BED BUGS INFO
Bed bugs are experts at hiding, their flat bodies allow them to fit into the smallest of spaces and stay there for long periods of time, even without a blood meal.
Bed bugs are usually transported from place to place as people travel. The bed bugs travel in the seams and folds of luggage, bags, clothes, bedding, furniture, basically any where or on anything that is left in an infected area.
Most people do not realize they are transporting stow-away bed bugs as they travel from location to location, infecting areas as they travel.
Are known to transport through public areas such as:
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Motel, Hotels, Curiseships & Resorts
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Educational & Health Care Facilities
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Boarding or Dorm Housing
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Public Transportation (buses, trains, planes)
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Used clothing or furniture (beds, frames, couches)
Characteristics
Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) range from 1mm to 7mm in size are flat parasitic insects.
Bed bugs are wingless typically reddish-brown in color in mature life cycle but as a nymph can almost look transparent.
Bed Bugs feed solely on the blood of people and animals while they sleep and can live for months on a single blood meal.
Bed bugs are not known to spread disease. Bed bugs can be an annoyance because their presence may cause itching and loss of sleep. Sometimes the itching can lead to excessive scratching that can sometimes increase the chance of a secondary skin infection.
Bed bug bites can range from minimal physical signs, to pimple sized bites, to possible allergic reaction or rash.
Bed bugs are not considered to be dangerous; however, an allergic reaction to several bites may require medical attention.
Life Cycle & Reproduction
Bed bugs have five immature nymph life stages and a final sexually mature adult stage. They shed their skins discarding their outer exoskeleton at each life stage.
Bed Bugs consume at least one blood meal to complete each moult. Bed bugs must molt six times before becoming fertile adults.
Each of the immature stages lasts approximately a week depending on food availability, and environment.
Fertilized females bed bugs lay up to four eggs each day continuously until the end of their life. A single fertilized female can possibly generate as many as 500 eggs in their life span lasting approxmiately nine months.
A single bed bug survivor of eradication, can be responsible for an entire home infestation in a matter of weeks, rapidly producing generations of offspring.
Signs, Symptoms & Habitat
Methods used to identify a bed bug infestation is by noticeable by bite marks or rashes on the face, neck, arms, hands, or any other body parts. Bed Bug bite marks Bite marks can appear in lines, small clusters or single marks. Marks can take days to develop and may go unnoticed.
Signs found in sleeping areas include:
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Active bed bugs present
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Bed Bug Exoskeletons from molting
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Pin sized dark spots from their blood-filled fecal material
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Bed Bug Larvae (eggs)
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Blood marks on bedding sheets
Bed bugs are found globally in North/South America, Africa, Asia and Europe. Traditionally only seen as a problem in developing countries.
Bed bug infestations usually occur around or near the areas where people sleep and their presence is not determined by the cleanliness of the living conditions where they are found.
Bed Bugs are known to hide during the day but can be active during the day. Typically found hiding in places such as seams of mattresses, box springs, bed frames, headboards, dresser tables, inside electrical outlets / cracks / crevices, clutter or objects surround sleeping areas.
Bed bugs are capable to travel over 100 feet in a night but tend to live within 8 feet of where people sleep they are not fast travelers.