Bed Bugs & Bed Bug Pest Control | Information, Identification, Pictures

Bed bugs

Bed bugs are small, flat, oval-shaped, range in colour from cream to dark brown with a reddish tinge depending on what stage of their life cycle. They have six legs and two antennae, and are typically between 4 to 5 millimetres long at maturity. The bedbug is a parasitic insect that feeds on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded animals, attracted by their hosts body warmth and carbon dioxide from their exhalations. Found in bedding, bed frames, mattresses, furniture and other small spaces close to their hosts. Hiding during the day, and come out at night to feed, just like vampires.

The average bed bug has a life span of about 10 months, though some bed bugs can live up to 18 months. Female bed bugs lay between 200 and 500 eggs in their lifetime, with each egg taking around 10 days to hatch. On average they take five to seven weeks to reach adulthood and fully mature. Once bed bugs reach adult maturity, they have an incredible mating behaviour that is unlike any other species.

Bed bugs use a unique method of mating known as traumatic insemination. This process involves the male bed bug stabbing its paramere (part of the external reproductive organs of the male insect) into the female bed bug's Organ of Berlese (special-purpose organ found in female bedbugs that lessen the effects of traumatic insemination), which is located on her right side. The male bed bug then releases its sperm into the female bed bug’s body cavity. The sperm will then migrate to her ovaries over the course of several hours and fertilise her eggs.

The bedbug requires a blood meal to reproduce and develop.  They are most active at night and normally begin their feeding process between midnight and 5:00 am when the host is in their deepest sleep. They feed for approximately three to ten minutes, ingesting three times their body weight in blood during a single meal. After they have fed, they will travel back to their hiding spots in crevices and cracks and digest their blood feast which is often within two to three meters of the host. They are not known to spread diseases; however, their bites can cause skin irritation and allergic reactions to some people. Hence the dreaded bed bug bites.

Bed bug bites typically look like a mosquito bite on the skin and can be itchy and irritating, for seven to nine days, often show up in clusters or lines. The most common areas for bed bug bites are exposed skin like the arms, neck, face, and hands. These bites usually take from one to several days to develop but generally don’t appear immediately after being bitten. Very important to note not everyone is allergic to bed bugs.

The allergic reaction to bed bugs is caused from the saliva from the bedbugs which is injected into your skin during feeding. This saliva contains an an aesthetic so we don’t feel the bite and also an anticoagulant so we don’t bleed out. Looking at a few surveys carried out by prominent university's it is believed seventy percent of people have a reaction to bedbugs and interesting enough the older you are the less reactive you are according to some surveys. Unfortunately, on the very rare occasion some people have being known to have anaphylaxis shock.

Bedbugs.net.au has all the information you need about bed bugs, bed bug pest control, the history of bedbugs, bed bug bites and symptoms, and a D.I.Y  bedbug pest control treatment by Micropest  Pest Control Sydney. Micropest provides a twelve-month service free warranty on most bed bug pest control treatments.

Bed bugs Sydney

Over the last twenty years, bed bugs and bed bug treatment had become a daily occurrence for Micropest Sydney. Before this time, we were lucky to see them a dozen times a year.

The Sydney 2000 Olympic games were the causative factor for the increase in bed bugs in Sydney, Australia, and then worldwide. I treated eight townhouses in the Newington Olympic Village in Homebush shortly after the Olympic Games and many hotels around Sydney.

bed bugs sydney

The main reason for their dramatic increase in Australia and worldwide is the hotels and backpackers, and other accommodation sources are using no or ineffective bed bug pest control measures. Secondly, we are all travelling a lot more than in the past. They are a hardy insect that is very transient and breed prolifically.

Bed bugs on holiday in Sydney.

Unfortunately, densely populated, transient tourist-friendly areas such as Sydney C.B.D, Bondi, Randwick and Coogee offer the perfect habitat for these small undesirable pests. Bed bugs are distributed around the world by hitching a ride on tourists clothing and baggage.

Bed Bug Bites.

Bed Bug Life Cycle.

