Practice shows that people usually call “bed mites” either bed bugs or dust mites, which also often occupy mattresses and pillows (especially down ones). Next we look at both options in detail.
Bed bugs are typical parasites that feed on human blood. Their bites lead to the formation of itchy redness on the body and even long blistering (in people prone to insect allergies). With severe infestation by room bugs, it will not be such an easy task to remove these parasites for an unprepared person.
The photos below show the bed bugs and the characteristic appearance of their bites:
But dust mites are not parasites - they do not bite humans and domestic animals, do not spoil household items and food, and could be considered quite cute creatures if it were not for one small, but very unpleasant detail. The fact is that the dust mite excrement is a very powerful allergen and can cause the so-called tick sensitization, from which it is close to painful asthma and debilitating chronic rhinitis.
In the photo - dust mite in the pillow (with a strong increase):
Next, we will look in detail at how to correctly recognize exactly who settled in bed and, most importantly, how to effectively get rid of uninvited guests, regardless of whether it’s bed bugs or house ticks ...
Who are the bed mites and where to find them
Bed mites are the common name for dust mites belonging to the family of pyroglyphs and having little in common with those forest parasites that attack a person or dogs when going to nature. They specialize in feeding particles of peeling human skin and therefore live where there is a lot of this food - in places of house dust, as well as in sleeping places. And the less often the housekeeping is done, the less the bed changes and the mattresses and carpets are shaken out, the more ticks there are.
Human dwellings inhabit several types of dust mites.The most common are the American dust mite Dermatophagoides farinae and the European dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, as well as the tick of Maine Euroglyphus maynei. Representatives of these species are difficult to distinguish from each other even under a microscope.
On a note
The word Dermatophagoides means that the tick is a dermatophagus, that is, it feeds on the skin (from the Greek derma - skin, phagos - to devour).
Dust mites are relatively small in size, making them difficult to detect. The length of an adult individual is about 0.3 mm; moreover, due to the light translucent body, it is quite difficult for an individual to see an individual with the naked eye on bed linen. Without a microscope, they can be more or less well seen only with large accumulations in the dust, where they look like whitish peculiar points.
The photo below shows an adult individual of the species Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus:
The following photograph, also taken with a microscope, shows an accumulation of dermatophagous mites in the carpet:
Dust mites feed on dry, crumbling skin of humans and pets. It is known that every adult person loses an average of about 0.5-1.5 g of skin daily with dandruff and normally flaking epidermis.This amount is quite enough to feed many thousands of dust mites within the same apartment.
It is interesting
According to studies, these arthropods also eat mold fungi, which, however, cannot be the basis of their diet. In other words, in an apartment with people, but without mold, ticks will live quite normally, but in a room with moldy walls, but without people, they will not be able to live long. That is, the mold for them - only a kind of additive that can not replace the basic diet.
Being unable to travel long distances due to their slowness and small size (and not needing such movements due to the absence of hazards), dust mites settle and accumulate in the rooms where a person spends most of the time and where the largest amount is lost im skin Including, such places are sofas and beds, pillows, mattresses, armchairs, and with a light hand, the dermatophagous mites found here are called the landlords called bed, sofa, mattress, bed, feather beds, etc. It is important to understand that in all these cases the speech It is about the same ticks - dust.
Danger of dust mites for humans
House dust mites could be completely harmless utilizers of human skin, if they did not cause allergic reactions and respiratory diseases in humans.
The digestive tract of dermatophagous mites contains special enzymes with high biological activity. Some of these enzymes are released together with feces, which are very small in size (hundredths of a millimeter) and easily get into the air - along with household dust. Over time, the particles of excrement dry out and break up into even smaller fragments that can even more quickly and easily rise into the air with dust.
Because of their high biological activity, the digestive enzymes of the “bed” ticks are strong allergens and cause allergies in many people. They can irritate the surface of the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, acting destructively on epithelial cells (just as they act on the skin particles consumed by the mites). Both allergies and irritations lead to swelling and inflammation of the mucous membrane of the entire respiratory tract, which can manifest itself with the following symptoms and final pathologies:
- Itching nose, rhinorrhea;
- "Dry" nasal congestion without rhinitis;
- Allergic rhinitis;
- Allergic conjunctivitis or rhinoconjunctivitis;
- Chronic rhinitis.
Over time, many patients with tick-borne sensitization cause allergic rhinitis to asthma. It is believed that more than half of the cases of asthma in the world develop precisely because of allergies or irritation in response to inhalation of dust with tick-borne antigens. And many people who do not understand why they have a nasal nose at night constantly and seemingly for no reason, problems are often associated with the same inconspicuous neighbors in bed.
