Bed bugs: where do they come from and how to deal with them

Many people recommend this remedy for bedbugs. Read >>>!

In the last century, bedbugs were considered a common occurrence and were not a curiosity. The new generation of insect control products released - pesticides and poisons - managed to destroy the majority of bloodsuckers. But not everyone! The most resistant ones have managed to adapt to the poison, and continue to disturb old buildings and new houses with their presence.

Types of bedbugs

Bedbugs are the largest order of insects. Currently, more than 30,000 varieties are known. In most cases, the word “bug” evokes wild horror and is associated with bloodsuckers. However, not all of them cause harm to humans and some of them can even be useful. Types of bedbugs characteristic of our area:

Soldier bug

Brightly colored insect. Found throughout our country. At any time of the year, except winter, it lives in plant leaves and grass. It is not difficult to notice, since soldier bugs settle in colonies. He is unpretentious to food and is content with little. The juice of the plant, which it sucks out with its proboscis, is enough. The photo shows a representative of this species.

stink bug

It's easy to guess why it's called that. Bedbugs have a well-developed sense of smell, and in case of danger, they release their scent. Absolutely harmless to humans. It feeds on plant sap and can be found on any vegetation. It appears in the apartment in search of shelter or creeps in by accident. Looking at the photo, you will probably remember it.

Horsefly bug

It got its name because of its original eyes. It is difficult to recognize, since this type of insect has several varieties with different colors. An adult is absolutely harmless. Like previous bugs, it feeds on sap. But the larvae cause significant damage to agricultural plants. The larvae are deposited on leaves or stems and parasitize there until they mature. The photo shows one of the representatives.

bug turtle

This type of insect causes significant damage to grain crops. It is not difficult to notice it, since they live in colonies and attack vegetation in unison. During the period of formation and ripening of ears, the activity of the harmful turtle reaches its peak. Females lay eggs and larvae begin to emerge after 1 week. Throughout the entire period of their development, they will live on grain crops and cause damage to the plant.

Photo of the pest.

Forest and field bugs do not pose a danger to humans. They end up in housing by accident and don’t stay there for long.

Bed bugs ruin your life. This subspecies is a parasite. They feed on the blood of animals and humans. Home, bed, furniture, linen - these are the names of the same creature.

Suborder Hemiptera

Biologists initially considered bedbugs as a separate order, and then introduced them into the suborder of hemiptera. Today, about 40 thousand species live in wildlife, united in 50 large families.

Different species differ in body structure and size. Very small ones do not grow more than 1 mm, and large species reach 10–16 cm. Depending on the habitat, the body shape is formed. There are flat, spherical, turtle and rod-shaped bugs.

Based on their lifestyle and feeding methods, they are divided into predators, parasites, and herbivores. Mixed types are also found in nature. Hematophages who drink the blood of animals, including humans, are especially dangerous. Cannibalism is common among bedbugs.

There are flying and flightless species, but all have three pairs of limbs. With the help of their paws they move, hold their prey, and swim. Indoors are usually active at night and hide during the day.

What do house bugs look like?

Many have heard about such bloodsuckers, and those who have had to deal with them know what they look like. It is difficult to spot an insect for several reasons. Firstly, it is very small. Secondly, it is nocturnal.

The body length of a hungry bug is only 3 mm. The body is flat and almost transparent, with a brownish tint. Consists of separate segments that are able to expand as food arrives. Thanks to this, a well-fed insect changes shape - it becomes round and increases to 8 mm. Look at the photos and videos to see what home bed bugs look like

Pierces the skin with a proboscis. The small jaws have two canals. The first is for the injection of poisonous saliva with an analgesic. Thanks to this, the person does not feel the bites, and the insect eats calmly. The second one is intended for eating.

The body is covered with villi and protected by a durable shell. It is simply impossible to crush a hungry bug, even if you press hard on it. A well-fed one can be destroyed with the slightest effort.

Females are always larger than males. In the photo the female is located at the bottom.

The behavior of a hungry and a well-fed bug is very different. The first one is very fast and agile. Able to climb onto the ceiling and from there dive onto a sleeping person. A well-fed insect is slow and clumsy.

