Bed bugs and self-control means

Bed bugs (from Latin Cimex lectularius) are external parasites (ectoparasites) that feed exclusively on blood, so a person begins to feel their appearance in the house immediately. On the body there are numerous traces of bites that itch, itch, and sleep becomes restless, and if time does not take measures to destroy domestic bedbugs, the situation will only get worse every day.

Many people unsuccessfully struggle with bedbugs for several months (and sometimes for several years), without taking into account the important nuances concerning the biology of bed bugs and the way they are distributed between apartments. Next, we will examine in detail the interesting details of the life of these parasites, consider the mistakes made in practice in the fight against them, and also consider the most effective approaches to completely cleanse your home of bloodsuckers.

 

Than bed bugs are dangerous to humans

If to abstract from unpleasant sensations from bedbug bites, then we can talk about the epidemiological harmlessness of these insects in general: today there has not been a single case where a bedbug infected a person with a bacterial or viral infection.

Despite the fact that bed bugs - especially in natural populations - are carriers of pathogens of many diseases, not one of these viruses and microorganisms is transmitted by a bite.

The photo below shows an adult bed bug at the time of bloodsucking:

And so the larva looks like:

For more information about bedbug larvae and their favorite places of shelter in an apartment, see. separate article.

It is interesting:

In the course of special studies, scientists found several dozens of pathogens of various diseases dangerous to humans in the bodies of individual bed bugs. Including typhoid, brucellosis, anthrax, leishmaniasis, plague, tularemia, fever Q and others.

However, to the surprise of the scientists themselves, these pathogens were found only in the excrement of bedbugs and in their internal organs. And none of them was transmitted with a bite.Evolutionarily, this is very beneficial for parasites: the less at risk the host is, the more chances of bedbugs retain the main source of food.

To date, not a single case of transmission of AIDS or hepatitis has been reported.

Nevertheless, the bite of a bed bug can be fraught with certain troubles, among which the most notable are:

• Allergic reactions to the bite. According to statistics, bug bite allergy in certain manifestations observed in 80% of people. Such manifestations can be the appearance of papules, extensive redness, itching and pain, extremely rarely - even anaphylactic shock;
• Inflammation, damage to the skin, pustules that occur when combing bite sites. Through such microscratches, pathogenic organisms more easily penetrate into the human body;
• Iron deficiency anemia in children. This is a very rare consequence of bedbug bites. Occurs with a very large number of simultaneously biting parasites, when the amount of blood they suck is significant, and the action of their saliva leads to some changes in the composition of the blood;
• It is also worth noting the general fatigue, as well as increased irritability due to poor sleep.

On a note

According to statistics, 70% of victims of bed bugs do not feel their bites. It is because of this that parasites actively seize cities: in many apartments, people do not even suspect that insects suck blood at night.

Themselves bedbug bites look quite characteristic: they are arranged in a line of four to five red dots. Of all the blood-sucking insects, domestic bugs are the only ones that suck blood sequentially from several wounds to saturate.

But not only on this basis, bugs can be calculated: their appearance is also quite specific.

 

What do homebugs, their larvae and eggs look like?

The bed bug has a flat, wide body. Being hungry, he becomes almost round when viewed from above. At the same time, due to the absence of wings on his body, the waist is always clearly visible at the joints of the segments of the abdomen. Each individual has two eyes on its head.

Adult bed bugs have a uniform brown color. If a particular insect is hungry, it can be light, almost red. After saturation with blood, the bed bug darkens, sometimes almost to black color.

It is also useful to read the article: What bugs eat and how much they are able to live without human blood.

The photo below shows a hungry bedbug (left) and full (right):

In addition, the body of a full bed bug becomes larger, lengthens and increases in thickness due to the filling of the stomach with blood. Such a bug becomes like a wingless cockroach larva. The body size of a bed bug varies from 4 to 8 mm, and there is practically no difference in size between males and females.

Here are some more photos of blood drunk bugs:

The flat shape of the body of the home bug protects it well from being crushed by a person turning over on the bed. However, after drinking of blood, the bug becomes more vulnerable, it is easy to crush. It was the crushed well-fed bugs that left on the bed ugly brown spots, which are often the first sign that the parasites were bred in the room.

