Bites
The most obvious sign of bed bugs is bites. Bedbugs are blood-sucking pests; they feed on the blood of animals and humans. They are nocturnal and go out hunting at night. Bite marks can appear on any part of the body, but areas with the least thick skin are preferred for parasites - in the elbows, on the neck, buttocks, and arms. A characteristic sign indicating that a person was bitten by a bug and not a mosquito is a trail of bites. A bug requires up to 7 ml of blood to saturate; it feeds on capillary blood, that is, after one puncture of the skin, it may not have enough food, which means it makes the next bite.
Bedbug bites themselves may not bother a person. The itching that appears at the site of the bite is irritating. Some people have very severe allergic reactions. The bite marks themselves are red spots with a dot in the middle. They may swell. If there are a lot of bedbugs in an apartment or house, then they can make up to 400 bites per night.
Bedbugs bite everyone, but most often their victims are children and women. This is due to the fact that they have thinner skin. But if bedbugs appear in the house, then bite marks will be on all family members. They also bite domestic animals, but much less often, because the skin of dogs and cats is much denser than human skin. In addition, it is believed that bed bugs feed exclusively on human blood, and animals have their own ectoparasites.
If characteristic marks appear on the skin, it is worth observing them. The bites themselves are not dangerous; they pass quickly enough. But these insects are carriers of dangerous diseases, so they can infect the victim. They can be especially dangerous for children and elderly or weakened people. If bites are detected, it is necessary not only to clean the home of pests, but also to pay attention to the health status of the residents.
Traces of bedbugs
Bedbugs mark their presence in an apartment not only by smell or bite marks on the human body, but also by other symptoms and signs
- Like other living beings, they undergo a digestion process, which ends with the release of undigested food residues.
- Bedbug secretions are liquid and dark brown in color. However, in air they quickly harden and become hard.
- Typically, the bedbug excretes feces shortly after eating. Therefore, insect waste products can be found anywhere, especially in the area of the bed and, possibly, on the bed itself - this is also a sure sign of bedbugs hiding somewhere nearby. Bedbug feces have a characteristic smell of low-quality cognac.
To identify the population of parasites in an apartment, there is another important sign. After hatching from the egg, the bedbug nymph grows and molts several times. The insect sheds its outer chitinous cover, which becomes denser and darker each time.
If the apartment is inhabited by a large number of bedbugs, then such “skins” can be found almost everywhere.
All signs of the presence of bedbugs in an apartment will determine the presence of insects with a high degree of accuracy. However, the most shocking and surest confirmation of the fact that an apartment is infested with insects will be to see the parasites with your own eyes.
If you have even the slightest doubt, you must check all possible habitats of bedbugs. This also needs to be done if your neighbors have bedbugs. It is likely that they will soon begin to move into neighboring apartments.
Where do bed bugs come from in an apartment and how to deal with them correctly
Traces on the bed
Bed bugs are not the fastest creatures. They cannot leave the “crime scene” immediately. In a dream, a person tosses and turns, which means he crushes parasites with his weight. Traces of crushed bedbugs and blood stains remain on the bed linen. Not only adults, but also larvae suck blood. It is the larvae that are easier to crush, since they have a thinner and softer chitinous shell.
In addition, spots on the bed appear not only after crushing pests. When they bite, they do not inject a blood-clotting substance into the wound, so after the bite, droplets of blood ooze from the puncture for some time.
How to know for sure whether bedbugs live in an apartment
And there is a universal way to understand that bedbugs live in your house. Get up at 4 am, turn on the light and look around the bed and your body. It is at this time that the parasites bite, and if there are them in the room, then at least several individuals will be on the bed. Even if there are very few of them and they do not bite every day, then 3-4 days in a row you need to get up, check the bed and find bedbugs. If you haven’t been able to see them at night in 3-4 days, most likely they are not in the room.
If any of these four signs are present, then you need to look for the bedbugs themselves. It’s quite possible to do this yourself, there’s nothing tricky about it, although it will take some work.
Waste products
Bedbugs leave quite a lot of marks. They shed particles of chitin and leave excrement in their habitats. They look like tiny dark brown balls. There are always a lot of them, so they can be detected easily, without the use of specialized equipment. Bedbugs hide and leave behind their waste products:
- in cracks and cracks in walls and floors;
- under the bed, sofa or closet;
- inside furniture;
- under the upholstery of upholstered furniture;
- under the wallpaper.
In addition to feces, translucent chitinous pieces can be seen. These are parts of the shell that the larva sheds when turning into an adult. Chitin particles can be found in any part of the room.
Features and what do small apartment insects and their eggs look like?
If these insects are in your apartment, then you will find not one, but several signs of their presence.
