Where Do Bed Bugs Come From? What Causes Bed Bugs In A Private House? How Do They Wind Up In Apartments?

2024 Author: Beatrice Philips | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 05:33

Bed bugs are insects that feed on the blood of sleeping people and carry typhus, tuberculosis and other diseases. From our article you will learn how and where the bed bugs come from, why bed bugs appear in a private house, how they start up in apartments and how to avoid their appearance.

How do you get turned on by neighbors?

The advantage of bedbugs is their small size. An adult is no more than 4 mm long, and the larvae are even smaller. When insects are hungry, thanks to the flat body, they can squeeze into any crevice. Therefore, if you have bugs, then, most likely, they crawled to you from the next apartment through inconspicuous cracks.

There are many reasons for this migration

• Your neighbor has gone away for a long time. The bug will easily do without food for about six months, and then will start looking for new "lands". If you haven't seen your neighbors for a long time, then their "pets" could crawl over to you. Dishonest people use this to fight parasites (usually to no avail).
• Another reason is a change in the usual indoor climate. If it gets cold in the house (for example, the heating is turned off in winter), then the parasites are looking for a new place for themselves.
• Repair. When neighbors rearrange skirting boards, renew furniture and change wallpaper in apartment buildings, they destroy the usual insect nests. Bloodsuckers flee - and straight to your apartment.
• Chemical treatment of premises leads to similar results, especially if folk or weak household remedies are used. They do not kill, but only scare away insects. Then the bugs have no choice but to move to you.
• Lack of "feed". When the colony of bedbugs reaches enormous sizes, the new individuals seek for themselves "pastures". And they find them in the nearest houses.
• Sometimes neighbors can accidentally bring bedbugs to you. For example, when a tenant from an apartment on top of the carpet is prying, and pests can fall on your balcony.

To check a neighbor's apartment, visit them. If there is a smell of sour raspberries, old cognac or almonds, then the room is contaminated. We need to call pest controllers. And if the tenants of this apartment do not agree, then contact specialized companies. They will solve this problem legally.

Signs of bedbugs in the room

• The most important thing is skin irritation of 10-15 mm in children and about 5 mm in adults. They are usually seen in the morning. Parasites hunt in packs and crawl over the body during feeding. The result is a chain of itchy spots.
• Well-fed insects have very fragile bodies, and a person can crush them in a dream. Examine the bedding. If they have blood stains, then, most likely, parasites have started.
• Dark spots on the folds of pillows and mattresses, like poppy seeds. This is insect excrement.
• Eggs that resemble grains of rice. Their length is about 1 mm.
• Chitinous shells, similar to dead insects. Bed bugs often molt, so you can always find their old shells near the nests.
• Bloodsuckers are active from 12 am to 4 am. When sleep is not strong, they are felt on the skin. And if you turn on the light quickly, you can see the scattering insects.
• When there are a lot of bloodsuckers, they do not hesitate to attack even during the day. This happens when a person is resting on a sofa or in an easy chair.

So if you or your neighbors have these symptoms, then take action. Pests can appear even in a clean apartment, since they feed not on food and household waste, but on blood. It's just easier for them to hide among the trash.

It is important to remember that bedbugs cannot come out of nowhere. In addition to neighbors, there are many more ways for pests to enter your home. We will talk about this now.

What else can appear from?

Anyone can accidentally bring parasites into the house. And to prevent this from happening, you need to know the reasons for their appearance, which are sometimes not obvious.

New furniture

When you buy a bed or wardrobe, there may already be maggots at the joints of the body. The reason for this is irresponsible storage in warehouses. Some manufacturers do not follow sanitary storage standards, do not remove dust and debris, which allows pests to appear.

However, this is unlikely - large companies do not have people in their warehouses, so bedbugs have nothing to do there. And here small producers often work in shifts, and workers have to spend the night in the workshop near the machines . Add to this unsanitary conditions and a bunch of hidden places, and you get the perfect bedbug, some of which can easily come to your home. Therefore, always inspect furniture carefully before purchasing. Especially the one in the window.

Pay extra attention to sofas that have already been used . If the price is significantly lower than the market price, then the item may be infected with bedbugs. So greedy people try to get rid of bedbugs, and even get money for it. Nothing will come of them - parasites settle in the whole house, and not only in upholstered furniture.

Important! Require your new items to be transported separately. There have been cases when new and old furniture was transported in the same truck, and all items became contaminated.

However, everything is not so scary. Treat the new sofa with chemistry, and you can not be afraid of these bloodsuckers. The main thing is to go through all the hidden cracks, bottom and rear panels with poison. Now on the market there are a large number of drugs and drugs that differ from each other in the principle of action, safety and, unfortunately, effectiveness. According to this indicator, the most strongly recommended powder from bedbugs HECTOR. The main feature is the non-chemical principle of action, due to which high efficiency and prolonged action are achieved. The powder particles cling to the bed bug and draw out all the life-giving moisture from it for several hours.

Old and new things

Pillows, mattresses, featherbeds are in a special risk area. Bedbugs are inactive, they usually settle near their prey in bedding . This also applies to clothing.

Inspect items carefully before purchasing . It is advisable that a mattress packed in foil be taken out in the store. If you bought clothes, then do not put them out of the bag right away - first wash them at a temperature not lower than 60 ° C. And if it is winter outside, then leave the purchase on the street for a day. Temperatures below -10 ° and above + 50 ° C are destructive for parasites.