On a note

Regardless of age, a bedbug can consume a mass of blood that is twice the weight of its body during one feeding. It is not surprising that the larvae of bedbugs grow at an incredible rate, and adult females can lay rather large eggs almost every day.

Bed bugs larvae resemble adult insects, but have smaller sizes and lighter coloring. The small larvae of the earliest ages, being hungry, are generally transparent, and after they are saturated, they can easily see a drop of blood in the stomach:

Bedbug eggs look like greatly reduced rice seeds. They have the same white color, elongated shape and a length of not more than a millimeter:

Household bugs are easy to distinguish from other domestic insects by body structure:

• Unlike cockroaches. Cockroaches on the back of the abdomen have two characteristic processes, similar to short antennae. Bedbugs do not have such outgrowths. In addition, adult cockroaches are larger than bugs, have wings and a more elongated abdomen;
• Difference from ticks. Externally, bugs are more or less similar to ticks. Here for recognition it is enough to count the legs of the parasite. Bedbugs, like all insects, have 6, and ticks, as representatives of the arachnid order, have 8 legs;
• Difference from ants. The shape of the body of the ants is known to all - these insects are slim and have a constriction in the "waist". In domestic bugs, even the larvae are broad, and have no such waist.

Enlarged photo of the bug:

With fleas and lice bugs is almost impossible to confuse because of their size: if the first is very difficult to see with the naked eye, bed bugs are clearly visible insects.

 

Where do bedbugs come from in the apartment

The appearance of bedbugs in the apartment - always a surprise for people, especially if the apartment is clean, well-groomed, and there have never been other insects in it (for example, cockroaches). Sometimes the tenants of apartment buildings even get the impression that parasites appeared in many apartments due to the fact that the bugs were deliberately thrown into the staircase, so that the residents would pay for the disinsection services.

In fact, in most cases, bedbugs start up indoors for other reasons. Very often, they are accidentally brought here with furniture, appliances or things. In addition, the parasites themselves can climb into the room from neighboring apartments, from entrances, outbuildings, sometimes even from attics and basements. The main sources of parasites are other residential contaminated premises in which people either are not aware of the presence of bedbugs (and those at that time are actively multiply), or know about insects, but do not remove them.

Bedbugs quickly and easily move between apartments in apartment buildings. The nymphs of recent ages and adults run slower than cockroaches, but they still move fast enough to be able to overcome 30–40 meters along ventilation ducts, walls and cracks in a few night hours. And due to the flattened body, the larvae can make their way where, it seems, even a needle can be stuck problematically. It is not surprising that they easily pass through the gaps between the walls, between the mosquito net and the window frame, in the gaps between the entrance door and the box.

Below are photos showing how small the larvae of bedbugs are:

Simply put, if one apartment in the house is infected with bedbugs, then the parasites are likely to penetrate into the next room. Only a high-quality repair and complete sealing of all the cracks can protect the apartment from the penetration of these insects from the outside. If the repair is made so-so, then wait for the "guests".

On a note

In summer, bed bugs can move from apartment to apartment along the outer walls of the house. Moreover, they can migrate even between detached private houses, if the distance between them is small.

Another very common option is the parasite drift with things and furniture. Most often this happens when returning from business trips, when there were long things in a contaminated hotel, a bag, a suitcase — several individuals could climb into them, then they safely moved into the apartment, settled here and began to multiply.

The picture below shows the bugs in clothes:

With furniture, bugs in the house is even easier. It is enough to buy a used sofa or chair without examining them before a skid into the house - in fact, in such a situation, the people themselves bring the nest of parasites home and start feeding them on the very first night.

The above reasons for the appearance of bedbugs in the room may seem too simple - so simple that not always people are ready to believe it. Many people do not believe so much that bedbugs could be so easy to get in their clean and well-kept housing that they tend to blame neighbors for everything. In some cases, when people begin to suspect the presence of bedbugs in the house and look for them, they immediately find nests, accumulations of excrement and eggs. It seems that the parasites appeared here immediately in large quantities (they say,This is the invasion of bedbugs from the neighbors) - they never existed, and then suddenly they began to bite.

