovered signs of a parasite in the house, you should not go into detail about why bedbugs appear in an apartment and clean houses; you need to take immediate action.

Signs of bedbugs

Those who have never encountered bedbugs may not immediately understand what is happening and what kind of pest is in their home. But there are several signs by which you can determine the presence of bedbugs.

Bite marks

Bite marks are quite characteristic - an oblong track of bites appears on the skin, the bites themselves reach 5 mm in adults and up to 10-15 mm in children. Moreover, unlike many other insects, you do not feel pain during the bite! Discomfort appears only 20 minutes after it.

Smell

As we mentioned above, bedbugs emit a specific smell. Some call it the smell of sour olives, others call it the smell of cognac. Even if you don't know for sure what bedbugs smell like, an unusual, unpleasant odor should alert you.

Waste products

You may find dried feces or chitinous membranes. Take a closer look at small debris in your new place of residence, especially if we are talking about the bedside area.

Eggs

Bedbug eggs reach 2mm and look like small grains of rice - white and oblong. They can usually be found in secluded places - under a mattress, in a sofa, armchair, under baseboards, etc.

Traces of blood on the bed linen

Unlike ticks, bedbugs are quite fragile creatures, so you can accidentally crush them even in your sleep. In memory of the fallen individuals, blood stains remain on the bed linen, which are especially visible on light-colored fabrics.

The insects themselves

The most obvious sign is the bedbugs themselves, which are most easily found under a mattress or inside a sofa. The body of these insects is flat, slightly oblong. The size of an adult can reach 5 mm.

Are bed bugs dangerous?

Finding out where bed bugs come from in an apartment is important in a preventive sense. The answers will help avoid re-infection of premises. Which is very important, because bloodsuckers can not only cause night discomfort with their bites, but also be carriers of serious diseases. Persons with increased sensitization of the body to irritants will suffer from severe allergies after an insect bite. Therefore, in parallel with clarifying the question of why bedbugs appear in an apartment, it is important to understand how to combat them with parasites using effective methods.

Insects easily adapt to difficult living conditions, so with a large population, grandma’s methods will not help. If, during an inspection of the premises, several nesting sites for pests were discovered, it is better to call a professional exterminator. Otherwise, you will have to re-deal with why bedbugs appear in the apartment after control procedures.

Recommended barrier protection against bedbugs

Suspension “Get Total”, Russia - microencapsulant anti-bedbug product for 6 months of protection.

Emulsion “Xulat Micro”, Spain – capsule with 3 active ingredients for 6 months of protection.

Emulsion "Delta Zone", Korea - recommended for use with children and animals, capsule for 4 months barrier.

Emulsion "Lambda Zone", Korea - a barrier against bedbugs for 4 months with excellent exterminating properties.

Did trouble in the form of a bedbug infestation still happen in your apartment? It is worth immediately starting to take measures to destroy harmful household insects.

If you can’t poison yourself, we recommend contacting a special pest control service so that you and your family do not suffer from bed bug bites.

Traditional methods of controlling and preventing bedbug infestation at home

Having found out why bedbugs appear in the house, we will figure out how to deal with them without risk to household members and pets. Folk remedies are considered gentle. They are also recommended to be used as preventive measures for re-infection of premises. Therefore, devote time not only to finding out where bedbugs come from in your apartment, but also how to get rid of insects. There are several means:

• spread plants with a specific smell in the infected room (the entire apartment, if parasites are found, at least in one room) - chamomile, calamus, wormwood, tansy, wild rosemary, etc. These odorous herbs will not kill the “uninvited guest”, but will prevent its appearance. Fresh bouquets will relieve household members of the need to wonder where bedbugs come from in an apartment where there are no pets;
• wash floors and wipe dust in the apartment with infusions of the above herbs. Wet cleaning with decoctions 2-3 times a week will eliminate the need to solve the problem of how bedbugs appear in the house after disinfection;
• When wet cleaning, wipe the floor, furniture, baseboards and other comfort zones of parasites with vinegar, ammonia, acetone, mothballs or kerosene. It doesn’t matter why bedbugs appear in residential areas, it is important how to effectively and safely deal with them. And the listed products are the strongest repellers of bloodsuckers, which can be bought inexpensively in a specialized store;
• Place bouquets of fragrant herbs in the ventilation holes of the rooms. Knowing where bedbugs come from in residential areas, these are the routes of entry that should be protected.

Folk remedies are effective for small populations of blood-sucking insects and as preventive measures. They are safe for both households and pets, but not as an effective measure. If you find bedbugs in your apartment, the reasons for which are described above, and you want to get rid of them quickly, you need serious measures. Either professional exterminators or ready-made industrial preparations will help here. Household insecticides will kill bedbugs in a house where they would not have come from - how to get rid of “uninvited guests”, and with what drugs?

