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Just imagine you are sleeping on your bed peacefully, and you feel like something is biting you. What would be the first thing that comes to your mind?
Bed Bugs.
Yes, you guessed it right. Bed bugs are small oval-shaped insects that hide in various parts of your home to move out when you sleep in search of food.
If you have ever faced bed bug bites or think your home is infested with bed bugs, then you are at the right place. Here we will discuss everything about bed bugs, how to get rid of them, bed bug bites treatment, and more.
What are Bed bugs?
Bed bugs are small size insects that are brown and look like plant seeds. They consider animal and human blood food, which is the only reason they bite them.
Most people wonder why bed bugs bite them when they are asleep.
Well, the answer is whenever a bed bug climbs up on our body, our body will get a sensation, and we will try to get rid of them from our body. But when asleep and a bed bug climbs our body, those sensations do not work that precisely.
Hence bed bugs can bite us and get their food(blood). Are Bed Bug Bites Painful?
Have you ever been bitten by a spider? If you said yes, you must be aware that you feel nothing whenever a spider bites. The same is the case with a bed bug bite.
Whenever they bite you while sleeping, you will feel nothing. Also, bed bugs have a speciality: whenever a bed bug bites, they release chemicals in our skin that first numb our skin, and then stop blood from flowing from our body.
Another advantage that these bed bugs get is that whenever they bite, you will notice the red mark after 2-3 days of getting bitten by them.
- Anesthetic chemical for numbing your skin
- Anticoagulant chemical for stopping the blood from flowing from your bite
Where Do Bed Bugs Live?
If you have thought in your mind that bed bugs are just found in beds in our homes, then you are wrong because bed bugs can be found anywhere from 5-star hotels to our homes, not just that you can even find them in trains and buses.
While at different locations, you will find them hiding at different spots.
Just imagine you are in primary school where you are being taught, “God is everywhere” Similarly, there are no specific spots for bed bugs to hide, “Bed bugs are also everywhere.
You can find them beside your bed, within the gaps of your electric sockets, and bed bugs in the corner of drawers and their doors.
During the daytime, they hide in shady spots while they get active at night. Although if you are trying to find them via naked eyes at these spots, there are high chances you would not be able to find them. How Do Bed Bugs Invade Our Homes?
- Just imagine you bought new furniture from this shop downtown, and when you bought it at home, you suddenly started noticing bed bugs all around your new furniture, bed, and other such places.
- If something like this happened to you also, then there are possibilities that your newly bought furniture was already infested with bed bugs.
- And as we have already discussed, bed bugs spread rapidly within no time. Every bed bug can lay around 300-450 eggs at a time, and even a bed bug lives for around 24 months, which is a huge deal.
- Bed bugs also live on clothes. Hence if you are meeting a person whose house is infested with bed bugs or buying clothes from a place that is infested with bed bugs, you will bring these unwanted guests to your home.
- You were looking for a used mattress online and found a great deal. So you bought it at home; it was a lot more comfortable. But later, you notice that bed bugs have attacked your home suddenly.
- Your used mattress is the culprit. Hence it is suggested to buy seal-packed mattresses and not used ones because these mattresses are considered the primary reason behind bed bug infestation.
Are There Different Reactions To Bed Bug Bites?
Bed bugs release chemicals into our skin, and not everyone reacts the same way to those chemicals. Hence, the short answer is yes; bed bugs have different reactions.
Our immune system cannot fight every chemical. Hence based on which chemical your immune system can fight, you will face the reaction accordingly.
- Sometimes when a bed bug bites, our body stops creating blood clots, and our blood keeps flowing out of it.
- Sometimes we don’t feel like being bitten by a bed bug. You can also face allergic reactions like red spots and more.
Getting rid of Bed Bugs
Bed bugs can travel through your clothes, bags, shopping bags, and other items. Hence that’s the primary way of spreading bed bugs.
Also, bed bugs lay around 300-450 eggs at a time, which means if you have one or two-bed bugs also, that can lead to something worse in no time.
There are two significant ways with the help of which you can get rid of bed bugs; those are as follows:
1- DIY:
If you are someone who wants to take charge of this project, then you are most welcome to get rid of bed bugs by yourself. Here are DIY ways to remove bed bugs from your home or workplace.