In reality, such a massive infection is in most cases nothing more than an illusion. Even when the bugs in the room becomes quite a lot, the bites of them for a long time do not pay attention to themselves. Some people almost do not feel them due to the individual characteristics of the skin, someone first sins on mosquitoes, allergies or dermatitis, and the bugs themselves behave “neatly” - they don't bite often (each individual eats every 3-4 day), carefully hiding, and from the shelters are rarely selected and only at night.

That is, before the mass reproduction of parasites, people often do not even know about their proximity to them. And when this neighborhood becomes apparent, so many invisible household bugs accumulate that it seems as if they had occupied an apartment at once and a whole horde.

On a note

Because of this, by the way, in practice, it is usually difficult to understand where the bugs come from in a particular room. As a rule, a lot of time passes from the initial infection of an apartment to the discovery of bloodsuckers by tenants (2-3 weeks, sometimes even months), and it’s already problematic to determine the exact date of infection.

Be that as it may, the absolutely untenable theory that bedbugs infect only dirty and dysfunctional apartments, appearing here as a companion to unsanitary conditions. In fact, they can appear in any apartment - and in the elite new building, and in the hut. Unlike cockroaches, bedbugs do not care about the presence of food waste, but what is important is the availability of sources of blood - that is, the residents themselves.

The sooner bloodsuckers are detected, the easier it will be with them. fight.

The main sign of the presence of bedbugs in the house is bite marks that regularly appear in people who sleep in the room. Externally, the bites are similar to mosquitoes, but sometimes they can be larger in size (they look like hard itchy bumps). Their main distinguishing feature is building in lines of 3-4 pieces. This is due to the fact that each adult bug bites during feeding several times, moving about 2-3 centimeters through the body after each bite, resulting in a “path”.

Examples of “tracks” from bedbug bites are shown in the photos below:

Also, bites are found mainly in the morning (bugs bite more actively towards the end of the night).

Blood specks, which can be found in the morning on the bed, also help to find out about the presence of domestic bugs. They remain when a person, turning over in a dream, presses down a fed bug. Here you can sometimes find the bugs themselves, but this happens very rarely.

This is how the spots after bedbugs feast look on bedclothes:

Other signs of the presence of bedbugs less unambiguous. For example, it is known that domestic bugs have a characteristic smell - in the room that is heavily contaminated by them they smell like brandy. However, at the initial stage, when there are a few parasites, this scent may not be guessed. The excreta and remnants of the chitinous cover of insects also often do not pay attention to themselves, being habitual components of household dust.

If red spots, like bites, appear on the body regularly (especially in winter, when there are definitely no mosquitoes) - do not blame it on allergies, it immediately makes sense to look for bedbugs. To do this:

1. Carefully inspect the sleeping places in the room - mattresses on the beds, wooden frames, internal cavities of sofas, seams and joints of upholstered furniture (black dots here will indicate the presence of parasites);
2. Inspect the baseboards. Those baseboards, which are located near the beds, you can even remove and inspect their inner sides adjacent to the wall and floor;
3. Raise the carpets on the floor and the edges of linoleum (bugs also often live under them).

Here you need to look for the bugs themselves, their nymphs (reduced copies of adult insects), eggs, the remains of skins, excrement in the form of black dots. When parasites are detected, they should be started as soon as possible to prevent them from multiplying in even greater numbers.

On a note

Bedbugs masterfully hide in places where it is difficult to even suspect their shelter. They can climb into the cracks between the bed frame boards, they can hide under the parquet floor, under the stretch ceiling, in the system blocks of computers, in sockets, in children's toys, in flower pots. Therefore, the detection of even a single parasite is usually evidence that there are many in the house.

The following technique is also useful for detecting bedbugs: you need to get up before the wee hours of the day - at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning - turn on the lights and look at the bed. Insects are especially visible on white bedding, and often here you can see several individuals of different ages.

In any case, it is important to remember that in the daytime the bugs in the apartment are extremely rare. And if no one saw them in a dwelling, this does not mean that they are not here - the parasites lead a secretive lifestyle and rarely catch the eye of their victims.