Body color depends on the time of food consumption. The hungry bug is dirty yellow in color. Recently fed - scarlet. The dark brown color indicates that the parasite has been eating for a long time. The photo shows an insect that drank human blood quite recently.

Bedbugs amaze with their fertility. One female is enough for your home to be filled with insects in 2 weeks. In a couple of months you won't know how to get rid of them. The female lays an average of 5-12 larvae per day and 300-500 throughout her life.

The eggs are white, 1 mm long and look like grains of rice. The picture can be clearly seen in the photo.

Bedbug eggs are found in one place and are easier to detect than adults. The ripening period is 1 week. They are not afraid of temperature changes and are insensitive to most chemicals.

Immediately after hatching they are able to drink blood. To start the mechanism of maturation, the larva needs to taste blood at least once. This explains the activity of insects in the first week of their appearance. Unlike an adult bedbug, they are unable to release an analgesic when bitten. Therefore, bites are felt immediately and the bedbug can be killed quite easily.

It takes 1 month to turn into a full-fledged bug. During this time, the insect changes its chitinous shell 5 times. It increases in size and darkens. Because of their transparent color, they are often called nymphs.

See the photo for the process of turning a larva into an adult bedbug.

The larva of a bed bug leads the same lifestyle as an adult. It differs in the volume of food absorbed and the number of bites made.

The insect lives for a year or a year and a half. When the temperature drops below 18 degrees Celsius, it goes into hibernation. It exists in a hungry state for six months. During this time it turns into a transparent, flat bug. Looks like he's dead. When the temperature is optimized, it comes to life and leads a normal life. They are afraid of low temperatures from – 15 ⁰С and high temperatures – from + 49 ⁰С.

Toxic substances

If using home remedies doesn't work, you can try insecticides, which are chemicals that kill insects. They can be purchased at household chemical stores. On average, the spraying agent is packaged in containers with a volume of 50-100 ml. For a small country house, two or three cylinders of poison are enough.

During the procedure, it is important for a person to protect himself from the effects of toxic substances on the skin, eyes and lungs. He must wear a respirator, rubber gloves, high tight shoes, long sleeves, a hat and glasses. All other people must leave the premises at this time. After finishing processing of all rooms, the windows and doors of the house are closed. The cottage is left in a sealed state for the time specified in the annotation for the insecticide. Then you need to wash your protective clothing well in hot water, wash your shoes and glasses, and the exterminator needs to take a shower.

Popular drugs for controlling bed bugs:

• "Executioner";
• "Insecticide";
• "Bedbug Stop";
• "Death to pests";
• "Butox";
• "Fufanon";
• "Combat";
• "Karbofos";
• "Medilis Cyper";
• "Delta Zone".

Where do bedbugs come from in an apartment?

These insects love to travel. They happily change from one home to another, and quickly adapt to new living conditions. Often people themselves help them in this, but they don’t even know about it.

• You can safely bring them into your home from guests or bring them back from vacation.
• Buy furniture infested with bedbugs. Not only consignment furniture can be infested with bedbugs, but also completely new furniture.
• Place furnishings in your home from the place where the insects lived. Before you bring anything into your home, it is advisable to inspect it.
• A pet can bring a bedbug into your apartment.
• There are times when they appear in the house thanks to birds and bats.
• Cracks in the walls and ventilation hatches open the way for insects from neighbors. In 1 minute, the bug crawls more than 1 meter. Capable of covering a distance of 30 meters. If there is an apartment with bedbugs in a multi-storey building, then there is a chance that they will appear everywhere.

Bedbugs are active at night. When visiting an infected premises during the day, you can rest assured that they will not move to you. In bright light, insects hide in secluded crevices and disguise their existence. If you had to spend the night in such a room, then during this time the female will have time to lay eggs in the folds of her clothing or settle there herself. By bringing them into your home, you will start a new population of bedbugs.

Mermen

In bodies of water where there is no fast current, you can find various types of water bugs. Almost all of them are predators, happily eating small fish, crustaceans, snails and slugs.

9

Gladysh / Notonecta

A large inhabitant of fresh water bodies from the family Notonectidae. Adults grow up to 1.5 cm in length, considered the largest.