ORDER BUG TREATMENT +7(495) 055-42-87

We don’t end our search on the bed...

Now. You found bedbugs in the bed. This means that you need to look for them in the entire room, and preferably in the entire apartment. Here you need to inspect all the cracks, holes, cavities where they can physically get into. The following rule works here: the more difficult it is for you to get to a particular bedbug shelter, the more likely they are to have a nest there. Therefore, if you only plan to move the bedside table, look under it, lift a pot of flowers, look under it and that’s it, then you will almost certainly not find the main places where bedbugs accumulate.

In our practice, we were sometimes able to find bedbugs in completely unexpected places. I’m not talking about baseboards and under parquet floors - they are almost always there. But it happens that their nests are found behind books on shelves and behind the shelves themselves, inside laptops and computer system units, behind pictures on the walls, in safes, in sockets, in old things that people have not worn for a long time. You must understand that if you leave such places in your house, then there is a high probability that bedbugs will remain there, and even after treatment, individual individuals may survive here and restore the population in a few months.

Simply put, the bed is just the beginning. This is where you discover bedbugs and this is where you start looking for them. And where you will find all the other nests is very difficult to say. The main thing is to understand that bedbugs are not only infested in beds. It’s very, very rare that this happens: they are in the bed, but not anywhere else. But these are extremely rare cases, most likely this is not the case with you and they are somewhere else in the apartment. It just seems to you that they live in the bed simply because they only bite you when you are sleeping on the bed. But in reality they can be anywhere.

More details about where bedbugs come from and how to fight them?

Bed bugs climb onto mattresses, pillows and upholstered furniture (we found out the reasons for their appearance in a person’s home above) from the floor, fleecy carpets, and animal fur. Smelling the smell of food, the parasite begins the process of nesting nearby its “prey”. This is how bedbugs get in residential premises - they look for a secret fold or lapel and hide there. After making sure of the safety and availability of food, they begin the breeding process. The same applies to furniture and linen items. When there is a lull in the night, the predator goes out to feed. It finds the victim by smell and drinks its quota of blood within 10 minutes. Having found out what causes bedbugs in the apartment, we will figure out how to get rid of them using strong industrial insecticides.

An insecticide is a toxic substance that destroys the chitinous cover of an insect and penetrates its respiratory system. The drugs paralyze the pest, which leads to suffocation. Having determined the signs and causes of bedbugs in an apartment, let’s consider how to get rid of them with ready-made preparations:

• detect places where pests accumulate;
• clean the premises;
• treat areas where parasites are localized with an insecticide;
• treat all comfort zones in the house;
• after some time (depending on the number of bedbugs, how pests appear in the apartment, and the chosen product), wash the premises, removing dead insects;
• reapplying insecticide to comfort zones.

It doesn’t matter where home bugs come from and why, rooms will have to be treated with ready-made insecticides 2-3 times. Perhaps more. The fact is that household preparations are not as aggressive as professional products, and therefore do not affect pest eggs. So that after 1-1.5 weeks you don’t have to wonder why bedbugs appear in the apartment after disinfection.

The drugs must be used strictly in accordance with the instructions. It is not recommended to use them without personal protective equipment. It is also worth remembering that with a significant pest population, even strong household insecticides will not help. Therefore, it’s not worth spending time figuring out where bedbugs come from in an apartment and how to get rid of them. It’s better to call an exterminator right away.

Store shelves offer a lot of ready-made products. But not all of them are safe and effective. Strong insecticides are best used in a house where people will not live for the first time after treatment. You should also carefully consider the choice of drug if there are allergy sufferers, small children and pets in the house. Effective drugs against bedbugs, like

fight them using them as described above:

• Executioner and Gektor;
• Empire and Insect Control;
• Cimex and Cifox;
• Delicia and Ecokiller;
• Get and Tetrix;
• Agran and Reid;.

These are not all drugs, but they are the most convenient to use and effective. If their use does not help, and you do not know how bedbugs appear in the apartment again after self-disinfection, contact a specialist. Remember: human ectoparasites are carriers of serious diseases and create an unfavorable microclimate in the house where a person lives.

Disinsection service with 24-hour on-site service

If you have a problem with insects, we invite you to contact us, the pest control service “Dezstation”. We have been professionally exterminating bedbugs for many years and know everything about how to quickly and effectively deal with these insects.

Our employees are ready to travel 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Call the phone number listed on the website or fill out the feedback form to find out how to prepare for disinfestation and invite specialists to a convenient time.