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Pest control - bedbugs

The adult bed bug is an oval insect, 5mm long by about 3mm broad. If the bed bug has not recently fed it is very flat and red-brown in colour. Once it has fed it changes to a dark mahogany colour and becomes more rounded.

Distribution

The bed bug is found worldwide, and infestations still occur with surprising frequency.

Life cycle

The female bed bug attaches up to 200 pearly white eggs approximately 1mm long in small numbers of four or five a day to the structure of buildings or furniture where they are ‘glued’ into cracks and crevices in furniture and building fabric. Under suitable conditions it is possible for the bed bug to produce several generations of young a year.

The environmental temperature must remain above 10°C for the eggs to hatch and resultant nymphs resemble the adults in miniature and develop into adults over a period of six to 18 months dependant on conditions.

Bed bugs feed on mammalian blood (including other animals in domestic situations). The adults live for up to 18 months usually feeding weekly, but can survive for over a year without blood.

The bed bug emerges at night when hungry to search for prey, and bites tend to occur more often on the upper part of the body leaving specks of blood on the skin. The bed bug can consume up to seven times its body weight at one meal.

Bed bugs produce a characteristic smell from their faeces and scent glands.

Significance

Bed bugs do not fly, they must crawl or be transported in clothing, luggage, books, and furniture, in fact in anything that provides them with harbourage.

Bed bugs can unwittingly be carried into clean well-kept properties that wouldn’t normally be associated with bed bugs.

Just the movement of second-hand furniture from an infested property may transfer bed bugs from one property to another.

In domestic properties most infestations are found in the bedroom. Their hiding places will be close to where their host sleeps: in the bed frame, mattress, bedside furniture, skirting board or wallpaper, in fact anywhere that affords a dark hiding place during the daylight hours, for these nocturnal creatures.

A bed bug's habit of biting a person and feeding on their blood can cause severe irritation to some people, however bed bugs are not known to carry disease unless you regard insomnia as such!

The very thought of being preyed upon by such creatures is often sufficient to encourage immediate action to control them.

There are a number of factors that are helping to maintain the number of bed bugs: increased use of central heating and resultant warm conditions stimulate continuous activity and feeding over the winter months.

Control methods

Due to the complicated lifestyle, you will need professional help dealing with an infestation of bed bugs.

For professional treatment, you can also approach an independent pest control company, details of which can be found in telephone directories and local newspapers.

Safety

Insecticides used by the Council are applied in such a manner by qualified staff to ensure the safety of the public and the environment.

If you intend to carry out your own treatment read the label of the insecticide container before you buy it to ensure it is suitable for bedbugs.

Always follow the manufacturers instructions carefully when applying insecticide so that you do not cause harm to yourself or your furnishings.

Last updated: 25 November 2009