Sunday, May 2, 2010

Bed Bug Infestation And Signs

By Aidyn Huffman

In order to begin a bed bug treatment, you need to know what bed bugs look like, what they do, what their symptoms are, and how to find them. This can be tricky because bed bugs are extremely small. They are nocturnal and feed from human blood. There are a variety of different kinds and they often reside in mattresses then come out to feed right before dawn. They only feed about five minutes then go back into hiding. They can live anywhere between six months and a year without food and usually only eat once per week, making it even more difficult to spot them.

Bed bugs nearly always live in your mattress seams, box springs, and sometimes even your sheets and blankets, but they can live other places too. Bed bugs can make a home wherever you sleep: furniture, carpet, books, phones, storage boxes--anything within crawling distance of where you sleep. Bed bug bites are not dangerous, but they are very annoying and can cause rashes and skin irritations if there are enough of them.

There are many different ways you can get bed bugs. Living in an apartment is probably the easiest way; they can be left from the people who lived in the apartment before you or they can even crawl in the space between walls from your neighbors apartment. If the latter is the case, it can make it very difficult for you to get rid of them permanently.

If you travel and stay in hotels a lot you are at risk for catching bed bugs this way, especially if you travel internationally. Bed bugs can be transported into your home if they crawl in your luggage or onto your clothing. If you buy used clothes or furniture you can bring them into your house this way as well.

Once people know their house is infested with bed bugs all they want is to get rid of them. Bed bug bites are probably the easiest way to tell that you have bed bugs, and even that is difficult because the bites are so small and often resemble a rash or patch of red skin. There is nothing distinctive about them, and not all people react to them in the same way. You often will not even notice the bite for minutes or even days after you have been bitten.

You can also find bed bugs by laying in bed and turning on a flashlight right before dawn and watching your sheets and blankets for any movement. This can be tricky as bed bugs will not all come out to feed at once and they may not come out every night.

To stop the itching, you will have to get rid of the bed bugs and apply anti-itch cream to your bites in the meantime. To keep yourself from being bitten you can try using double-sided tape around your bed and the sides of your mattress or using Sterifab, which is a spray product that kills the bed bugs. These are only temporary treatment, and to get rid of bed bugs completely you will have to call in an exterminator.

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