On a note
Cases of the development of anaphylactic shock in allergy sufferers after eating foods that have accumulated dust mites have been described. Also, from the contact of dust containing mite antigens with the skin in particularly sensitive people, a characteristic allergic rash can develop with the formation of small pimples.
At the same time, it should be noted that if someone regularly bites you in bed, and the next morning you will find traces of night bites that itch and itch - these are definitely not ticks. Dust mites do not bite and leave no bite marks.
Bed bugs and their bites
Bed bugs got their name for the reason that being synanthropic parasites, it is most often found in the person’s bed (and they often arrange their nests here, or in close proximity to people’s recreation places - next to beds, sofas, armchairs) .
It is interesting
Initially, bed bugs were known only as permanent inhabitants of human habitation. Later studies have shown that these insects are also found in caves, where they parasitize bats. Perhaps it was in the caves that the bugs first “met” with primitive people and became their neighbors forever, first wandering in their possessions and then firmly settled in their homes. However, such wild populations of bed bugs are relatively small in comparison with populations living in human houses.
Bedbugs have nothing in common with dust mites (as well as other types of mites). To begin at least with the fact that all mites are representatives of the arachnid class (they have 4 pairs of legs), and bugs are insects (have 3 pairs of legs). At the same time and externally, these creatures differ significantly - even the smallest larva of the bug (more correctly - the nymph) is clearly visible to the naked eye, while even the adult individual of the dust mite is microscopically small.
This is the bedbug nymph:
Adult bed bugs have a wide rounded body, flattened from above in a hungry state, and reach a length of 1 cm or more. When saturated, they swell strongly and the belly extends. Then, as food and feces are digested, they again look like a button or a small coin.
Small larvae (nymphs) of bed bugs have a translucent body and look like light little bugs. Most of the bugs living in the room are nymphs of different ages and, accordingly, of different sizes (from 1 mm or more in length).
Bed bugs feed only on human blood (in rare cases they also bite domestic animals) - they pierce the skin and blood vessel with the proboscis, and then suck blood. After saturation, each insect hides in a secluded refuge near the site of the attack and stays there for several days until the next sortie (the larvae feed more often than adult individuals).So getting rid of bedbugs is necessary and as soon as possible - otherwise the bites themselves will not stop, since the bloodsucking is vital for these parasites.
Interestingly, over many centuries of living next to humans, bed bugs have adapted well to his rhythm of life. They attack almost exclusively at night when people are close to parasite shelters, while sleeping and do not pose a great danger to insects. In the daytime, the bugs attack less frequently, mainly after a prolonged famine.
Bites are the main danger of bed bugs. Most people are quite sensitive to them, often itchy blisters appear at the bite site, which the victims often comb, increasing the itching, sometimes causing infection and the appearance of pustules. In children with a large number of bedbug bites, the temperature may rise, and the affected areas swell.
On a note
The situation is aggravated by the fact that each bug during the feeding time usually bites several times (the exception is only the smallest nymphs). At the site of each bite, a blister remains, and after the bites of many bugs, the whole body is covered with itchy bumps.
Often, on the bites of bedbugs, the victim develops an allergy.Cases of life-threatening reactions are not described, but serious conditions may well be observed, especially in children.
For the treatment of the bites themselves are applied ointment with painkillers and anti-inflammatory components. If the allergy is extensive and is manifested by signs of urticaria, it should already be treated under the guidance of a doctor with the use of, inter alia, effective antihistamines.
Similarly to the situation with dust mites, allergies can also develop to the waste products of bedbugs - remnants of chitinous integuments remaining after molting, excrement, shell of eggs. Moreover, all these allergens are located near the place of human sleep and can easily be inhaled with air. They can also cause atopic chronic rhinitis and asthma.
On a note
It is noteworthy that, in fact, people do not infect people with bed bugs infections. They can be carriers of dangerous viruses (after blood sucking on infected people), but there have been no cases of transmission from one person to another. These bugs are different from other synanthropic bloodsucking parasites - underwear and head lice, fleas, which may well infect a person with a dangerous disease (typhoid, plague, etc.)
How is it at home to unambiguously understand exactly which parasites or pests have settled in bed? It's pretty easy to do ...
Identify the parasite
The most effective thing you can do to identify an uninvited guest in bed is to try to find it and look at it. For this it is useful to carefully consider the mattress, pillow, bedding, bed itself (sofa). Already at this stage, you can accurately identify fleas, lice and sometimes bedbugs.
