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Bed bugs extermination can be difficult because they are small, but they can sometimes cause very big problems for you, especially when they are in their favorite place… your bed. Most people think that bed bugs only live under cushions and mattresses. That is true to some extent but those are not the only places that they can live. They can also live in some of your other furniture like sofas and recliners. They are also more than capable of living in a makeshift place like in the cracks of walls and behind wallpapers or cracks and crevices in your furniture.

Mostly bed bugs look for their pray at night. That’s the main reason these pests like to live in the bed. You can sometimes tell just by the smell of the mattress that it has been infested with bed bugs. If you keep the mattress out in the sun for an hour or so, the bugs will go away. However, they will most likely come back unless the conditions that allowed them to appear in the first place are corrected.

The small size of these bugs really makes it difficult for one to control them. You should regularly check your bed sheets. There are special mattress covers that are used for the control and prevention of bed bugs. Since the bed bugs are also dark colored, they can be very difficult to spot with a naked eye. So you need to be careful when you check your sheets and make sure the bugs are not there. They can also jump off from the sheet and get into your bags or clothes so you also need to be careful there. Try to keep them in their designated places away from your bed. These are just some of the reasons bed bugs extermination can be a difficult process.

For more information on how to get rid of bed bugs and the methods you can use visit: howtogetridofbedbugsnow.com

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Have you been wondering where bed bugs come from? If  you answered yes, then you want to be sure and read this. You will learn what they are, where they come from and most importantly how to get rid of bed bugs for good.

Learn more about how to get rid of bed bugs here

What Do Bed Bugs Look Like?

Bed bugs are a small nocturnal insect that feed on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded hosts. It is a wingless, rust-colored insect about the size of an apple seed. Bed bugs are attracted by human body heat and they typically like to feed on our arms and shoulders. They are known to feed for five to ten minutes at one time and as it fills with blood, its coloring changes from light brown to rust–red.

Where do bed bugs come from?

Bed bugs come from a wide variety of places. They are passed around on clothing as well as luggage, furniture in hotels, motels, and other places one might stay temporarily. An increase in bed bug infestations may be directly linked with the increase in the number of people who travel. Getting rid of bed bugs is not always easy. Adult bed bugs can survive without a meal for a year or longer in the right conditions. These troublesome pests can be eliminated, usually with the help of a professional exterminator however, there are a few things that you can try on your own.

Thoroughly wash, vacuum or clean all surfaces and bedding
Wash or dry-clean bedding and clothing
Use hot water and a dryer on the hottest setting whenever possible
Steam clean carpets

Although bed bugs can be a problem, you can keep them from spreading with the right treatment and a few simple tricks.

More Information on Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs: Treatment & Tips For Getting Rid Of Them

Bed Bugs: Treatment & Tips For Getting Rid Of Them. No Matter How Clean You Keep Your Home–Bed Bugs Can Thrive As Long As They Have A Host To Feed On: You.

How to Avoid Hand-Me-Down Bedbugs

Advocacy group New York vs. Bedbugs released Bed Bugs in New York City: A Citizen’s Guide to the Problem—27 pages of bedbug stats. They have been campaigning for committees and bills, as well as providing a sort of bedbug support group. 

Behavior of bed bugs in response to heat — New York vs Bed Bugs

These studies of bed bug behaviour in order to address the concern of bed bugs simply exiting the hot place for next door are critical. I am looking forward to hearing Raj and Stephen come up with a strategy of treatment.

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“Bed Bugs Invade America!” screamed the headline on a supermarket tabloid. “Tiny, Evil and Everywhere” shrieked the Washington Post. “Bloodthirsty Bedbugs Stage Comeback” thundered National Geographic News.

Click Here to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

Read the headlines and you get the impression that bed bugs have invaded our shores in force and are chomping their way down Main Street USA. Until five years ago bed bug reports were virtually non-existent in the U.S. Then the blood-sucking insects started cropping up in homes, apartments, hotels and college dorms across the country fueling a media frenzy. Chastising fellow journalists, David Segal of the Washington Post pointed out in a February article, “more than 400 articles have wriggled into print, all making roughly the same point: The bloodsucking critters are back, and in numbers that amount to a scourge.” Segal claims that “the scale of this ’swarm’ has been overstated, maybe wildly so. … ‘The bugs are back’ is so perfect a trend story that it seems hand-forged by the trend-story gods. It’s what happens when you combine a creepy villain, primal fear and squishy statistics.”

In the March issue of Pest Management Professional, editorial director Frank Andorka made this rebuttal to Segal’s story: “Of course, many reporters are rooting for the bed bug: It’s great copy - a cryptic, bloodsucking insect that feeds on people when they are sleeping and is difficult to control. What could possibly be a better story than that? But just because it’s good copy doesn’t mean the stories aren’t true.”