Bed Bugs Medicine.

Bed Bug Prevention.

How To Find Bed Bugs.

Top Ten Hiding Places For Bed Bugs.

History Of Bed Bugs.

Bed Bugs.

Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs are very easy to find but are very difficult to eradicate. Nocturnal small crawling insects feed on blood and are attracted by body warmth and the carbon dioxide exhaling from your lungs.

bed bugs hiding under the hession cloth in the bed palings.

Ranging in size from a one mm stage to a five to six mm adult female, bed bugs are flat and oval, red-brown in colour, speedy,  agile and can easily manoeuvre themselves into hard-to-reach places. In addition, being nocturnal, they are light sensitive.

Common Name:   Bed Bugs

Scientific Name:   Cimex Lectularis

Class:                       Insecta

Order:                     Hemiptera

Family:                  Cimicoidea

Bed Bug Life Cycle.

Bed Bug Life Cycle

1 )  Bed Bug Eggs. 1 mm long. Colour white. It takes six to ten days to hatch.

2)  First stage. 1.5 mm long. Colour yellow. Feeds and moults.

3)  Second stage. 2 mm long. Colour yellow and black. Feeds and moults.

4)  Third stage. 2.5 mm long. Colour yellow, brown and black. Feeds and moults.

5)  Fourth stage. 3 mm long. Colour Yellow, red-brown and black. Feeds and moults.

6)  Fifth stage. 4.5 mm long. Colour Yellow, red-brown and black. Feeds and moults.

7)  Sixth stage. Adult. 5 to 6 mm long. Colour red-brown and black. Feeds continuously for approximately four to six months then dies. The female bed bug lays 6 to 8 eggs daily and approximately 250 in a lifetime.

If left alone, the bed bugs will live within one and a half meters from your head where you sleep at night, but they can travel up to five metres for a feed. Bed bugs can hibernate for up to a year without a blood feast.

Most professional pest control companies don't do bed bug treatments because they are too difficult to eradicate,  let alone give you a warranty. Micropest provides a twelve-month service free warranty.

Bed Bug Bites.

Not everyone has an allergic reaction to bed bug bites. ( Approximately thirty per cent.). Unfortunately, the ones that do, bed bug bites, itches like hell and people tend to itch them until they bleed and sometimes they can leave scars that can last for life. As of yet, bed bugs have not been known to transmit diseases.

BED BUG BITES

Bed bug bites occur on any warm-blooded mammal on any part of their body exposed when sleeping. Bed bugs are attracted to body warmth and carbon dioxide.

bed-bug-bites

Dermatological reactions to bed bug bites are caused by the bed bugs saliva when feeding and can take anywhere from two hours to two weeks to become evident. The saliva contains an anaesthetic to numb the pain of the bite and anticoagulants to assist the bed bug to have an uninterrupted flood feast which can take three to ten minutes, after which they hurry back to their hiding place and digest the food. They tend to bite in clumps, and the result is an angry red welt that is exceptionally itchy for seven to nine days.

Bed Bugs Medicine.

If you are allergic to bed bug bites, the best bed bugs medicine to reduce the itch would have to be  Claratyne or  Telfast. They contain antihistamine that  can be purchased over the counter at most chemist shops for ten dollars or so without a prescription.

BED BUG MEDICINE CLARATYNE

BED BUG MEDICINE TELFAST

Another bed bug medicine that is common but not as effective is calamine lotion, a bit messy, though—all these products you can buy over the counter at any pharmacy or supermarket.

A natural bed bugs medicine and many other insect bites are to run hot water on the bites. The hot water has to be uncomfortably hot but not hot enough to burn your skin. It can take the itch away for two to three hours. In addition, the hot water makes the skin release histamines and short circuits the nerves on your skin, negating the bed bug saliva and anticoagulants. It works.

Bed Bug Prevention.