 

Lifestyles of parasites, their reproduction and food in the apartment

Bed bugs are especially nocturnal insects. To force them to move during the day can only the destruction of the place of their accumulation (nest) or the action of a strong drug.

The most active bugs are in the early morning hours, from 3 to 6 am. It is at this time accounts for the largest number of their bites. Due to its mobility and rather high speed of running, the bugs can get to the bed from every corner of the apartment in a matter of minutes, spend 20-25 minutes on self-feeding and quickly get into the shelter.

In those places where the bugs wait for the day, the females lay eggs:

On a note

Bed bugs do not have a uterus - all adult females are alike and are able to lay eggs.

Over time, large clusters of parasites form in the most convenient places for insects, which are also called nests, although there is no structure or system in such settlements.The photo below shows how bed bugs nests can look like:

On a note

Bed bugs eat once in 5-10 days. In the days when a well-fed insect digests food, it is in the shelter and does not catch the eye. That is why in places of clusters you can find significantly more individuals than on a bed or even in a room at night.

The bedbug is very prolific. Each female lays more than 300 eggs in her life, about 4-5 each day.

Bedbug larvae hatch from eggs for 5-6 days and in 4-5 weeks turn into adult parasites.

During this time, they shed several times, and the chitinous shells remaining after the molt can serve as a good sign of the presence of bed bugs in the house.

 

Why it seems that bedbugs do not bite all the people in the apartment

Interestingly, in many apartments people may have the impression of a high selectivity of bedbugs when choosing a victim. The reason for this is simple: one family member has multiple bite marks and severe itching in the morning, and another has no blister on the body. It seems that bugs only bit one person, and did not touch the other.

Because of this, theories are multiplying that home bugs do not bite all people. It is widely believed that these parasites only bite people with a specific blood group (or Rh factor), preferring women and children (supposedly their skin is thinner and bloodsuckers smell blood better). Accordingly, the idea is widespread that some lucky ones can safely sleep in the contaminated housing, and no one will bite them.

In fact, this is a fallacy. Differences in the apparent degree of bites are due to the fact that people have very different sensitivity to bedbug bites. As noted above, according to statistics, only about 30% of people have bedbug bites accompanied by strong manifestations on the skin. The rest of the blisters and itching on the ground bites pass literally within 2-3 hours, even before the person wakes up. In the morning, such a person may not have well visible marks on his body, and it may seem that no one has bitten him at night.

Such sensitivity depends on several factors, the main of which is the individual characteristics of the body's reaction to the components of the bug saliva. In general, among adult men there are more such “insensitive” people.Conversely, in women and children, on average, the skin is more tender and more often responds to the bites of domestic bugs with severe irritation.

On a note

However, it happens that both women and even children do not notice that bugs bite in their homes at night. Because of this, by the way, klopovnik flats can arise: people live in them, do not notice parasites, and bugs here breed and start spreading around the neighboring rooms.

But there are more nuances. It is known that when searching for a victim, the bugs focus primarily on the release of carbon dioxide exhaled by man. An adult man in this regard will be much more noticeable to them and will attract more parasites to himself - a large man exhales more carbon dioxide than a fragile woman and child.

On a note

The opinion that bed bugs do not bite people who have an increased alcohol concentration in their blood is not confirmed in practice. Parasites equally actively bite and sober people, and those who are in a state of severe intoxication.

Also, some of the apparent selectivity of bedbugs may be due to quite prosaic reasons. For example, parasites can occupy one sofa indoors (see the article: How to get rid of bedbugs in the couch), it is safe to multiply in it and bite a person who sleeps here - they just get closer to him. Other tenants either will not suffer at all, or they may have much less bites.

 

Methods of struggle

Since the bedbug accompanied man throughout the entire history of the development of civilization, many methods of struggle were developed against these parasites, from useless conspiracies to powerful chemical insecticides.

Bed bugs have several features of biology that determine the specifics of dealing with them:

• Bedbugs are temperature sensitive air in the room. Normally, they feel in the temperature range from +10 to + 30 ° C. At a temperature of more than 60 ° C, the bugs and their eggs die instantly, and at a temperature below + 5 ° C, insects fall into a state resembling anabiosis.