So what’s the real story? Are bed bugs a genuine threat or is this so much media hype. Some argue that journalists are feeding the frenzied paranoia of a panicked citizenry. Others point to very real statistics that show a 70% increase in reported bed bug infestations in the U.S. in the past five years. In a national survey conducted for Pest Management Professional, University of Kentucky entomologist Michael Potter found, “A whopping 91% of respondents reported their organizations had encountered bed bug infestations in the past two years. Only 37% said they encountered bed bugs more than five years ago.” Pest control companies that for decades had received no calls about bed bugs are suddenly receiving dozens. In large urban areas it’s not uncommon for companies to field 100 to 150 bed bug complaints a week, according to a National Pest Management Association survey.

After near eradication by DDT-based pesticides in the 1950s, bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are on the rise. A worldwide scourge throughout human history, bed bugs, fleas and lice used to be regular nightly bedmates. Your grandmother’s bedtime mantra — “Sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite!” - was rooted in the reality of pre-World War II life when bed bugs were commonly found in beds across the U.S. In the 1930s, people wallpapered their bedrooms with arsenic-laced wallpaper to kill bed bugs. Metal bed frames, considered less likely to harbor bed bugs, were the rage. Twice a year bedsteads were completely dismantled and scrubbed to keep bed bugs at bay. Until the insect-killing properties of DDT were discovered during World War II, no effective pesticide existed to eradicate bed bugs. Development of DDT-based insecticides after the war allowed America and most industrialized countries to stamp out bed bugs.

Discovery of DDT’s cancer risk to humans and lethal threat to wildlife led to its banning in the early 1970s. By the mid-1990s, reports of bed bug infestations began to surface in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Western Europe. With no lethally effective pesticide available, bed bugs have multiplied and spread. “Since the mid-1990s, numbers of reported infestations have almost doubled annually,” said Clive Boase, author of a bed bug study published by the Institute of Biology in London. Bed bug infestations in London have risen tenfold since 1996, Boase reported. According to National Geographic News, bed bug complaints to pest control companies increased 700% in Australia between 2000 and 2004 and 500% in the U.S. While these figures seem astonishing, keep in mind that if a pest controller received two bed bugs calls in 2000, an increase of 500% would equal 10 calls in 2004, not quite the “invasion” trumpeted in news reports. Still, last year bed bug infestations were reported in every state in the U.S., and reports are increasing exponentially each year. “This is a serious issue,” Potter recently told the New York Times. “This will be the pest of the 21st century.”

Scientists haven’t pinned down a single cause for the bed bug proliferation, but cite a combination of factors, including the increased ease of international travel, lack of potent insecticides, and discovery of pesticide-resistant bed bugs. The size of an apple seed, these wingless insects are nocturnal, hiding in tiny cracks and crevices on mattresses and near beds, and coming out at night to feed on human blood. Females typically lay 500 eggs during their six- to 12-month lifespan. Eggs hatch in four to 12 days, and larva begin to feed, reaching adult status in about a month. Three or more generations can be produced in a year. A few bed bugs can lead to a major infestation in just a short time. Easily transported, bed bugs often enter a home on luggage, clothing or used or rental furniture. They spread through multi-unit properties like apartments and hotels through air ducts, electrical and plumbing conduits and wall voids. New York City recently launched an education campaign when serious bed bug infestations in the immigrant community were linked to the sale of infested secondhand mattresses.

Not all bed bug complaints turn out to be bed bugs. “I get samples every day,” said Harvard University entomologist Richard Pollack, who noted that “fewer than half” turn out to be bed bugs. Carpet beetles, lice, fleas, ticks, chiggers, mites, even lint are often mistaken for bed bugs. False alarms are part of the territory, said New York City housing authority spokesman Howard Marder. “Experience shows that residents may have heard rumors about bedbugs, so if they wake up with a rash or an itch, they think they’ve got them. … If you make people aware of a problem, reports about it are likely to go up.”

Sometimes the power of suggestion results in delusory parasitosis, or Ekbom’s Syndrome, in which real environmental elements such as static electricity or dry skin cause severe itching that is incorrectly perceived to be caused by insects. Scratching can cause bleeding welts that only serve to “validate” victims’ claims of an insect infestation. Most incidents are related to seasonal changes in humidity triggered by the start up of heating or air conditioning systems.

For those who actually do have bed bugs, the experience can be traumatic. Bites leave red, itchy welts that can bedevil bed bug victims. While scientists assure us that bed bugs are merely a nuisance pest and do not transmit diseases, the thought of being nibbled on while they sleep is enough to send many victims screaming from their beds. “It’s horrible. They’re feeding on your family, your skin; their main meal is a human body,” a horrified Atlantic Beach bed bug victim told NBC 12 First Coast News in Jacksonville, Florida. She said her two-year-old would wake up crying from the bites. Shannon (who refused to give her last name) spent hours shuttling her welt-covered children to different doctors before an entomologist correctly diagnosed the problem as bed bugs. In a typical reaction, Shannon threw out mattresses, beds, sofas and linens. She moved her family out and hired a pest control company to “tent” and fumigate their house. New technologies like Cryonite which freezes and kills bugs and eggs using non-toxic carbon dioxide vapor can be applied without going to such extremes. But when bed bugs bite, most people panic. They don’t care whether there’s a bed bug invasion sweeping America or not. One bug in their bed is one too many.