The body consists of three parts - head, abdomen and chest. The color changes depending on the bottom of the reservoir. They have many natural enemies, so they have to camouflage themselves. There is also a proboscis, which it presses against its abdomen.

Breathes atmospheric air, which makes it easy to stay afloat. It spends most of its life on the surface of the water, sticking its paws to the tension film. This property allows you to quickly move along the surface of reservoirs.

10

Water striders / Gerridae

A large family of about 700 species. Funny insects live on the surface of the water, hence the name. The species Gerris lacustris is common in Russia.

As soon as the first cold weather sets in, aquatic inhabitants move to land. They hide under stumps, tree bark, and bury themselves in moss to overwinter. It rests on the surface of the water with four legs. The front ones act as a kind of motor.

They have excellent vision and touch. They perceive any fluctuations in water. Water striders are divided into wingless and winged species. They hunt invertebrates.

11

Belostoma

According to the site thebiggest.ru, this is the largest representative of the hemiptera order, growing up to 17 cm. You can meet such a giant in the reservoirs of South and Southeast Asia. Some species live in Latin America.

The body has an oval, slightly elongated flat shape. Changes color depending on the color of the two bodies of water in which it lives. Its shape and body color resembles a fallen leaf. On the head there is a pair of large mesh eyes.

The forelimbs have special hooks that allow them to capture and hold prey. They live underwater and come to the surface to breathe air. Despite its size and intimidating appearance, the belostomy is not dangerous for humans.

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How do bedbugs bite?

Bed bugs crawl out to hunt at night. The most favorable time for them is from 3 to 8 o'clock. The bug pierces the skin with its proboscis and releases an analgesic, thereby numbing the process. They do this until they come across a capillary with blood. See photo.

Eating in a larva lasts 3 minutes, in an adult insect – 8-10 minutes. Having had enough, the bug moves away to the side. The effect of the analgesic ceases after 15 minutes. The person begins to feel severe itching. However, the insect had already crawled away during this time.

Proven method!

In order to detect bedbugs in time during bites, you need to turn on the light suddenly and lift the blanket.

People with delicate, well-groomed skin are attacked - it is easier to bite through. (What to apply against bedbugs) Women and children suffer more. The bite resembles a mosquito bite, but with a clearly visible boundary. (How to distinguish a bug bite from a mosquito) The distance between them is about 4 cm. Those located close to each other merge into a large red spot.

The domestic bug feeds once every 7 days. But bite marks may appear every 2-3 days. They can survive without food for more than a month.

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Fun fact: Not all bed bugs live inside the bed. And to prevent insects living in other parts of the apartment from getting into it, you can use Hector bedbug traps. The trap is a stand with a special groove.

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Consequences of bites

• Severe itching and pain appears.
• Nervous exhaustion – bedbugs prevent you from sleeping at night and preventing you from working during the day.
• With sensitive skin, an allergic reaction, increased body temperature, and sometimes loss of consciousness are observed.
• Pustules may appear when wounds become infected.
• Children suffer from bedbug bites extremely hard. With constant attack by predatory insects, anemia may develop.

How are bites treated?

Special treatment is required in rare cases. Itching and redness are mainly eliminated with hormonal ointments and antihistamines. If an infection occurs, a course of antibiotics is taken. Fenistil gel, Golden Star balm, Afloderm ointment, Bepanten and some others are excellent.

Sometimes you can do without medications.

• Wash your skin with soapy water. Laundry soap or antibacterial soap works well.
• Apply ice cubes to the bites.
• For quick healing, tinctures of calendula, St. John's wort, and plantain are used.
• Dilute baking soda in water and moisten the affected areas.

Summarize

Looking at photographs of original insects, you are convinced that nature sometimes creates wonderful forms of various colors. But their presence in homes is extremely undesirable. Disinfection of bedbugs and their complete destruction is a troublesome task. It is better to entrust this matter to professionals. In addition, there are a lot of chemicals and folk methods to get rid of uninvited guests.

But, looking at these photographs, I really don’t want to hurt these beautiful insects:

This concludes our article. The editors of most-beauty.ru are waiting for your comments.