On a note

When the temperature in the room decreases to 10-15 ° С, the period of development of bed bug bugs to adult individuals stretches to three months. But at the same time, the total life span of each individual also increases. But the eggs of bedbugs at this temperature practically cease to develop.

• Bed bugs quickly develop resistance to various chemical insecticides. That is why the manufacturers of chemical agents for the control of bedbugs are forced to constantly improve their products: bugs populations regularly appear resistant to the next preparation.

On a note

Fortunately, there are also drugs to which resistance does not develop in bedbugs. An example of such a drug is "GEKTOR against bed bugs", And he generally does not contain in its composition the traditionally used pesticides.

The basis of the product is a thin powder of hydrophilic silicon dioxide, effectively destroying insects due to their dehydration. It is also important that the remedy for bedbugs Hector is not toxic - it is safe for humans and animals, does not cause allergies and is convenient for home use even by untrained people.

• Bed bugs quickly migrate and spread between rooms. Therefore, the disposal of one apartment in an infected house does not guarantee that in a month or two the parasites will not get into it from their neighbors.

Considering these features of domestic bugs, today the following methods of dealing with them are most often used:

• Extermination of bedbugs by chemical insecticides. This method is considered the most effective when using modern proven drugs. Most of these drugs are relatively harmless to humans and domestic animals, and their correct use in some cases allows you to get rid of bed bugs literally in one day;
• The fight against bedbugs by temperature methods is very effective, but technically quite complex. For reliable disposal of the room from bedbugs, powerful industrial hair dryers or heat generators (heat guns) are used, or the room is frozen out at low air temperature outside;
• Physical methods of struggle, consisting in the use of a vacuum cleaner or sneaker. With severe contamination of the premises do not give a special effect.

Today, the possibilities of biological control of bed bugs are also being studied. Superparasites are known that lay their eggs in the bodies of bedbug larvae. In the future, the larvae of such an insect or destroy the bug nymph, or an adult insect.

Moreover, a mold fungus has recently been discovered, affecting the settlements of bedbugs and leading to their death.However, the practical application of such biological methods of control is only being developed.

The fight against bed bugs can be done independently, and you can call for this special sanitary services.

Independent struggle will be cheaper, but it will require serious work and, possibly, more time.

Challenge the same Pest Control Services it is most justified when a large number of neighboring apartments in the house are infected with bugs, and the treatment must be carried out quickly and simultaneously in all rooms.

In any case, we must remember that success in the destruction of bedbugs and the duration of this process depend on several factors, the main of which are:

1. The effectiveness of the chosen agent against this particular population of parasites (a drug that is effective in one house may be useless in another);
2. The quality of the processing room (if many places remain untreated, the parasites will survive);
3. The condition of the room and the degree of infection of neighboring apartments (You can ideally treat an apartment with an effective tool, but the bugs will again get into it from their neighbors, if there are through gaps and holes in the walls, floor or ceiling).

 

The most effective means of independently getting rid of bedbugs

The practice of professional pests and those who hunted bedbugs on their own shows that in the ordinary case, even the most common insecticidal products that can be bought in the nearest market or in a supermarket can be effective.

To make sure of this is simple: you can buy the most inexpensive remedy, catch the bug at home, put it in a jar and splash it with the preparation. If the parasite dies, then it does not have resistance to the agent. It most likely also means that the entire population inhabiting the house is sensitive to this remedy and, if used correctly, will die from it.

On a note

Situations when part of the bugs in the house is sensitive to the tool, and the other part is stable, are extremely rare.

So, in most cases, such available drugs are quite effective:

1. Garden Malathion, Fufanon, Doublet, Medilis-Malathion - all this means on the basis of malathion;
2. Raid Aerosol Products;
3. Dichlorphosis different brands;
4. Aerosols Raptor.

Other. However, because of their availability of bugs, they are poisoned most often, and sometimes they do it wrong.As a result, individual individuals form resistance to these agents, which is transmitted to the offspring and consolidated - a population appears that is resistant to a particular active substance.