Click Here to Get Rid of Bed Bugs

By: Douglas Stern

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Douglas Stern is the managing partner of Stern Environmental Group and a bed bug extermination expert. His firm serves commercial and residential clients in New Jersey, New York City, New York, and Connecticut. His firm is located at 100 Plaza Drive in Secaucus, New Jersey. You can reach him toll free at 1-888-887-8376. Please visit us on the Web at www.SternEnvironmental.com.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/02/which_famous_tv_couple_had_bed.html

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/consumerblog/2009/04/how-to-keep-bed-bugs-at-bay.html

http://bedbugbureau.com/blog/2009/04/

http://onemansblog.com/tag/bedbugs/

Technorati Tags: bed bugs travel, info on bed bugs, where do bed bugs come from

It was not too long ago that bed bugs were considered a pest of the past. Recently, however, there seems to be a resurgence of this annoying bug and new efforts are being made to determine the best means of how to kill bed bugs.

The most common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is the species, which prefers a human host. Other varieties look for wild animals such as bats and birds. These bugs are usually about one quarter of an inch long with an oval shaped body, brown or dark red in color. How to kill bed bugs didn’t become a priority until just a few short years ago when they began making a come back.

There are some relatively easy ways known about how to kill bed bugs, such as washing all clothing in hot water and drying them on the hottest drying cycle. With items, which cannot take the heat, they can be put in the freezer. For larger, bulkier items, such as mattresses, they can be sealed in black plastic and placed in the sun. The gathering heat inside the plastic will kill them. However, his could take up to two weeks and the condition of the materials may dictate they are discarded.

Killing Bed Bugs At The Source

Many questions remain about how to kill bed bugs at the source. Especially since the source may be hard to pin point, it’s helpful to call in an expert. Bed bugs hide in the smallest areas during the day, such as in the tufts of mattresses or behind floor molding. They creep out in the middle of the night, feed on their human hosts, rarely waking them up, and then scuttle back to their nest.

When you wake up covered with bites and left over blood is when you start asking how to kill bed bugs. Low odor chemical treatment is probably the best method, and it’s best left to a professional not just because of the hazardous properties of the chemicals, but for their experience in locating all the places bed bugs hide.

Another method of how to kill bed bugs involves chemicals which render the males sterile, unable to fertilize the females who lay anywhere from 200 to 500 eggs at a time. While this method can be effective, it does take a considerable amount of time. In addition, if the female eggs produce more males, it may not last long enough to get them all.

For more information, click here.

http://www.blog4brains.com/2009/04/20/bedbugs-be-gone/

http://www.newyorkrealestatelawyerblog.com/2009/03/buyer_beware_of_bed_bugs.html

http://www.protectpatientsblog.com/2009/04/the_bed_bugs_are_back_1.html

http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/bed-bug-alert/

Technorati Tags: how do you get rid of bed bugs, how to kill bed bugs, treat bed bugs naturally

Are you tired of being bitten by bed bugs each night? Find out where they are hiding to flush them out and discover the best way to kill these pests before they ruin your life…

So you want to know how to kill bed bugs? Bed bugs are a big problem for many people. If you think you are being victimized by these pesky little creatures, then you may have already obsessed about getting rid of them.

Killing these guys and destroying the eggs they lay is the only way to get your life back to normal.

Bed bugs are pests that hide inside your mattress and box spring during the day as well as in the cracks and crevices of your bedroom floor and walls… While you are asleep at night, they crawl out of their favorite hiding places and feast on your blood.

Some people may develop an allergic reaction to the saliva that bed bugs leave from their bites. Medical treatment can control the allergic outbreak, but the best course of action is to exterminate bed bugs before this can happen.

Getting rid of bed bugs isn’t easy or fun… Buying a bug spray is the cheapest solution if your bed bug infestation isn’t widespread. But, before you use a bug spray you need to make sure bed bugs are the cause of your bites.

When you notice a live flat oval shaped wingless insect about inches long running by, try to capture it. Look for photos or illustrations of bed bugs online and see if what you caught appears the same. Once you positively identified these pests as bed bugs, you can then plan their extinction.

Bed bugs like clutter. So you’ll need to clean-up or re-organize your room to make it neat to reduce places for them to hide. Vacuum your bed, floors and furniture. Buy and use bug spray that says it will kill bed bugs. We reviewed a few products that users say works.