Bedbugs - symptoms of infection

House bugs are insidious insects. They do not give themselves away in any way in the first days of their existence. Bites on the body are mistaken for fleas, mosquitoes or other insects that are not so harmful.

At this time, insects actively reproduce and colonize the territory at night.

And by the time you finally manage to identify them, they have already been able to get comfortable in your home. What should you pay attention to?

1. Bites on the body

The very first and main sign of the presence of parasites. Bedbugs on the human body leave a characteristic bite mark in the form of a path. This is explained by the fact that to obtain the required amount of food they need to make about 7 skin punctures.

Bed bugs – and their bites cannot be confused with anything else. Look at the photo to see what it looks like.

Many people recommend this remedy for bedbugs. Read >>>!

They bite painlessly. An analgesic is administered to dull the pain. Choose places where the skin is most sensitive:

• neck;
• hands;
• legs;
• shoulders;
• face,
• less often the back.

The reaction to bites depends on the individual characteristics of the body. In 20% of people they do not manifest themselves at all. For others, it’s a series of pimples that itch a lot. Still others need urgent help due to a severe allergic reaction.

For mild to moderate damage, bites can be treated with special ointments, for example, Hector gel.

In the photo you can see a clear example of a night attack.

1. Traces of blood on the bed

Stains on bedding appear for two reasons:

• After the bite, the blood from the wound continues to bleed and smear the bed.
• Linen bugs, having had their fill, become clumsy and vulnerable. With your movements, you can crush them, and the blood can get on the sheet.

The photo shows a clear picture.

1. Black dots

Waste products. You can notice them due to their quantity, since they themselves are very small in size, 0.5–1 mm. Traces from bedbugs remain in places where they accumulate or in close proximity to them.

How it looks, look at the photo.

1. Traces of shedding

Bed bugs are susceptible to molting. Husks and skins remain near the insect nest. If you managed to see such a picture, you are on the right track. See photo for what it looks like.

1. The smell of bedbugs

When a room is heavily infested, a cloying, sweetish smell begins to appear. Reminds me of the smell of rotten raspberries or almonds. Furniture bugs have scent glands. They emit a scent to repel enemies and when reproducing. If you suddenly smell such a smell, it’s time to start searching in earnest.

Protection

Most species have scent glands that produce an unpleasant aroma. It is believed that this is a way of protection against natural enemies. The aroma also plays the role of pheromones during the mating season.

Color also has a protective function. It comes in two types. The first is a conspicuous, protective coloring. It is also called “combat”. The second is bedbugs, painted in contrasting bright colors. These are herbivorous individuals that have no enemies in wildlife.

How to detect bedbugs in your home

To quickly and effectively eliminate parasites, you need to find their nest. Thanks to their parasitic lifestyle, they have to hide in secluded places located not far from a sleeping person. You need to start your search in the bedroom and living room, where most of the time a person sleeps or sits motionless.

Bedbugs like warmth and darkness. Most often they settle under the mattress, in the sofa, in the folds of bedding or the seams of upholstered furniture. They prefer certain types of material:

• textile;
• plastic;
• tree;
• paper.

They don’t like metal structures, cold and moisture and move away from there.

Common Habitats

• Bed frame, mattress, upholstered furniture, blankets, pillows, bedding.
• Storage places under the sofa are drawers for linen.
• Furniture in the bedroom - chests of drawers, lamps, clocks, paintings, photographs.
• Curtains, cornices, blinds, switches, sockets.
• Cracks in the walls and places where wallpaper and parquet have peeled off.
• Skirting boards.
• Carpets and carpet runners.
• Books on the shelves.
• Window and door frames, mirrors on the walls.
• In pets' sleeping areas.

Prepare yourself for the fact that the picture you see will be unpleasant. How this can be, look at the photo.

Bedbug in bed

Bedbugs photo

Bedbug on hand

Another image of a family of parasites in the next photo.

Three bedbugs

The opinion that bedbugs live in old and dirty rooms is considered incorrect. This is far from true. They can calmly exist in a house where there is complete cleanliness, chic and shine. Therefore, do not waste time, but start searching for bedbugs.