How long do you think a bed bug can survive without food?

Take a wild guess …

You will be amazed to know. Female bugs can leave about 1 year without food! In fact, they live longer if they are starved. Strange…, but true.

I have sympathy for animals, but not for the parasites that suck the blood out of us every day and refuse to go away even if we starve them for a whole year! I mean, how can you stand uninvited these guests that will make our house miserable?

Now another surprise:

How many offspring do you think a bed bug can have?

Continue Reading …

Bed begs are surfacing everywhere these days. In big cities, small towns, hotels and motels. These small but tough bugs don’t discriminate. They can hide anywhere, travel any distance as a parasite, and breed really, really fast. Some people say these are worse than cockroaches which don’t suck your blood at least!

Even if you have a bed bug free home, you are not immune to the problem. If you travel (who doesn’t?) and stay in a hotel, then there is a good chance that you will meet bed bugs there. They can hop on to your luggage and happily travel with you back to your home! You are bringing home an uninvited guest that can infest your house fairly quickly.

If you are one of the bed bug victims, check out our Bed Bug Remedies book which explains the new cost effective methods to tread these bugs.

USA Today recently published some travel trips. You should read the complete article linked below. But for those who want a quick summary, here are the clippings:

Sealing your luggage while traveling

Safeguard your suitcase before you get to the airport. “In the cargo hold of an airliner, your bag is right in there with other suitcases,” says Missy Henriksen, vice president, public affairs, National Pest Management Association. “Bedbugs are referred to as ‘hitchhikers,’ they can be on a red suitcase to city A, but can jump onto a blue suitcase to city B.”

To prevent any bugs from hitching a ride on your baggage, put your suitcase or duffel inside a sealed plastic bag before you drop it off at the ticket counter.  This will minimize bugs coming into contact with other suitcases that have been exposed.

When you are at the hotel

“When you first get into your room, store your suitcase in the bathroom or room with a linoleum floor,” says Henriksen. “You can see bugs on the linoleum, then there is less chance of exposure. Then go and do an inspection of the bed. Pull back the sheet and the bed linens, and look on the mattress pad cover and under the dust ruffle. What you’re looking for is a bug the size of a lentil or an apple seed. Look for anything that [seems] out of place, like those seeds, [and] signs of blood, little droplets of blood, that would indicate the bugs have been eating from humans. If you see signs, there may be reason to suspect there’s a problem.” Check your drawers before putting any clothing in and also the luggage rack

When you return home
Before you enter your house, take a few minutes to do a sanity check and make sure you haven’t transported any bugs home.

You can purchase dissolvable plastic bags, so as soon as you get home, put your clothes right in the wash and launder them. You won’t even have to take your clothes out of the bag before putting them in your washing machine. Heat and plastic bags really are your friend. You may want to schedule a dog inspection, have the [bug-detecting dogs] sniff the luggage before even going in the house.

News Article: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/deals/inside/2010-04-29-bed-bug-tips_N.htm

Bed bugs are small, reddish-brown, wingless, parasitic insects that survive on the blood of other animals. The particular species of bed bugs that live on human blood is called Cimex lectularius. Bed bugs are one of the oldest species of this planet and have survived through the evolution since millions of years ago.

Bed bugs have six legs and are sometimes confused with ticks

They are very difficult to spot because of their size and their rapid pace.

All bed bugs bite. But till now, they have not found to be carriers of any disease. However, the person who has been bitten by a bed bug may develop some reddish rash or a bump for a few days. But many a times, people do not realise that they have been bitten by bed bugs as the bite is painless.

The bed bugs feed once a week. It is usually very active at nights and feed on blood when the person is asleep. It hides itself during the day time under beds, blankets, mattresses, behind furniture and switch plates and any other crack or a crevice. They can easily crawl through the narrow cracks because of their flattened bodies.

How Did the Bed Bugs Enter Your House?

Usually these bed bugs would have been carried from somewhere outside like hotels, hostels, modes of transport or any other public places to your house. There are also chances that they had already infested your house before you moved in.

You can follow some of the traveling tips to avoid the bed bugs:

It is not an easy to exterminate bedbugs completely. Here are the quick tips but if you want more details, refer to how to get rid of bed bugs article

• When you check in a hotel room, check the luggage rack and the bed completely for the existence of bed bugs.
• Always avoid keeping the luggage on the floor.
• You can always seal your luggage in a Bugzip.
• When you get back home, do not bring the luggage into contact with any of the clothes in the house. Wash the clothes in your bags and then use them. Also, give a check to your luggage to see if there is any bed bug on it.

There are five stages of maturity for the bed bug. An adult bed bug can live for a year or more. It can stay without feeding for about eighty to one hundred forty days.

How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs?

You do not have to dispose the beds and the mattresses that have been infested. After the treatment and after checking thoroughly that there are no more bed bugs in them, you can enclose them in different encasements.

You can apply a bit of Vaseline to the legs of beds as they cannot crawl on polished surfaces. You can also place them in metal jars as they cannot climb the metal surfaces.

De-clutter your house as much as possible. Vacuum the entire house thoroughly especially the beds, mattresses, blankets and so on.

When you purchase second-hand furniture, check thoroughly to see any infestation of bed bugs.