If you want to buy or rent an apartment, it may initially contain bedbugs . In order not to share a bed with them, carefully examine the proposed options, especially the beds, joints in panels and in wooden parquet. Don't forget the sour raspberry-like smell. If there is one, then the apartment can be contaminated.

You should not buy an apartment with upholstered furniture, it is better to buy it later. So place it as you wish, and protect yourself from bedbugs.

Accidentally hitting a bag or suitcase

This happens if you often go on business trips and live in cheap hotels and hostels. To avoid this, leave your suitcase away from your seating area, preferably in a closet or mezzanine . And never put it under the bed.

Reputable firms disinfect rooms after each tenant, so choose proven options.

Appliances

She, too, is at risk, especially the one next to the bed. It can be a floor lamp, a lamp, sometimes a laptop. Insects crawl into ventilation openings, lay eggs there. They are attracted to warm motors, microcircuits and processors.

The equipment can "pick up" pests in the service center . But even new equipment from the store can have bugs if it was irresponsibly stored in the warehouse.

People

These can be your acquaintances or friends. Parasites can be present on a person's clothing or in his bag, while the individual himself may not know that he is a carrier.

It is possible that apartment renovators can bring in bedbugs, especially if they are guest workers. To avoid this, do not allow any workers to sleep in your apartment.

And a casual visitor such as a plumber or postman might bring you insects on your clothes or bag . Inadvertently. For example, he was traveling in the same bus with a victim of bedbugs and picked up parasites there. Therefore, despite the hospitality, it is better not to invite guests to sit on the sofa, especially if you sleep on it.

Apart from that, bed bugs have tons of ways to become your neighbors

• They can crawl along the wall from neighboring apartments, crawl through a crack under the door and even fly into a window on leaves or poplar fluff. Therefore, always use mosquito nets. This will stop large individuals, and small larvae do not set off on such a long journey.
• Insects can enter you through electrical wiring. When installing electrical networks, the wires are placed in special grooves, in which there is enough space for the beetles. Therefore, to seal, remove the sockets and seal the cable entry point into the socket or back box with silicone sealant.
• Parasites can climb up the risers of water and sewer pipes. To avoid this, carefully seal the gaps between the pipe and the wall. So the sound insulation will improve.
• When you visit questionable places, pests can stick to your clothes and shoes. Therefore, in suspicious rooms, never sit on beds, sofas and other upholstered furniture.
• Sometimes pets can bring parasites, especially if you live in a country house or in a private sector. Bed bugs cling to wool and thus enter your home. They do not hunt animals, although they can start in a chicken coop.
• Bed bugs are very tenacious. At temperatures below + 15 ° C or lack of food, they fall into pseudo-anabiosis. Simply put, they fall asleep. So they travel long distances in a package or car. So, if you suddenly have insects, remember your last purchases. And when you establish the reason, then it is easier to deal with them.

Pests always come unexpectedly. One fertilized female can lay up to 500 eggs. This is enough for a whole colony to form in the room. If you find a nest, then bedbugs must be eliminated immediately, otherwise they will inhabit the entire apartment building. And we will tell you in what places you need to look for settlements of parasites.

Where will they appear first and where to look?

Indoor bugs are inactive, so they settle near the beds. And since they are small in size, then arm yourself with a flashlight and, if necessary, a magnifying glass to search. After that, examine all suspicious places.

• Joints of cabinet furniture, sofas and bedside tables. Pay special attention to bottoms, cavities and back panels.
• Bedding such as feather beds, mattresses. Bed bugs love seams, folds, clumps of tissue, and other hard-to-reach places. They can also settle between the mattress and the bed.
• They are less common in pillows, as the hairline interferes with their feeding.
• Under the bed, in the crevices of the parquet and the joints of the baseboards. If there are linen boxes in the couch, the bugs can master them too. They usually ignore the metal parts.
• Behind heating radiators, under skirting boards and cornices.
• Surrounding objects around the bed. These can be lamps, appliances and decorative elements, for example, wall hangings, paintings and appliqués.
• Some individuals crawl under the ceiling plates during the day and fall on sleeping people at night.
• Books are not protected either. Soft paper will be a warm and cozy home for parasites.
• Any place that is warm and dry that is hidden from human eyes.

Generally, bloodsuckers love bedrooms and living rooms . People often rest and sleep there, and the parasites feel comfortable. When there are a lot of them in the room, they completely surround the sleeping place and do not even try to hide.

But it is not all that bad. Modern means allow you to quickly clean rooms of bedbugs at all stages of infection . If the colony is small, then you can cope on your own. Most household products kill beetles and larvae, but cannot handle eggs. Therefore, they need to be applied several times as new parasites appear.

If the situation is neglected, then exterminators will help . Special chemicals cause paralysis in bedbugs and block the respiratory system, while they are completely safe for people and pets. The work goes quickly, and after a few hours you can return to the house. True, sometimes the product takes time to completely disappear.

The result is worth it - the companies give a guarantee that within six months you will definitely not have bed bugs. During this time, you will have time to carry out prophylaxis: cover up all the cracks, install the nets. And in order not to miss pests, put special capsules in ventilation and other weak places. Then your house will be reliably protected from these apartment parasites.