- Chitin shells .
Bedbugs shed their shell, that is, their outer chitinous shell, after each molt, which means a lot of such “husk” accumulates in their habitat. Inspect the back surfaces of the furniture, the cracks in it, and the floor nearby. The shell is light brown in color. - Characteristic features of their eggs . Bedbug eggs are transparent and very small, about 0.5 millimeters. But among adult insects they can be easily seen. There are usually a lot of eggs, they lie in groups, oblong in shape, reminiscent of ant eggs.
In the video below you can clearly see what bedbugs and their eggs look like:
Smell
Another sign of bedbugs in the house is a characteristic smell. It is caused by the release of a special secretion that pests need for orientation. With his help they find each other. With the gradual appearance and spread of parasites, home owners may not notice this smell. But once you leave for a couple of days and return, the smell will seem very strong and even suffocating. Guests at home will also tell you about the specific aroma.
Some people think that bedbugs smell like cognac (or cognac smells like bedbugs). They have a strong nutty smell. It's more like the smell of rotten nuts. Sometimes the aroma can resemble the smell of rotten raspberries. The smell is persistent and spreads throughout the entire room. In places where eggs are laid and where adults gather, the smell is much more intense. It’s not just the adults that emit the aroma. Eggs, larvae, and excrement also smell.
How to detect bedbugs
The first sign of bedbugs is bites. At first, people may think they have been bitten by mosquitoes. Yes, the bite marks are similar in appearance. But mosquitoes are solitary, and traces of skin punctures by bedbugs form a path. If you find such a path, then you need to immediately inspect the home. First, there must be blood stains on the bed linen. Secondly, you can easily find the bedbugs themselves if you move furniture away from the walls, look under paintings, baseboards, and into the joints of wallpaper.
When the first signs or even suspicions appear, it is necessary to carefully inspect the house. Even if you don’t notice them at first glance, it’s worth spending more time and attention on your search. Bedbugs hide in the following places:
- upholstered furniture: folds of upholstery, internal cavities, filler;
- cabinet furniture - at joints, on the back walls;
- books - under the spine, between the pages;
- paintings, decorative items - on the back walls, facing the walls;
- beds - under or inside the mattress;
- under baseboards - floor or ceiling;
- under the wallpaper and in the joints.
Usually there is a main nest of parasites in the home. It contains everything - adults, larvae, and eggs. There are also feces and discarded chitinous shells. The main task in the fight against bedbugs is to find such a breeding ground. If the population is very large, there may be several nests. If you don’t find them all, the bedbugs will quickly spread throughout the apartment or house again.
What else indicates the presence of bedbugs in the house?
As a rule, not only the smell, bites and blood stains indicate the presence of bedbugs.
- like any creatures, they excrete the products of their vital activity;
- their excrement is liquid brown in color, but in the open air it tends to quickly harden;
- As soon as a bug drinks blood, almost immediately it becomes necessary to excrete feces. They do this anywhere, but a particularly large concentration can be found in the area of the beds. If you find such an accumulation of feces, rest assured that there are bedbugs. Moreover, the smell of excrement will be specific.
There is one more feature by which you can recognize a bug. The eggs hatch into nymphs, which need to periodically shed their chitinous shell. You can find such “skins” throughout the apartment.
All these symptoms are likely to indicate that parasites are present in the house. But still, if you see it with your own eyes, you can be absolutely sure of it. Although you will get a lot of unpleasant impressions.
If you find at least one sign of the presence of parasites, you should take immediate action. The first bell will be the presence of bedbugs in your neighbors. Most likely, these parasites will easily spread to nearby apartments.
Why do bedbugs appear?
Signs of bedbugs do not indicate unsanitary conditions. Parasites also appear where cleanliness and order are maintained. Pests can be carried on clothes or luggage; their eggs can be carried on their fur by pets. Very often bedbugs come from neighbors.
The fight against bedbugs must be comprehensive. When the first signs appear, you need to look for and destroy their breeding grounds and treat the home. If you find them in a small population, they will be easier to deal with. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to all the signs of bedbugs – even the most minimal ones. And even if it seems to you that there cannot be bedbugs in your apartment or house.
Why are bedbugs so difficult to find in an apartment?
The main difficulty in such a search is that bedbugs hide during the day in places that are very difficult to reach. This is the key to their survival; it is only due to such mastery of hiding that they have lived safely next to people for thousands of years and, it seems, will continue to live in the future. And the more difficult it is to get to their hiding places, the more likely there are bedbugs there. And vice versa, the easier it is for you to check some place in the room, the more likely there will be no parasites in this place, or the main source of reproduction will not be here.
However, for simplicity, you need to start with the most accessible locations.