You may think you need a fogger, but the best way is to spot treat by spraying inside and around those cracks and crevices on the walls and floors where bed bugs hide. When spraying your mattress, let it dry out before putting the sheets back on.

Getting rid of bed bugs may take some time and effort… But if a back to normal life without bites and allergic reactions is important to you, then you really don’t have any other choice. Sprays or insecticides are probably the most effective way to kill bed bugs and their eggs and to prevent any future infestations.

Which spray kills bed bugs dead? Read our free reports on the 3 top bed bugs spray insecticides.

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Although bedbugs are quite small, many people wonder what an actual bedbug looks like.

Bedbugs are in the family of cimicidae, which are insects that have short forewings, oval to round body shapes and a flat profile. They are parasites of mammals and birds and though generally animal specific, bedbugs will feed on any animal that can provide a blood meal when faced with limited selections. These pests are not as horrible as you think. They don’t have diseases or imply dirtiness, in fact they can show up anywhere and cross all socio-economic boundaries, and to my surprise, they can live for a long time, over a year, without food.

Bed bugs look like they are not active in the reproductive department, but that is wrong assumption. During their life span, female bed bugs can carry and survive three pregnancies. Bed bugs look like small creeping objects in crevices and small holes in the floor, the walls or even your bed. If you are sharp-eyed enough, bed bugs may look or appear as if they are vampires.

These critters are fairly fast in their movements, about equal to the speed of ants. They may be slowed down if engorged and are found mostly in hotels’ mattresses, headboards, and furniture. They eventually jump into people’s luggage and clothes and travel with the person to his or her next destination. Prevention takes the form of good sanitation and frequent cleaning, such as regular housecleaning and washing of bedding. As bed bugs are found worldwide, travelers abroad should also be watchful for signs of infestation.

Being slightly smaller than an apple seed they can hide in the folds and seams of mattresses and other furniture, emerging at night to feed on a warm-blooded host. Part of what makes them so tricky to eradicate is that the insects aren’t confined to the bed but can also hide on shelves bedding material and even on the floor. They are not known to spread disease to people but the itching from the bites, though, can be so bad that some people will scratch enough to cause breaks in the skin that may get infected. Bed bugs are flat and thin when unfed, but become more elongate, plump and red in color when they are full of blood. They have four antennae that are attached to the head.

Nothing is worse than having bed bug bites all over your body when you wake up early in the morning. Instead of being greeted with a special in bed breakfast, you’ll start your day treating all those bites so that they won’t become worse.

By: Mumby

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

www.my-bedbug-4u.com/articles/articles.html

Bed Bug Resources

What Do Bedbugs Look Like And Do They Only Stay In Beds?

So what exactly do bedbugs look like, you ask? Well, while they are indeed extremely small in size, they can nonetheless be seen. They are roughly as large as the fingernail on your pinky. And they will either have a red or a brown hue.

What should I do before exterminators come to spray for bedbugs …

I would suggest getting new bedding materials, hence there is no magical answer for bed bugs.

Technorati Tags: bed bugs bites, info on bed bugs, what do bed bugs look like

Bedbugs may be small but they sure are terrible since they cause a lot of trouble. They can transmit diseases like kala-azar and tularemia. The former is a parasitic disease characterized by fever, anemia, enlargement of the liver and spleen, and edema.

Bedbugs are as well accountable for the pestilence that destroyed millions of inhabitants in Asia and Europe. Named in the Middle ages as the plague or black death, this pestilence creates chills, elevated fever, head pains, throwing up, swelling of the lymph glands, and black hemorrhagic marks in all the body parts. Professionals state an additional outbreak can break out in this world if the vermin that start it, bedbugs as well, aren’t managed.

How can bed bugs be treated? If you suspect that there are bed bugs present, or even if are only precautionary, there are certain measures that can be taken to prevent them from establishing. These methods have been proven effective. First, make sure you wash all of your bedding, curtains, and vacuum carpets and mattresses on a fairly regular basis.

Another way of how to treat bedbugs? If you know you have an infestation of bedbugs then wash all clothing and materials in the hottest water they can stand. If you have a severe infestation of bedbugs then it may be better to dispose of the mattress altogether and buy a new one.Be careful to thoroughly wash and clean any second hand items of furniture or clothing you acquire as bedbugs can enter your home in this way. Similarly, if you have been travelling, take special care to inspect and if necessary treat everything you carried home with you, including suitcases, rucksacks and backpacks.

How to treat bedbugs using herbs? Herbs to treat bedbugs: Mint, Lavender, Cayenne, Cilantro , Black Walnut, Garlic ,Red Pepper ,Black Pepper, Rosemary ,Thyme ,Clove. These herbs can be used in sachets, strewn in infested areas, or infused into spray form and applied that way. You can find many blends and concoctions on the market today that are ready to use. Look online to find out more about how to use herbs to treat bed bugs, as well as ways to use these herbs.