But where bugs did not come across such drugs, they remain sensitive to them and can be successfully bred.

There are also insecticides, which are not currently resistant to domestic bugs. At least, it is not known cases when these substances would not destroy the parasites. These substances include:

1. Lambda-cyhalothrin - part of the drugs Lambda-Zone, Get Express, Paragraph;
2. Fenthion - is the active substance of the funds Executioner, Dobrokhim FOS, Medilis Super.

To date, these tools are effective against any populations of bedbugs.

Many drugs for the fight against bedbugs are available in the form of concentrates for dilution and subsequent spraying (economical option), or in the form of aerosol cans ready for use. All these tools allow you to independently carry out processing and remove bedbugs in just a day.

However, there are other forms on the market:

1. Insecticidal smoke bombs (Samuro, Silent Evening, City, etc.), during the combustion of which the insecticide is emitted with smoke and penetrates even into the most difficult cavities and cracks. They are good because they allow to destroy bedbugs even in the most inaccessible places;
2. Dry powders (Clean house, Phenaxine, Pyrethrum), scattered in the room and realizing their action, when the insect runs through the layer of the drug and the particles of the agent stick to the legs and body of the parasite. Good relative ease of use, but the fight against bedbugs when using only powdered funds can stretch for several weeks. This also includes silica-based powders - Hector and Ecokiller;
3. Insecticidal crayons (Mashenka, Tornado, Chinese pencils), the principle of action of which is quite similar to that of dry powders. They are effective against bedbugs, but they act slowly;
4. Adhesive tapes are safe for people and animals. Easy to use, but with only one sticky traps bedbugs will have to display long enough. Well suited for bedding around the perimeter. You can also put sticky traps under the legs of the sofa or bed.

In most cases, it is possible to get rid of bugs as quickly as possible by spraying diluted concentrates or ready-to-use products from aerosol cans. Other types of tools are useful for improving the reliability of processing and as part of preventive measures.

The following are one of the most effective means of bed bugs, and of different types - by combining them, you can independently erase the parasites from the room in a fairly short time:

1. Lambda-Zone (South Korea) and Get Express (Yekaterinburg, Russia) - preparations based on lambda-cyhalothrin. Highly effective against almost any insects, low toxicity to humans and domestic animals, do not have a strong odor;
2. Executioner with fenthion as an active ingredient. Adapted for domestic use, even destroys those populations of parasites that are resistant to pyrethroids;
3. Hector Powder (via the link at the bottom of the article you will also find a video where we tested Hector on bedbugs) - a preparation based on fine silica. Grass bugs slowly but effectively - they die after running on the powder. Maximum safe for people and pets;
4. Get total - the flagship product of the brand Get, quite effective from bedbugs and safe for warm-blooded animals (the solution formed when the concentrate is diluted contains microencapsulated chlorpyrifos - a highly effective organophosphate insecticide);
5. Dobrokhim Micro - also on the basis of chlorpyrifos;
6. Raid against crawling and flying insects with the smell of lavender is a very fast-acting aerosol preparation (here You can find a video where we tested this tool on cockroaches);
7. Ksulat Micro, notable for the fact that it contains three active ingredients at once - cypermethrin, tetramethrin and piperonyl butoxide. Due to this, the probability of insect resistance to it is minimal;
8. Tetrix - Dutch drug, the active substances in which are metaphos and cypermethrin. It smells strong and quite toxic to humans and domestic animals;
9. Avalon on the basis of temfos is a professional tool used in apartments by disinsectors. It is highly efficient, smells bad and is sold only in large packages, which is why it is not very suitable for home use;
10. And, finally, the usual sticky tape from flies - with proper use with its help you can catch all the bugs in the room, including the smallest larvae.

There are also many positive reviews about the successful use of steam generators and steam cleaners for bed bug control. Especially hot steam treatment helps in the destruction of parasites in the folds of mattresses.

On a note

Various folk remedies for the fight against bedbugs and scaring them mostly ineffective. You can pour the baseboards with kerosene, denatured alcohol, vinegar for a long time, try to scare off parasites with wormwood or tansy, but this very rarely gives the desired result.