Fleas are like small (2-3 mm in length) dark brown or black shiny points that, when trying to take them with their fingers, seem to disappear from the place where they were - they jump 20-30 cm. Simply put, if the parasite is clever and jumping away is a flea. When examining it under a magnifying glass, the body is clearly noticeably flattened from the sides and the characteristic elongated hind legs, with which it is pushed to jump (see the photo below):
If the insect does not jump, but just crawls on the bed, it can be either a louse or a bug. And the small larvae of bedbugs can be completely confused with lice - they have similar sizes.
Here is a photo of a head louse (the same looks like a clothes louse):
Pubic lice:
All these types of lice are rather slow (which cannot be said about bedbugs). It is important to understand that the louse that fell from the head, body or underwear could only be taken from the body of the person who is sleeping here. This person needs to be examined.
And this is what bed bugs look like:
If a bug is found, it is likely that somewhere near - maybe in the bed or near it - there is a whole nest of these parasites, since they do not lodge alone in an apartment, and spend most of their time in shelters.
Another characteristic sign of the presence of bugs in the house are such blood specks on bedding:
These blood marks are formed when a sleeping person in a dream presses down a sated bug.
Additionally, you can confirm the result of identification by the places of bites. If they concentrate on the head or in the groin, that is, on the hair-covered areas of the body, then most likely the lice leave them - they live in the hair and attach their eggs (nits) here. The bugs, on the contrary, avoid the hairy areas of the body and bite mainly the stomach, sides, neck, arms and legs.
On a note
Another characteristic difference of bedbug bites is that they are arranged in small lanes - 2-4 bites each.As noted above, adult bugs bite several times in one feeding, with each new puncture the parasite makes a few centimeters from the previous one. Accordingly, 3-4 bites of each bloodsucker will be lined up in a kind of path along which the parasite moved. If such paths are found on the body, then almost certainly there are bugs in the house.
The photo below shows how the marks from bedbug bites on the victim's body look:
Dust mites differ from the parasites listed above in that during a simple inspection they are generally impossible to find in bed. They are too small for this, and even looking at an emphasis, they can be overlooked, especially on a light bed. Clusters of mites similar to white grains can be more or less visible (such clusters are usually located inside pillows and mattresses).
What to do if there is a suspicion of dust mites in the bed?
Here will help special test systems: analyzers, in which it is enough to add dust from the bed, from the floor near the bed, from any other place of the apartment, pour water and lower the chemically sensitive paper.In this paper takes a certain color, which must be compared with the color on a special scale of the analyzer. So by color you can understand how many dust mite antigens are in a dust sample. In fact, it shows how many ticks live near the place where the dust was taken from.
If according to the test results it turned out that an increased concentration of tick antigens is found in one place or another, this is enough to start the fight against dust mites, even if we didn’t find, see and examine them, for example, using a magnifying glass or microscope.
On a note
Dust mites are ubiquitous and are found today in the vast majority of apartments and houses. Initially, they appear in a room with dust on shoes, things, bags, various objects, and if the conditions in the apartment are suitable, then they actively reproduce here. In fact, they constantly penetrate into each apartment, and it depends only on whether cleanliness is maintained in the room, whether mites will multiply in large quantities, or will be massively removed with dust during each cleaning.
Of all the parasites and pests listed above, the most difficult is to combatbed bugs - about how to get rid of them, we will continue to talk ...
Destruction of bed bugs in the house
Extermination of bedbugs in the room is a serious task that requires some preparation and careful carrying out of all the work. Attempting to carry it out half-way usually leads to the fact that it is impossible to completely remove the bugs, over time, the surviving individuals multiply again and the disinsection must be repeated, sometimes many times (some people live with bugs for years, occasionally making not very active attempts to get rid of them).
The fight against bedbugs should take place in the following sequence:
- All places in which there are nests of bedbugs (the so-called foci of infection) are detected and opened;
- Be sure it turns out where the bugs come from in the room. If they live with neighbors, you need to find the passages through which parasites have entered the apartment from their neighbors, and block them;
- Measures are being taken to destroy the parasites in the room;
- After 10-14 days, even if there are no more bedbugs in the apartment and no one bites any more at night, the treatment is repeated (this is how the larvae that are removed from the eggs that survived the first treatment are destroyed).If, after the first treatment, the number of bedbugs has not decreased, then another means must be used for repeated disinfection (often in populations of bed bugs, resistance to certain types of insecticides is observed).