- Get a stiff brush and scrub it all over the place where you think bed bugs hide. With the help of this method, you could easily clean all the eggs of bed bugs.
- You can also use a vacuum cleaner, and with the help of a broader nozzle attachment, you can rub it all over your bed, furniture, and hidden spots. This will help you solve the bed bugs issue quickly on your own.
- It is also said that with the help of heat treatment, you can quickly get rid of bed bugs because they can’t live in extreme heat temperatures. Hence you can use a hair dryer to build a small heat treatment project on your own to kill bed bugs at your place.
2- Expert Treatments:
If your place is infested with bed bugs, then you can also get in touch with experts who can help you get rid of bed bugs from your place.
You can directly schedule a call with them and get your place cleaned. However, if you are not looking for expert treatments and want insecticides that can kill bed bugs from your place, then make sure to buy those products marked with Australia’s Environmental Protection Agency.
In this way, you would be able to get those products that are non-toxic for humans. For example, some insecticides to kill bed bugs are as follows:
- Bug bombs can kill bed bugs from your place, but such chemicals will not get into small or hidden corners to kill the bed bugs.
- Oil-based treatment: A number of bed bugs killing products help you get rid of such insects. The best part is that oil-based treatments to kill bed bugs are mostly made up of tea tree oil, a non-toxic substance. Hence it reduces the toxicity as compared to the chemicals.
- Bug’s protective outer layer: Products like desiccants work like a protective layer on your beds and furniture. With the help of such products, you will never face any issue linked with bed bugs over the surface of furniture or beds. However, such products cannot help remove bed bugs from hidden spots.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, bed bugs are found in everybody’s home. Also, it has been noticed that bed bugs can get into your place from various places, such as shopping bags, furniture, beds, mattresses, and more.
Most people think that if a place is appropriately cleaned, you will never face any issue linked with bed bugs. But this is not true; if your place is untouched, it can also be infested with bed bugs.
Hence every house is infested with bed bugs; the only difference is you can notice bed bugs in different places. So if your bedroom is infested, that does not mean everybody’s bedroom will be infested.
If you think you will face serious health issues after bed bug bites, then you are wrong. You would be able to notice signs like red marks on the affected area, along with that if the bed bug bite reacted with your body, then there will be signs like continuous bleeding from the bite spot and more.
In worst cases, you would be able to notice your bitten area transforming into a swollen area, and slowly it becomes a more painful and itchy area of your body.
If you are someone with lower immunity, you would also have to face some severe issues of bed bug bites.
It has been noticed that there are three different types of bed bugs that feed on human blood. The bed bugs are C. lectularius, C. hemipterus, and L. boueti.
The first two types of bed bugs are found in Europe and the US. At the same time, L.Boueti is found in various parts of South Africa.
Secondly, you would have to worry about C. Lectularius and C. hemipterus because these are the bed bugs that specifically choose human blood. While on the other hand L. Boueti mainly survives on bats.
If you don’t want to call an exterminator to get rid of bed bugs, then here are a few tips that you should follow:
- Bug bombs can kill bed bugs from your place, but such chemicals will not get into small or hidden corners to kill the bed bugs.
- Oil-based treatment: A number of bed bugs killing products help you get rid of such insects. The best part is that oil-based treatments to kill bed bugs are mostly made up of tea tree oil, a non-toxic substance. Hence it reduces the toxicity as compared to the chemicals.
- Bug’s protective outer layer: Products like desiccants work like a protective layer on your beds and furniture. With the help of such products, you will never face any issue linked with bed bugs over the surface of furniture or beds. However, such products cannot help remove bed bugs from hidden spots.
Get a stiff brush and scrub it all over the place where you think bed bugs hide. With the help of this method, you could quickly clean all the eggs of bed bugs.
You can also use a vacuum cleaner, and with the help of a wider nozzle attachment, you can rub it all over your bed, furniture, and hidden spots. This will help you solve the bed bugs issue quickly on your own.
It is also said that with the help of heat treatment, you can quickly get rid of bed bugs because they can’t live in extreme heat temperatures. Hence you can use a hair dryer to build a small heat treatment project on your own to kill bed bugs at your place.
You can get in touch with Pest Control Companies if you want to get rid of bed bugs.
⇒ Best Pest Control Experts in Gold Coast (2023)
⇒ Top Pest Control Companies Melbourne
