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Pest Profile: Bed bugs
Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius or Cimex hemipterus) are now once again a public health pest, prior to the year 2000 infestations were not common, but since then in Australia including Adelaide there has been a 5,000% increase in reported bed bug infestations.
Adult bed bugs are a wingless, typically oval in shape and 5-6mm long when fully grown. Their colour is a rusty brown and does change to a deep red colour following a blood meal. The juvenile stages, called nymphs, tend to be paler in colour and are from 1-4mm long. Bed bugs are flat which allows them to hide in cracks and crevices making detection extremely hard.
There a five juvenile stages known as nymphal stages, each nymphal stage requires a blood feed to malt to the next stage. The entire development from the first nymphal stage to the adult stage takes 6-8 weeks. Once an adult, a bed bug can live for 6 months with room temperate of 23C and longer in climates that are cooler.
All bed bugs require blood feeds for nutrition and development, once adult bed bugs have had blood feeds they are able to start mating. After mating each female is able to lay 2-3 eggs a day throughout her life span. The eggs are a cream-white colour and are cemented to a rough surface in the bed bugs harbourages. These commonly take 10 days to hatch.
Bed bugs have mouthparts that are adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Like most blood sucking insects bed bugs inject saliva during feed, the saliva has anticoagulant properties. Most bed bug feeding happens at night during the deepest part of our sleep, they sense our warmth and the carbon dioxide, once fed they retreat to the harbourage. If starved for sometime bed bugs will bite during the day, bed bugs can survive for long periods of time without a feed. While we are the preferred choice as a host, bed bugs are known to feed on other warm-blooded animals.
Bed bugs are a secretive insect, they tend to shelter in dark cracks and crevices close to where people sleep. These areas include under or in mattresses, between floorboards, behind skirting boards, in and behind paintings, under carpets, in cracks and crevices of walls, inside bed frames or bases, furniture and any other place in a room or area with dark cracks and crevices.
Bed bugs tend to stay in close contact with each other, heavy infestations can have a distinctive bug smell. Other tell tale signs of infestation are blood spotting on mattresses and furnishings, faecal matter and cast skins.
If you suspect a bed bug infestation contact us for pest control treatment to begin, we start with a free no obligation assessment and consultation. The key to success with bed bug control in Adelaide is the cooperation of both our pest control technician and yourself.
Allstate Pest Control has licensed trained pest controllers that are experts in the elimination of bed bug infestation, our elimination program is conducted as per the ‘Code of Practice for the Control of Bed Bug Infestations in Australia'. We use a three-pronged approach to bed bug exterminating, these include the application of registered non-hazardous chemical control products, vacuuming using a specially designed vacuum cleaner and the installation of bed bug mattress protectors. Our Bed bug management plan also comes with the best warranty in the business ensuring total satisfaction and elimination.
For further information or to view the Code of Practise please visit www.bedbug.org.au
Call Allstate Pest Control for 24-Hour 7 Day FAST Service on 8371 1277.
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