You can destroy bedbugs by chemical and thermal methods. The first involves the use of powerful insecticides, the second - the freezing of the room or the treatment of places of accumulation of bedbugs with steam from the steam generator (less often with the help of special heat guns heat the entire room to 65 degrees).
Practice shows that the use of insecticides gives a more reliable and fast result. However, as a supplement, the treatment of mattresses with hot steam is also quite appropriate.
From chemical agents for the destruction of parasites are used as aerosols, already sold in cylinders and ready to spray (Combat, Raptor, Raid, Clean House, etc.), and concentrated preparations, which before preparation must be diluted with water and sprayed in the form of hand spray. spray guns (Executioner, Delta-Zone, Geth, Lambda Zone, Karbofos, Xsulat Micro and others).
On a note
Folk remedies - herbs, alcohol, turpentine, vinegar - in practice do not effectively destroy any bed bugs or dust mites. For a few days with the help of such means you can reduce the activity of arthropods, but completely remove them from the apartment will not work.
Partly precisely because of the complexity of the process, it is not always and not everyone who succeeds in destroying the bed bugs themselves. Even if the purchased product turns out to be quite effective and really destroys insects, some parasites often survive indoors due to the fact that the owners are too lazy to move and disassemble the furniture (sometimes the bugs hide under the skin and even need to remove it), look for nests behind the baseboards and under the wallpaper, in the bed body. As a result, these places are not treated with insecticide, and live bugs remain here.
On a note
In some cases, for the effective destruction of bed bugs, it makes sense to completely remove the parquet and change the wallpaper, that is, to actually make a major overhaul in the apartment. And judging by the reviews, it can be easier for people to move out of an apartment than to get rid of parasites (especially if they are infected with the whole apartment building).
More often failures are due to the fact that before processing no measures are taken to isolate the apartment from the neighboring premises. If the bugs come from their neighbors, then even the complete destruction of the parasites in the apartment will give only temporary results: in a week or two, new bloodsuckers will penetrate here and begin to bite people again.
If you initially have a feeling that it will be problematic to cope with bedbugs on your own, then it makes sense to call a pest control service. The services of such services, although they cost more than they have to spend on the preparation, but provide a high probability of the complete elimination of insects.
Tick control rules
The fight against dust mites is generally simpler than with bed bugs. These creatures are less mobile and more sensitive to the sanitary condition of the room. In most cases, relatively simple, but systematically carried out measures are enough to destroy them.
In particular, it is necessary:
- To carry out a thorough wet cleaning throughout the apartment;
- Change bed linen;
- To dry-clean pillows and blankets and (or) to wash them at a temperature of 60-70 ° С for at least 30 minutes (including tick eggs at this temperature);
- Mattresses "fry" in the sun or process hot steam;
- Remove dust from all crevices, from furniture, carpets and carpet paths.
There are also special vacuum cleaners to get rid of dust mites:
However, it is quite efficient to remove dust from those places where the mites have settled, and it is possible with a conventional vacuum cleaner in combination with a damp cloth.
Also mites die from the same insecticidal agents that poison bugs and cockroaches. The use of such drugs will give a well-pronounced rapid effect, but with due care and only mechanical and thermal methods can be quite enough.
If in the future to keep the room in good sanitary condition, the “bed” mites will not multiply here and will no longer be dangerous.
Effective preventive measures
Reliable prevention from the emergence and reproduction in the bed of dust mites is to maintain cleanliness in the apartment as a whole (first of all, the fight against dust is important).
The World Health Organization recommends applying the following measures to protect the premises from ticks:
- Conduct a thorough wet cleaning at least 1 time per week. As part of the cleaning dust should be removed, including, from the furniture;
- At least once a week to change and wash bed linen;
- Once every 2-3 months it is necessary to wash those mattresses that are not covered with full bed linen and dust may get onto the surface;
- Use bed linen from fabrics with such characteristics: the pore size is not more than 10 microns, the ability to trap allergens - 99%, the ability to pass dust - no more than 4%.
The only reliable prevention of bedbugs from infecting a room is its high-quality isolation from neighboring apartments and strict verification of all major items brought in here - especially furniture, as well as bags, suitcases and clothes after resting at resorts and business trips with hotel accommodation. Various folk remedies like wormwood or tansy do not represent a serious obstacle to the movement of bedbugs. Insects, though afraid of their smell, but with acute hunger will bypass them in search of victims.
If you have personal experience in dealing with bed bugs or dust mites, be sure to leave a review at the bottom of this page (in the comments box). On what grounds did you manage to discover the source of the problem, what actions were taken and whether they gave a result — those who are in the same situation will be interested in any details.
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