Bed Bug Bites and Their Control

Bedbugs bite on any part of the body duly exposed to their reach and they often do this on a straight line or in an irregular pattern on the skin. While some people may not notice bites and bite marks made on their skin by bedbugs, others only find the bitten area swollen, and a very few others develop serious health conditions after the bite.

Generally, bites from bedbugs usually leave the affected skin area inflamed and itchy with a sharp center. This itchiness often brings discomfort to affected persons and can become painful over time. For some people, bedbug bites result in severe health complications like fever and respiratory problems.

Bedbug bites symptoms may surface right after the bite in some people, but in others, it may take as long as a week to fully manifest. However, most symptoms disappear on their own after 7 or 8 days.

Completely Get Them Out of Your House

If you must prevent bedbug bites, you must do everything possible to prevent those pesky insects from getting into your living space. Even if they’ve found their way into your environment, do all you can to stop them from reproducing – especially in hidden spots.

Bedbugs prefer to seek refuge around offices, hotels, apartments and places where people sleep often; whenever you notice them in spaces where people are not usually found, it is a sign of a very serious infestation in a nearby sleeping area.

These insects are mostly fond of hiding themselves in holes and spaces between walls, floors, mattresses, and furniture during the day, and then sneak out to feed at night. They are also known to constantly seek shelter in vacuum units and padded or covered furniture.

That bedbugs prefer to hide until their mealtime does not mean that they cannot move from one place/living space to the other. When their hiding spots like bedding, furniture, and clothes are being moved from one place to another, they move too and quickly begin to multiply in their new spot.

In case you’re inspecting a place for bedbug infestation, the sanitary conditions of that place plays no role in attracting or sustaining the bugs. These parasites survive under any sanitary condition but are mostly found in public, unattended places.

To find them, look for stains that are brownish red in colour as this indicates their excrement. Also look for tiny clear substances that resemble the cells of dead human skin as this is the exoskeleton they shed right before they develop into the next stage of their life cycle.

Preventing Bedbug Bites

To keep your home free of bedbug infestations, and hence keep those parasites from biting you, the following points may be helpful:

1. While choosing furniture and their materials, go for material types that wouldn’t develop holes and cracks in the nearest future so that bedbugs do not find refuge in your home at any point in time.
2. Be careful about the items you move into your house. Ensure they are not from infested buildings, offices, stores and apartments.
3. Make it a habit to wash and dry bedding and furniture (if possible) at high temperatures. Use steam if washing isn’t possible.
4. Vacuum your bedding and upholstery regularly to ensure bedbugs do not form a niche in them. Use steam (dry steam function of your fabric washer)for thicker and denser bedding.
5. Regularly check for holes and crevices in your walls, furniture, mattresses and upholstery. When you find any, fill it up with glue.
6. Store your bags, and bedding away from walls and floors with crevices.
7. When lodging in a hotel or sleeping over at a friend’s place, scan the sleeping area and possible bedbug hideouts thoroughly to ensure that there’s no bedbug infestation in the area.
8. Cover your body properly before you go to bed and ensure you change your sheets regularly.
9. When the infestation is severe and reoccurring, do not hesitate to burn the infested items.