How to quickly detect bed bugs in the apartment

As a rule, to detect bedbugs in an apartment before they bite someone, it turns out rarely: bugs are secretive insects and leading a nocturnal lifestyle. Almost always, one of the family members, or even the whole family, begins to suffer from constant bites, because of which they first sin on mosquitoes or allergies, and only then there is a suspicion of other blood-sucking insects, and in particular - bed bugs .

At the same time, many people think something like this: “As it is, in the 21st century, it cannot be that there were bedbugs. Yes, and our apartment is clean, where they come from. Probably, this is still an allergy. ” Know your situation?

In order to make sure that violators of sleep and sources of bites are really bedbugs, you first need to be able to detect bedbugs in the apartment. This is not always an easy task (especially for tenants who are unprepared for the problem), but knowing where to look for insects and how to distinguish them from other undesirable human neighbors,This can be done fairly quickly.

Important!
Most often the first from bedbug bites children begin to suffer. This does not mean that bedbugs bite them selectively - it is just in children that the attacks of bedbugs cause the most pronounced reaction, and already one or two bites on the body that appear regularly are enough to suspect something. Adults usually begin to pay attention to more massive snacks.

Only in rare cases to detect bed bugs at home it turns out accidentally - they catch the eye at night or when moving furniture. In this case, it is important to know how the bugs look in order to be able to correctly identify the parasites at the first meeting with them.

 

Signs of having bedbugs in the apartment

Bed bugs, contrary to their name, do not live directly on the bed, but tend to build their nests as close as possible to the places where people can rest at night. This allows you to always narrow the range of places for the primary search for parasites.

In addition, bugs prefer to keep groups, and sometimes very numerous. Therefore, sometimes in order to detect bed bugs it is enough to release beds and capes of beds and sofas from bed linen and to carefully examine the bedroom and children's room.

But even before the search for the insects themselves, their presence in the apartment can be determined by the following features.

 

Bedbug bites

Bites bed bugs a special enzyme is injected into the wound, which produces an analgesic effect and prevents blood from clotting. This enzyme is somewhat similar to the substance that a mosquito uses when bitten. After a certain time after the bite, the skin near it begins to itch, reddens, and swelling appears.

Bedbug bites are also characterized by the fact that they are arranged in chains of 2-4 punctures. This is a fairly characteristic feature by which they can be distinguished from the bites of other insects.

On a note

In heavily parasitic flats, the number of bites can exceed 300–400 per night.

 

Smell of bedbugs

A special gland on the body of bedbugs secretes a secret that allows parasites to find each other and communicate in the nests. This secret smells of poor-quality cognac or fermented raspberries, and its aroma is clearly guessed in the area of ​​furniture where bugs are constantly present.

If the apartment is heavily infected with parasites, the smell of brandy in it is felt almost everywhere.

 

Traces of parasite activity

Solid, small, dark brown grains that look like tiny dots and have the smell of poor-quality brandy, as well as the remains of chitinous cover remaining after the molting of parasites, are another characteristic sign of the presence of bed bugs.

Traces of bedbugs in the form of small droplets of blood can be clearly seen on white bedding.

In addition, in order to detect bedbugs directly on the bed, it is necessary to spread a white sheet on the bed, go to bed, and in the middle of the night turn on the light and examine all bedding.

If there are bedbugs in the apartment, they should at this time show up on a sheet or blanket.

 

Is it bedbugs?

The body structure of the bed bug is very characteristic and does not allow it to be confused with other domestic insects. Distinctive features of a bed bug are a flat and wide belly with a yellowish brown or light red color (in satiated parasites) with 6 legs and a small head with a proboscis.

Depending on the age and degree of blood saturation, the bug may vary considerably in color and size.

On a note

Typically, the size of the insect is 3-4 mm, but after a rich diet the body of the bug increases and can reach 9-10 mm in size, and the color changes from brick to dark brown.

From other insects that can be found in the apartment, bedbugs can also be distinguished by the following features:

• bed bugs differ from larvae of cockroaches in more monotonous coloring. The larvae of the black cockroach are much larger than the bugs, and the larvae of the red cockroach have a pale brown spot on the cephalothoid;
• unlike adult cockroaches, bugs do not have wings;
• The bugs are more dense and wide body, large size and strictly nocturnal lifestyle from domestic ant.

Finally, bugs differ from fleas and linen lice in size: if a flea and a louse rarely reach 2 mm in size, the adult bug is almost twice as large. In addition, bedbugs are not able to jump. But the small larvae of bedbugs, people with poor eyesight may well be confused with laundry lice.

 

Where to look for bedbugs: TOP-10 places for refuge of parasites

Detect bed bugs in the apartment can be primarily in upholstered furniture, on which people sleep.

Parasites prefer to settle between the mattresses, in the corners of the wooden frame, on large joints, the joints of the details of the bed.

In addition, the main habitats of bed bugs in the apartment include:

1. Wardrobes.
2. Bedside tables.
3. The spaces under the carpets on the floors and behind the carpets on the walls.
4. Parquet slots.
5. Cavities under loosely lying linoleum and behind baseboards.
6. The spaces behind the paintings and furniture attached to the wall.
7. Gaps between books on the bookshelves.
8. Holes household appliances (bugs can live even in outlets).
9. Radiator slots.
10. Flower pots.

Of course, many of these places are physically impossible to inspect. But, as a rule, first of all the bugs inhabit exactly the beds and sofas, the back side of the carpets hanging on the wall, and only then the sockets, the computer system blocks and the baseboards settle.

On a note

In nature, bugs lodge in the burrows of mammals and birds, swarming under a bed of grass, wool or feathers. Separate characteristic habitat bed bugs in nature, there are stones and heaps of bat droppings in caves - here bugs parasitize bats themselves, and breed on the floors of caves.

Feedback
“Even mosquitoes never fly to me on the sixteenth floor, and then it began to itch, that at least on the street, spend the night. It turned out that he had brought bedbugs from one client in a broken system unit. So they first of all obzhiv my computer. I had to buy the Executioner, twice the entire apartment they literally pour. Well, I have where to go - I processed the room as I went to my parents for a week. Came - repeated. And I also helped the client to get rid of bedbugs with the same tool. ”

Alexander, Novorossiysk

 

Especially difficult cases

Be that as it may, in some situations, bugs are particularly difficult to detect. For example, when there is a suspicion that the bugs settled behind the baseboards or in the floorboard. In these cases, in order to detect parasites, they must either be caught in bed at night (sooner or later they will still go out to feed), or they can use deterring agents and “smoke” out of the nests.
For example, you can take:

• decoction of wormwood or tansy
• diluted alcohol
• diluted vinegar essence or plain vinegar (9%).

Then add some of these products in a bucket of water in such quantity that its smell is clearly felt, and thoroughly soak the parquet and the plinth with this water. Literally immediately, insects can begin to creep out of there.

Completely remove and destroy bedbugs with such means will not work, but to confirm their presence is quite realistic. In the future, during the pest control it will be necessary to treat the infected areas of the apartment especially carefully.

All places in which bedbugs at least once found, should be remembered. When disinsectors arrive at the premises, they will ask about such meetings, and this information will help to use insecticidal products as effectively as possible.

If bugs are bred in a bed, sofa or any other furniture, before breeding parasites, this furniture should be freed and moved away from the walls to provide access to all its external surfaces and internal spaces. Such measures ensure that during the hunt all the bugs in the room will be destroyed.

 

Interesting video: where bed bugs come from in the apartment

 

Where do bugs usually live in an apartment and how to fight them