Professional bedbug eradication, like home pest control, is no more common. This is because bedbugs themselves are not common anymore with homemade remedies for their control. Bugs usually hide in baseboards, carpets, under dressers and between mattresses and box springs all of which can be sprayed with homemade recipes. You could also take other measures with the bed to kill the pests, like placing the legs inside dishes of water, or greasing the legs with petroleum jelly, thus blocking their passage up the leg since bedbugs don’t fly or jump.

By: Thomas Proctor

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Bedbugs are also responsible for the plague that killed millions of people in Asia and Europe. Experts say another plague could strike the earth if the pests that bring it, bedbugs included, are not controlled. How can bed bugs be treated? Bedbug eradication can be difficult. Finally, if the bedbug infestation is severe, it is best to dispose infested items, such as mattresses and couches.

Bed Bug Resources

Treat Bed Bugs
Bed bugs hide in the sheets, springs, mattresses, bed frames, and cracks of buildings. They have also been known to hide under wallpaper.

How To Treat Bedbugs With What You Already Have

Another way of how to treat bedbugs? If you know you have an infestation of bedbugs then wash all clothing and materials in the hottest water they can stand.

Technorati Tags: treat bed bugs naturally, treatment for bed bugs, what are bed bugs

The bed bug is a common but serious pest in homes around the world. This article provides information on how to determine if you have bed bugs and what you can do to prevent and rid your home of them.

A resurgence of Cimex lectularius, better known as the common bed bug , has turned playful bedtime sendoffs into truly fearful warnings. This resurrection can largely be attributed to the halt in using the pesticide DDT that nearly eradicated bed bugs in the United States in the 1950s, leaving little to no defense against the uprising miniscule offenders today. Adding to this effect is the fact that bed bugs are nocturnal in nature, preying on sleeping people across the world. They feed on human blood, leaving only a trail of red itchy welts or localized swellings on the skin as calling cards of their appearances.

While red marks may be an indication of an infestation, they are definitely not a confirmation. Finding these critters is no easy task, as they are approximately 4-5 mm in length with a flattened form, allowing them to hide in crevices and creases with ease. While often found hiding all over the house, their favorite spot to conceal themselves-in the event that a mattress cover or pillow cover are not being used-is in or around the bed, hence their name. Being so close to their primary food source gives them the opportunity to feed every 5-10 days, though they are able to live up to 18 months without eating. .

A bed bug will dine on human blood for approximately 5-15 minutes before it will be fully engorged, more than tripling its size. This change has been known to cause misidentification as it becomes round in shape, different from its naturally flat shape. Additionally, when it is an adult it becomes brown in color, except after feeding when it takes on a dark red hue due to the intake of human blood.

Because of their minuscule size and innate ability to hide, bed bugs can enter the home in a multitude of ways, including any type of object that can be transferred from one home, apartment, condo, hotels, etc., to another. This transferability, coupled with their hyperactive reproduction, allows their wrath to be widespread very quickly, especially in homes that are older or have many cracks and crevices, messy cluttered homes, and homes where mattresses or pillows are not covered with some sort of allergen-reducing encasements. To get a feel of their ability to infest an entire house, here are some reproduction facts:

Females lay eggs in clusters of 10-50 in just one day
The eggs are whitish in color, pear shaped and approximately 1 mm in length
A female will lay up 500 eggs during her lifetime
Eggs hatch in 1-2 weeks time
In one year’s time, three generations of can be produced
Newly hatched nymphsas they are called-begin to feed on human blood immediately
Nymphs are colorless and the size of a pinhead
A nymph will go through five molting stages before becoming a full adult, feeding during each stage

Though these wingless vampires have been known to be brimming with pathogenshepatitis B and plague includedthey have not been shown to be a transmitter of disease. Unlike mosquitoes, they are not thought of as being a medical threat, making them more of an annoyance then anything else.

Some people try to live with bed bugs in their lives, though they often are covered with welts and scars from scratching all over their bodies. No distance is great enough to be protected once they have entered your home. They have been known to travel over 100 feet on their own to feed, making merely disinfesting your bed and using mattress and pillow covers a futile act.

In order to be fully rid of these pests, a home needs to be thoroughly cleaned, ensuring that every crease, crevice, floorboard, outlet and corner has been cleaned and rid of them and their eggs. Furthermore, every hole and crack should be filled and caulked, leaving little to no room for already existing eggs to penetrate the home. Once your house is rid of infestation, you should use a complete, zippered mattress encasement, a complete zippered pillow encasement, and a zippered encasement for your box spring. This traps any existing critters inside, essentially permanently removing them from their food source, and disallowing new bugs from hiding in their beloved hotbeds.

Learning more about bed bug prevention is simple.

The CleanRest website features products and quality information on protecting your home from bed bugs.

