Pictures Of Bed Bugs

There are many myths about bed bugs. I have read lots of rubbish about bedbug problems on the Internet written by people who want to scare the reader into buying a product for their extermination. One of the most persistent lies is that these beetles are so tiny that you need to study pictures of bed bugs to know what they look like.

Pictures Of Bed Bugs

Well, is an apple seed tiny? In relation to a car it is but in relation to other insects, not really. So let us nail that one right away, adult bedbugs are about the size and colour of a brown apple seed and the scientific name of the bedbug that humans have to worry about is Cimex lectularius.

Another lie is that bedbugs are almost impossible to see live so that you need to study images or photos of them to know what they look like.. That is just not true! If your home is infested with bedbugs, you will come across them as long as  you know what to look for and when to look for it.

If you do not know what this nuisance looks like, look for pictures of bed bugs on this site or the Internet so that you will recognize one when you see one.

Next, if you want to see one live, instead of just looking at pictures of bed bugs, you should know that they like to feed on human blood one hour before dawn. So, if you think that you have a problem with bedbugs, get up an hour early and look for small brown beetles scurrying from your bed or along the skirting boards.

The first indications of a bed bug infestation are: bed bug bites on the skin in a line of three red marks; cast skins in your bed and smears of red and brown liquid on your sheets.

The red smears are your blood and the brown smears are faeces and urine or your digested blood. Blood is their only foodstuff and humans are the preferred suppliers of the Cimex lectularius.

As stated above, bedbugs are similar in size, shape and colour to apple seeds and this shape enables them to secrete themselves in places inaccessible to us. They like to get into cracks, openings and tears.

This means that they like loose skirting boards, architraves and door frames; torn wallpaper and damaged plaster. They will also happily survive in a ripped mattress or in the joints of furniture.

When you see pictures of bed bugs nesting, you will realize how they can manage to hide themselves so successfully until they betray their presence by biting someone. They blend in perfectly with old, damaged furniture or old loose fixtures and fittings. It is quite remarkable.

An infestation of bedbugs is more of a nuisance than a health hazard, but they are notoriously difficult to exterminate because they have a waxy coat which makes them impervious to traditional pesticides.

In order to treat them with pesticide, it is therefore first necessary to remove this 'oilskin' coat. This sounds ridiculous and it is a hit-and-miss process but it can be done. When their waxy coat is off, normal insecticides like DEET and permethrin will kill them.

There are several products on the market for removing the wax. Some use finely powdered glass and others use Diatomaceous Earth. Both of these agents stick to the wax, but scrape a little of it away every time the bed bug squeezes into a crevice. The scouring agent also contains a pesticide which kills the insect when it finally gets through the wax.