1. Bed bugs are encountered when people go away on holidays. Therefore it only stands to sense to be very aware at this time.The first question that I ask the reception upon arrival before I book the room. Has the room ever had a history of bed bugs, and can I inspect the room first. Reception is usually quite accommodating. Once in the room, I check for blood spotting and bed bugs on the skirting, bed-head, mattress and any furniture within 1.6 meters from the bed. If bed bugs or their spore are evident, ask for another room and check that room thoroughly as well.

2. Because bed bugs like to live approximately 1.6 meters away from your bed. Store your luggage in the bathroom, not in wardrobes and side tables where everyone else has stored their belongings in the past because these areas are the most likely areas for bed bugs.

3. When you get home from holiday, make sure you unpack your holiday clothes outside the house and dry them on high heat for at least 30 minutes before you bring them into the bedroom. Any dedicates that cannot handle high heat stick in the freezer for eight hours or so. This may be extreme, but you would be shocked how many people do this and how effective it is.

4. Your luggage inspect thoroughly, vacuum it, and store it in a sealed plastic bag in the garage or any room where people do not sleep or congregate. The main reason people get bed bugs in the first place is that they store their luggage in their bedroom, mainly under the bed or in the wardrobe. Therefore, the bedbugs have got a close and ready food source.

5. If you have anyone come and stay with you, make sure you put number three action into play. If I got a dollar for every bed bug infestation a friend or family member caused, I would be a very wealthy man today.

How To Find Bed Bugs.

Bed bugs thrive in warm temperatures, dark, sheltered locations close to their hosts. Although bed bugs tend not to live on a host, they often seek shelter close to sleeping areas ( approximately 1.6 metres). Found in or on a mattress, bedclothes, wooden bed frames, wallpapers, textiles and carpets, and in crevices or cracks in walls or floorboards. Because bedbugs are small, fast and agile, they can be easily unknowingly transported via suitcases and bags.

The equipment needed to find the so-called elusive bed bug is a good led torch. Not very often, you might have to do a more invasive inspection, and you might need a Phillip head screwdriver, flat head screwdriver and a set of Alan keys.

When conducting a bed bug inspection, I look for black spotting, which is regurgitated blood that is a by-product of the bed bug, bed bugs, bed bug eggs, and bed bug shells from moulting bed bugs. Below is a video on finding bed bugs and the top ten hiding places for bed bugs in order of the most common places to find them.

Top Ten Hiding Places For Bed Bugs.

1) Bed Frame

Contrary to misinformation on the internet, the most likely place to find bed bugs in your house is in the bed frame, not your mattress. Bed bugs like to hide around the timber slats and cracks and crevices on a four-legged timber-framed bed. And a bed and base bed bugs are found under the bed where the cotton fabric is stapled to the plastic material.

2) Head Board

3) Sofa-bed

4) Couch

5) Gaps in the floorboards.

6) Mattress

7) Between the carpet and skirting board.

8) Bedside Tables.

9) Curtains

10) Luggage

The History Of Bed Bugs.

They may be small, but as anyone who has suffered from a bed bug infestation knows, their bite is worse than their bark. Unfortunately, despite a reported decline in numbers worldwide some decades ago, bed bugs have been experiencing an unwelcome resurgence over the last eighteen years.

Bedbugs have a long history, as far back as during Aristotle's time in Ancient Greece. Pliny of Ancient Rome also mentioned them, and bed bugs also occur in 11th Century German texts, 13th Century French texts, and 16th Century English texts.

Bed bugs have being around since time began.

However, mentions of bed bugs only became extremely widespread during the early 18th Century. During this time, bed bug problems were documented by American sailors and travellers returning from Europe to North America.

Written accounts by sailors and passengers complain of the irritation caused by bed bug bites arising from infestations on sailing ships.

Bed bugs on a boat cruise in Sydney.

Early efforts to control bedbugs included using plants, insect extracts, fungi, and oils and herbs to deal with outbreaks, Certain types of ash,  dust, unique protective panels placed on beds and other commonly infested areas.