Technorati Tags: treat bed bugs naturally, what do bed bug bites look like, what do bed bugs look like

Info On Bed Bugs & The Symptoms Of Bed Bug Bites

If your parent or grandparent ever tucked you in at night, you may have heard this common, yet somewhat curious, chant. Most children never see or hear of bedbugs and never have any idea what their ridiculous parents are talking about, drifting off to sleep without any concern of the attack of the so-called ‘bedbugs’. But, what they are blissfully unaware of is that there actually are bedbugs, scientific name cimex lectularius, and they would love to dine on the delicate flesh of a tender young offspring, if given the chance.

These creatures were most common when our ancestors were dwelling in caves, unprotected from the creatures preying on all the common wildlife of the day, but almost unheard of in the modern world of developed society. Approximately the size of a small apple seed as adults, these creepy-crawlies are notoriously difficult to find. They, like the common tick, are thin enough to slip between floor boards, under outlet covers and into the smallest spaces one could imagine, only emerging at night to feast on their unsuspecting prey.

The result of their bite and feast is no more or less harmful than that of a spider or dedicated mosquito - swelling and itching usually - and can only carry live disease, such as HIV, for up to an hour on its mouth parts so is not well know for passing disease in the modern world. And adult bedbugs can survive up to one year without feeding on blood, so their survivorship of hard times is quite amazing.

The last decade has seen an unprecedented increase in reported bites in highly developed countries - Australia in particular, reporting a 700% increase from 2000 to 2004 compared to the previous 4-year period. There however, the vast majority of the cases were reported from lower-end lodging such as back-packer hotels, people camping or in less than standard dwelling. But even here, in the good old US of A, there are increased reports on both coasts and everywhere in between, from hospitals and dorm rooms, hotels and motels, apartments and even town homes, single family homes and on cruise ships - anywhere there’s good eating for these hungry little bugs. The higher density the population, the happier they are with no regard to income or social status.

Immigrants and travelers have been blamed for their recent re-introduction into modern and developed countries in recent years. With no place on earth outside a couple days travel, we could potentially see other interesting parasites make it onto US turf as well, if customs has no way of detecting and eliminating them.

There is one additional variety of bedbug, cimex hemipterus, that prefers tropical settings, that is said to be in up to 65% of homes located in those regions. These have also made their way into Australia, but not yet to the US, most of which were directly linked to travel to Asia and other Pacific countries.

One of the reasons sited, but not confirmed for the recent proliferation of these pesky intruders is their increased resistance to certain pesticides. In the past pest-control chemicals tended to be broad based, aimed at wiping out cockroaches, ants and the like but also wiping out the populations of bedbugs at the same time. Now, as chemicals are refined to target very specific species, the bedbug is not affected by them, even immune to their effects, thusly given the opportunity to breed and flourish.

If you have a concern about bedbugs or even suspect them to be in your own home, the best thing to do is alert a pest-control company. Typically they will make some recommendations to you and even visit to inspect the area and apply some chemicals to eliminate the parasites from the area. Do not be alarmed by them however, because besides the itchy bite mark, these little critters are fairly benevolent to you and your children or pets.

By: Trisha Coppley

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

For More Information on How To Get Rid of Bed Bugs - Please Visit: www.BedBugsUsa.com!

Technorati Tags: info on bed bugs, symptoms of bed bug bites, where do bed bugs come from

 Bed Bug Prevention

With the rash of reports from travelers around the world getting stung by bedbugs and bringing them home it is no wonder people are in fear every time they leave home. Whether you are hiking in a remote area staying in a flophouse or traveling first class staying at a five star resort you are in danger of an attack of these blood thirsty vermin. Here are a few things you can do to dramatically reduce your chance of bed bug bites though.

First, never put your bags or clothes on the bed. This common mistake is a virtual invitation for the bugs to hitch a ride home with you. Never leave your clothes or bags on the hotel floor.

Look behind the headboard and pull the bed out a foot or so look all around the bed for black specks. These creatures are very small if you see anything suspicious call the front desk. Leave the bed out from the wall during your stay. Bed bugs can not fly so if they have been coming from the nightstand they will have to get to you some other way.

Take a roll of clear packing tape with you while you travel. Wrap the legs of the bed sticky side out to trap the bed bugs trying to get to you. I know this seems extreme but you would rather feel weird than get stung.

Pull all of the bedding off the sides of the bed and look under the seams of the mattress. You are looking for something that looks like dirt smudges. This is the trail of blood and feces left by the bed bugs. If you find this leave the hotel once you find an infestation you should leave as fast as possible.

If you are an avid traveler I suggest taking two new king-size sheets and sewing them together on the bottom and sides. Use this at night like a big sleeping bag. Make sure and inspect and fold in the morning. Place this in a garbage bag and seal it while returning home. Unpack this before anything else and wash with the hottest water you have before using again.

