Bedbugs and the Signs that You Have Been Bitten

Feeding off warm blooded animals is what has enabled the survival of bedbugs all of these years. There are a lot of different types of bedbugs that live around the world. Some of them are more apt to feed on human blood, while others will feed off of that from birds and bats. The scientific name for a bedbug is the Cimex lectularius.

When identifying a bug as a bedbug you need to know what they look like. A full grown bedbug is about 4mm in length and half of that size in width. They are a red-brown type of color and are oval in body shape. When they are babies they are a white-tan type of coloring, and very small in size. As they get bigger they shed the skin which will happen five times before they are fully grown.

Bedbugs are most active during the time of about an hour before dawn. They are not limited to being active at night as this also will depend on the food that is available for them to eat. They are able to find available food by using their senses in regards to heat and the carbon dioxide that is exhaled by the source of the food. They Use two tubes to bite their prey. One gives a form of anesthetic type of injection so that the victim cannot feel what is happening. The other sucks the blood from the victim. Once this is done they will return to hide as they are not required to feed everyday.

The bites that appear on humans are only detected after a human has become sensitized to them. This means the more times that you are bitten the more apt you will be to show the signs of this having occurred. Bedbugs will not carry any diseases on to you although some people that have been bitten by them will get skin infections in the area of the bite. Scarring can happen if people scratch the bitten areas to much.

They are very smart insects. They are also able to lay approximately 5 eggs at a time and can go through this process about 100 times during the lifespan that they have. This means that one female bedbug has the capability of laying 500 eggs in their lifetime. The eggs are about 1mm in length and even though hard to see, they can be seen. They hatch about 2 weeks after being laid and can start looking for victims of their own immediately after this. They will be full grown in a very short period of time, about 5 weeks in length.

When they are not eating they tend to stay where it is dark so that people will not notice them. This is easily done for them. There are a lot of myths that surround the bedbugs, but they are indeed real insects. Not to mention they are a hard pest to get rid of as well.