Widespread efforts were made to eradicate bedbugs in the early- to mid--20th-century using pesticides such as DDT, which was the pesticide of choice during the 1940 s. These approaches helped reduce bed bug numbers, after DDT use discontinued, due to health concerns, bed bug numbers rose once more.

bed bugs ddt

With bedbugs still an issue around the world today, there has been an increased demand for specialists. Micropest licensed experts to use a variety of condoned approaches to help eradicate them from homes and commercial buildings.

We provide advice on how to reduce the likelihood of re-infestation. If you're struggling to manage bedbugs, consider employing the services of a Micropest bed bug pest control specialist.

"Call us today, and we will assess your situation and give you a free quote. You shouldn’t have to worry about pesky bed bugs, that’s our job!

Bed Bugs Pest Control Price List. 

For an accurate quote for bed bugs, please ring. Micropest provides a written twelve-month service free warranty for bed bugs.

Micropest Pest Control Wahroonga
24/24-36 Pacific Highway
Wahroonga N.S.W Sydney

1300 243377

Micropest  Pest Control Artarmon
43 Whiting St, Artarmon NSW 2064

1300 884166

Bed Bugs: Emails | Questions| Answers

1) I woke up on Saturday, covered in small red bites. I have never got these before and have been sleeping on our mattress for three years. My partner is unaffected, but I have read that it does not affect everyone. We store our suitcases under the bed as you described and so I think this may be how we have got these all of a sudden. We hovered all around the bed, mattress and slats yesterday. While doing so, we found a couple of tiny bugs like in your picture. I am hoping that we got them all, but I guess we cannot be certain. As we don't have a dryer, I will bring our linen to the cleaners to get washed.

We leave on holidays this Friday, and I was hoping I could get someone out to look at it ASAP.

Micropest:

1) Bed bugs ordinarily big red bites.

2) Never store your luggage under the bed.

3) A live host is needed for a month for a successful bed bug treatment.

2) I used your service well over a year ago for the place I was renting in Arncliffe.

I had Gerard come and spray the house plus put a protective BED BUG LOCK over my mattress.

I took the mattress sometime after the pest control to my father's house where I stayed for a couple of months without any trouble with bites.

The mattress stayed at my father's for almost a year without being slept on and in a closed room which no one used.

I have since moved the mattress to a new place I am renting and have been using it for almost two months.

In the last couple of days, I have had 2-3 little bites.

I am concerned it might be the bugs again and am paranoid about it!

Do you think it could be a problem to arise again if I am using the same mattress?

Micropest :

1) Bed bugs ordinarily big red bites.

2) Bed bugs cannot live for a year without a blood feed.

3) My girlfriend had a bit of a bed bug problem, and I am worried I have brought them back to my house. I haven't noticed any signs, though I have been bitten (could have been bitten at her place), but I am understandably paranoid.

What is the general cost for treatment? I only really have a mattress in my room, not much other furniture.

Micropest: 1)

Bedbugs are like a very contagious decease, and the chances of you taking the bed bugs home from your girlfriend's house are highly likely.

4)  Hi there. I have heaps of bites on me. Always scratching when I wake up and at night. I think I have bed bugs, but no one else in my family is suffering. I've looked all around my bed head, mattress and sheets for signs but unfortunately couldn't find any evidence. Please help!!

5) We spoke a couple of times early this week about my suspicions re having bed bugs. Thank you for your time and advice so far. I have continued to be bitten every night since and am having a hard time with it both from the intense physical itching and irritation, and the stress and resulting lack of sleep.

The problem is I have done a thorough search of the linen, mattress, frame and slats and found none of the evidence we have discussed: no bed bugs, casings, eggs or black spotting anywhere. I was awake from 3 am last night regularly checking the bed and found nothing!

Obviously, we would hate to have to spend $1000 on a service we might not need so am wondering whether you offer any assessment service where we could pay you to tell us more definitively what the problem is?

Alternatively (or also) I can send you photos of my bites, bed, mattress and frame to assist.

I appreciate your consideration of our current challenge and am desperately hoping you can help!

Micropest:

1) Bed bugs are not difficult to locate. I suggest you should consult a dermatologist.

Bed Bug pest control Sydney