Bedbugs are tiny, oval insects that are brown in colour and animal or human blood. Mature bedbugs display a flat body which is roughly the same size as an apple pip. After they have fed, however, their bodies become swollen and red in colour! It’s enough to make you feel queasy!

Whilst these bugs can’t fly, they are able to move at a fast pace across floors, ceilings and walls. A female bedbug is capable of laying many hundreds of bedbug eggs during her life, each of which is as tiny as a spot of dust.

Image credit

Baby bedbugs are called nymphs, and they shed their skin five times before they reach maturity. Each shedding requires a blood meal beforehand. In optimal conditions, bedbugs can grow fully within a month and produce three or more generations per year. Although they are a nuisance, they are not thought to transmit any diseases. To get rid of bothersome bedbugs in your home, contact Pest Control Essex at a site like Essex Pest Control through ST Georges

Where do Bedbugs hide?

Bedbugs can enter your home undetected through luggage, clothes, used beds, sofas and other items. Due to the flatness of their bodies, they can fit into very small spaces, about the width of a credit card, for example. Bedbugs don’t make nests or hives like bees or ants but prefer to live together in groups in hiding places. Their favourite places to lurk include bed springs, frames, mattresses and headboards where they enjoy easy access to some night-time feeding!

Over time, however, they may spread through the bedroom, moving into every crevice or protected location. They can also spread to a nearby room or apartment.

Because bedbugs live exclusively on blood, having them in your home is not a sign of dirtiness. You are just as likely to find them in homes and hotel rooms that are clean and tidy as you are to find them in dirty rooms.

When do bedbugs bite?

Bedbugs come out at night and typically bite sleeping people. They eat by stabling through the skin and drawing blood through a long beak-like mouth. The bugs will spend between three- and ten-minutes dining, only to become stuffed with blood before scurrying away unnoticed.

Image credit

For the most part, bites from a bedbug are not painful at first, but later turn into itchy scars. Unlike flea bites that usually happen on the ankles, the bites from bedbugs are in areas of skin that are exposed during sleep. Also, the bite won’t have a red spot in the middle like a tick bite does.

People who do not realize that they have a bedbug infestation may itch and blame the bites on something else, such as mosquitoes. To confirm the evidence of bedbug bites, you have to find and identify the bugs themselves.