The best solution for the problem of bed bugs is to approach the professionals because they will know how to handle these parasitic insects and will initiate the removal process effectively. Call a licensed pest control professional as they will know the right pesticide and the right way to use it. Do not try anything on your own as it might have hazardous effects. Sometimes one cycle of treatment may not be enough for heavy infestations of bed bugs. The pest control professionals might have come again to completely eliminate the blood sucking insects.

Keep yourself safe when the pesticide is applied. Keep the kids away from home when the pest control operation is carried out.

There is nothing to fret and fume if you find these bed bugs in your homes. Professional help is just one call away and your home will be completely bed-bug free.

Just when you thought that your house was pest free, you see a small black speck moving on your bed. You try for a closer view and it is disappeared nowhere. But after some hard work, you manage to find it. It is a bed bug and there are chances that there are more hidden underneath your bed. First, we need to quickly understand their habitat.

Getting to Know Bed Bugs

So, for all you fortunate people who do not know about bed bugs, they are small parasitic insects that live on the blood of animals. The common bed bug that normally evades our homes is Cimex Lectularius, which has adapted to living with us human beings. It has got the name “bed bug” because it usually resides in beds and surrounding areas.

There is a belief that bed bugs usually reside in unhygienic areas. That is not true. Even though your house may be sparkling clean, you may still find the bed bugs there. This is because they may have gotten into your house through some thing from an infected area outside like hotels, hospitals, other houses or different modes of transportation. There are also chances that your house might have been infested by bed bugs before you moved in.

They are usually active at nights and feed on blood from people when they are asleep. Many a times, you do not even realize that it has actually sipped your blood. Most of them develop red bumps because of the bite by a bed bug. But it so happens that you may not know what exactly caused the bite. In fact, you may not even know that there are bed bugs in your house because they are not seen easily, they move at a rapid pace and they are mostly active at nights only.

Getting Rid of Bed Bugs

So how do you handle these bed bugs? It is quite a herculean task to exterminate these bed bugs. Just washing the bed sheets and other spread might not be of great help. You might have to follow the following steps to treat and kill bed bugs

· First of all, try to locate the places where they have infested.

· Reduce the clutter in your house especially in the areas of infestation.

· If you find any damages in your bed, seal them forever.

· Seal the cracks or holes in your walls or in your furniture.

. Try bedbug traps to catch them. This works when the infestation is in the early to mid stages.

· Finally, if nothing works, call the professional pest control team to treat the bed bugs.

Remember not to apply any and every pesticide yourself. They could be hazardous to you and your family, especially kids.

Lastly, though bed bugs can be of great nuisance, they can be always be completely treated and eradicated. So do not worry if you find them in your house. Remove them completely and ensure that they do not make your home their home once again.

Have you been losing your sleep over the bed bug issue? Have you found infestations of bed bugs in your house? If yes, then it is time you took some measures to get rid of those pests as soon as possible.

Here are some of the tips and tricks that have been tried and tested to get rid of those pests in your house:

· Remove all the clutter in your house, especially your bed room.

· Vacuum every nook and corner of your house thoroughly. Also vacuum clean your beds and mattresses, the sides of the furniture and where ever you can reach in. Once you are through with it, empty the vacuum immediately.

· Wash your bed linen with hot water. You can subject the clothing to extreme temperatures to kill the bed bugs.

· Ensure that your bed is placed at a distance from the wall. One of the age old tricks is to place the legs of the bed in the soapy water or apply petroleum jelly to them. This is done to avoid the crawling of the bed bugs on the legs. Since they are wingless insects, they will not be able to fly too.

· Seal all the cracks and the crevices that you find anywhere and everywhere because they are the places that are most haunted by the bed bugs.

· You can place the mattresses and beds in covers or bags with zips.

· Scrub the areas that likely could be the homes of bed bugs with a brush thoroughly.

· Try bed bedbug traps. In many cases, using a trap will control the infestation.

· There are lot of mild pesticides available in the market. If you are going to apply the pesticide yourself, then ensure that you have the right one for the bed bugs. Follow the instructions carefully and protect your family and yourself while doing it. Wash your hands thoroughly after applying the pesticide.

· When you are not sure what to do, it is always best to leave the job to the professionals. Call the pest control professionals and they will take care of treating the bed bugs. If the bed bug infestation is really high, then it might take two or three cycles of the application of the pesticides.

Lots of people do not understand why their houses are infested by bed bugs even though they are spotlessly clean. The existence of the bed bugs definitely does not depend on the cleanliness or the neatness of the house. They would have entered your house through different sources. If you have been travelling lately and staying at various hotels, the bed bugs could have come from such places or your modes of transport.

So every time you travel, ensure that you do not keep your luggage on the floor. Check all the bedding and the mattress thoroughly for any infestation of bed bugs. When you reach home and find that your luggage has bed bugs, then you should immediately empty the baggage, treat them and the contents with extreme hot or cool temperatures.

Similarly, when you buy the second hand furniture, check the folds and the downside of the furniture thoroughly for the existence of the bed bugs. You might also have to confirm if the bed bugs are there before you move in to the house that you have bought or rented.

Remember that bed bug is not dangerous and if treated properly at the right time, it can be eliminated completely.