Also, no effect is given. electronic bug bugs (ultrasound and magnetic resonance), actively advertised today on the Internet.

And another important point: not a single tool, even the most powerful, without additional preventive measures, guarantees that home bugs will be destroyed forever and will not appear again. If one day the parasites hit the shelter, with some degree of probability they will be able to penetrate here again - in a week, a month, a year.

Therefore, let's consider the basic principles of preventing the re-emergence of bedbugs in the room ...

 

Preventing the reappearance of parasites in the apartment

Preventive protection of the room from bugs is to eliminate any possibility for these parasites to penetrate here.

For this you need to take obvious, but not always easy measures:

1. Eliminate any slots, holes and other direct passages to the apartment from the neighboring rooms. They can be sealed with foam, putty, sealed with silicone sealant - it is important to eliminate all routes of communication with other apartments. It is useless to lay out in such "entrance gates" for parasites. sagebrush, pour dust here or pour kerosene - sooner or later, even individuals will break through such obstacles. If there are no holes at all, then the parasites will have no chance to get through them. Holes and slots can be behind the wallpaper, behind baseboards, under stretch ceilings, in boxes covering sewer and water pipes, in the ventilation ducts;
2. Strengthen the protection of ventilation grilles. Sometimes they need to be replaced with new ones, with a very fine mesh;
3. Glue rubber seals on the entrance doors, get rid of the cracks in the window frames;
4. When buying used furniture, you need to carefully examine it, if possible disassemble, to make sure that there are no bed bugs inside;
5. After resting or staying in hotels or hotels, you must carefully inspect things, bags and shoes;
6. After visiting the apartments and houses, which allegedly can be bedbugs, wash clothes and shoes;
7. Do not bring items, bags, suitcases, clothes from the rooms infected with bedbugs. In extreme cases, all this is carefully processed and washed before export.

See a separate detailed article on this topic: Preventing bed bugs in the apartment.

These measures may seem redundant. However, it is they who will save from the next long neighborhood with bloodsuckers, even if the entire apartment building is infected with them. Most victims of parasites do not even suspect that bugs can crawl to them on the outer wall of the house (in the warm season) and sneak into the gap between the mosquito net and frame, can squeeze through the socket or into the narrow gap between the wall of the riser pipe and the concrete slab. Or just “come” in a bag from the hotel where the head of the family spent the night on a business trip.

On a note

It is useless to try to protect the apartment, laying out in it odorous herbs or splashing essential oils. It is believed that bugs are afraid of themhowever, if the parasites are hungry, smells will not stop them, even if they do not like this or that scent.

Also it is worth saying a few words about the eggs of bedbugs. They are the reason why even after effective disinsection it is often necessary to do fixing treatment. The fact is that today there are no insecticidal preparations on the market that would reliably destroy the eggs of bedbugs - the shell of such eggs is an effective protection of the embryo against an insecticide.

As a result, after processing the eggs, young larvae hatch from eggs, and within a few hours after their birth, they begin to look for a source of food - a human being. If there are few larvae, and after processing the tool has survived on a large number of surfaces, then all such “young growth” is etched in the first hours of life and no longer bothers anyone. If the infection was strong, there were a lot of eggs and larvae, and the surfaces in the apartment were processed poorly, then some of the larvae survive, molt into the nymphs and begin to actively grow and bite people.

That is why, as a preventive measure, it is recommended to re-process 2-3 weeks after the first disinsection. The incubation period for the development of bedbug eggs in normal conditions is 5-15 days (depending on the room temperature). Consequently, during the first two weeks after processing, all the eggs that were laid before the baiting, the larvae hatch, but they still do not have time to turn into adult insects (the average period of development of a nymph to a mature adult is 25-30 days). If you poison them in this range - from the second to the fourth week after the first treatment - then there will be no more bugs in the room.

Whether they will appear again in the future will depend only on the reliability of the preventive protection organized in the room. With a good insulation of the apartment, you can protect yourself from the penetration of bedbugs, even when all the neighbors have them.

 

Where do bed bugs come from in the apartment and how to deal with them

 

Useful video: 5 rules for choosing a service for the destruction of insects