Before leaving the hotel carefully inspect you luggage. Look under all the seams, the bugs you are looking for are sometimes small as a pinhead. Any discoloration, red marks, or stains are tell-tale signs of bed bugs.

Upon arriving home do not unpack your luggage in your bedroom. Unpack your luggage in your garage. Immediately wash your clothes in the hottest setting your fabrics will stand. Bag up any dry cleaning and take it there ASAP. Leave your luggage in the garage or place a bag around the luggage before returning to your room.

I know this seems like overkill but if you ever get bedbugs you will gladly apply these helpful tips the next time you travel, trust me..

In my next article I will explain how to handle finding bed bugs after you have stayed at a hotel. Even if you find them you do not have to bring them home.

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Benefits Of Having A Bed Bug Mattress Cover

Properly caring for our home’s furniture directly correlates to a longer lifespan for your belongings. This applies to couches, chairs and mattresses as well. This article describes specifically discusses the benefits of covering your mattress with an impermeable mattress cover.

If you are like most people, you get around six to eight hours of sleep every night. Over the course of time, those hours add up. In fact, the average human will spend around one-third of their life in bed, asleep. Since you spend so much time in bed, it is important that you keep your mattress as clean and comfortable as possible. Impermeable mattress covers and fitted sheets are a perfect way to prevent water and mold damage, dust mites, bed bugs, and other mattress-related issues that might hinder a good night’s sleep.

The benefits of using an impermeable mattress cover are numerous and varied. One of the most obvious reasons to cover your mattress is to prevent water damage and, consequently, mold damage. Water damage isn’t limited to the occasional spill in bed. Rain from an open window can also accumulate over time and cause prolonged damage. Mold and mildew can grow on an uncovered mattress in cool, damp environments and be quite a pain to get rid of. And parents know that it is definitely worth investing in a mattress cover if you have young children. Bed-wetting and accidents are the most common reasons parents throw away mattresses otherwise in good condition.

Mattress covers are also a great way to increase the longevity of your mattress. Impermeable covers are invaluable tools in keeping your mattress clean and like new. Most mattresses are thrown away because of simple wear-and-tear type damage. Mattress covers help prevent this damage and extend the life of your mattress.

Impermeable mattress covers help decrease allergy attacks among seasonal allergy sufferers. Pet dander is one the biggest contributing factors to common seasonal allergies. Dust and pet dander can build up in a mattress over time and aggravate allergy symptoms. By encasing your mattress in an impermeable cover, however, you prevent pet dander and dust build-up and lower the risk of serious allergic attacks.

Dust mites are another major reason to invest in impermeable mattress covers. A two-year-old mattress can be home anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million dust mites, and while the mites themselves are harmless, their shed skin and fecal matter can cause bronchial irritation and inflammation in asthma and allergy sufferers. Mattress covers prevent mite infestation by cutting off their primary food source -shed human skin cells.

A far more serious reason to invest in an impermeable mattress cover is the rise of bed bug infestations happening today. Bed bugs are very small parasites that thrive in temperate climates and feed off the blood of humans. They are primarily active at dawn, and are common in most every part of the world. Bed bugs inject an oily, odiforous liquid into the skin of the host it is feeding from, causing swelling, itching, and other irritating skin conditions. A female bed bug can lay up to 500 eggs during her lifetime. These eggs take approximately one to two weeks to hatch, and the hatchlings begin feeding immediately. Bed bugs take around four to five weeks to reach maturity, at which point they become reproductively active and start the whole cycle again.

Because bed bugs are extremely resilient in all stages of life, it can be fairly difficult and frustrating to get rid of an infestation. The best way to deal with bed bugs is to not let them take over your mattress to begin with. Impermeable mattress covers help keep bed bugs populations down immensely. Like dust mites, bed bugs need their human hosts to survive. By using an impermeable mattress cover or fitted sheet you effectively cut off their food sources, eliminating a large portion of the population.

Mattress covers exist in a number with varying features. Impermeable mattress covers made of non-organic materials are the most effective you can buy. Look for covers that are also waterproof as this will keep the moisture and dampness away from the mattress. Try to avoid mattress covers with zippers as dust mites and bed bugs are often small enough to crawl through zipper openings, no matter how slight.

A good mattress cover will help increase the longevity of your mattress and provide a clean, mite- and bed-bug-free place for you to get those much needed hours of sleep. CleanRest bedbug barriers: Learn more about protecting your family from allergens and dust mites using mattress covers from CleanRest.com.

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Bed bug advocate or bed bug victim? A response to the LA Times …

2 Easy way to kill bedbugs 01.04.09 at 9:58 am. Renee, I appreciate you hard work regarding this growing threat.

Bugged Out: Bed Bugs (Short Fiction)

As soon as I calm myself and lie back down, I feel three more bed bugs on my back, making me jump. I try to shake off and kill the beasts, but they, too have vanished.

This Is How You Catch Bedbugs

It is kind of difficult to catch bedbugs because of their small size, a better approach would be to simply kill them and be done with it. Bedbugs somehow hate the smell and the chemicals present in calamine lotion. Apply the lotion to the exposed part of your body such as your face, arms and legs. This will provide a natural deterrent to the pests.

Bedbugs could not have abandoned flying in the ancient past, but rather must have done so in more recent times, for they still retain the atrophied remains of wings. This means that we are seeing is the tail end of a process of transition from a flying bug to the crawling bug of today. They are very adaptable and move much quicker, and can pass through much smaller openings or cracks, than most people expect.

Being able to drink three times their weight in a single meal they a voracious and glutinous, and in large infestations, they emit a sweet, musty odor. Essentially these creatures have evolved into little insect ninjas and are very difficult to catch. Like high-tech radar they can detect sleeping humans and will only come out in the cover of darkness if their target is safely asleep. Originally they inhabited caves and fed on the blood of animals (and our ancestors). These scary relentless vermin can now live in our house.

Sometimes they get desperate because of hunger and will resort to rash behavior including coming out in the light, or biting eyelids, which is in contrast to their usual habits of stealth and sneakiness. Bedbugs multiply pretty quickly and if they are not treated quickly they can take a strong hold which makes them a little difficult to control.

Catching bedbugs is very difficult and time consuming because of their small size and abhorrence to light during the daytime. This doesn’t mean that they cannot be dealt with effectively. Washing linen at very hot temperatures or, surprisingly, exposing those same linen to very cold temperatures, will kill them quite because their bodies can only live within a certain temperature range.

By: Mumby

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

www.my-bedbug-4u.com/articles/catch.html

Technorati Tags: bed bugs treatment, how to kill bed bugs, killing bed bugs

Seattle Housing Authority, you are smart about bed bugs : Got bed …

The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) is buying a bed bug dog to sniff out public housing buildings for bed bugs. NWCN reports: In Seattle Housing Authority low-income buildings over the past three months the problem has exploded. 

MyFox Philadelphia | Woman Claims Bedbugs Bit Her At A.C. Casino …

A local woman says she has the pictures to prove she was bitten by bedbugs at an Atlantic City casino.   

What Are Bedbugs?

Have you ever asked the question, what are bedbugs? If you, or someone you know, has ever woken up with several strange bites on their body, they too may have asked this question.

Most householders of this generation have never seen a bed bug. Until recently, they also were a rarity among pest control professionals. Bed bug infestations were common in the United States before World War II. However, with improvements in personal and living hygiene, the bugs all but vanished.

The pests remained prevalent, though, in other regions of the world including Asia, Africa, Central/South America and Europe. Unfortunately, in recent years, bed bugs and bed bug bites have also made a comeback in the U.S. They are increasingly being encountered in homes, apartments, hotels and motels. International travel has undoubtedly contributed to the resurgence of bed bugs in this country. Changes in modern pest control practice - and less effective bed bug pesticides - are other factors suspected for the recurrence.

The presence of the creatures are no longer a sign of less-than-stellar cleaning skills, especially since many seem to be coming from Europe and the Middle East, by accompanying travelers on the way back home. Unfortunately, they are virtually impossible to eliminate without the help of a professional, and are often found in locations that make them difficult to detect. Their flat-body, oval shape and reddish brown color pale in comparison to the fact that they emit an unpleasant-smelling oily secretion from two glands on their undersurface.

Often erroneously associated with filth, they are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide, not by dirt, and they feed on blood, not waste. Bedbugs are not, strictly speaking, parasites, because unlike, God forbid, lice or crabs, they can survive away from their host. Basically, they eat and then crawl into a hiding place in the mattress or upholstery, or under the rug or the molding, or maybe into your clothes or your furniture, and sleep it off until the next time they’re hungry. They are small, even tiny insects (a small one can rest on the head of a pin and a larger on is less than a quarter inch and have four-segmented antennae that are attached to the head between the prominent compound eyes.

Bedbugs are one of the great travelers of the world and are readily transported by luggage, clothing, and furniture. Bedbugs are not very quick, so a fresh sheet offers temporary resistance, and any newly attached eggs will be destroyed. When removing the sheet, roll it down instead of pulling it off, put it in a plastic bag to transport to the laundry room, and wash in hot water right away.

By: Mumby

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

www.my-bedbug-4u.com/pages/what.html

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howtogetridofbedbugs.net is dedicated to providing quality information on the subject of bed bugs and in particular, on the where they come from and how to treat them.

Here you will find helpful reviews, informative information and tips and much more. This site is in the format of a ‘weblog’ so that each time I post new information, it will come to the top of the front page. This means that you can check back here frequently to see new updates to the information found here.

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All the best,

Melissa

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Melissa

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