Representatives of the class Insects, order Hemiptera.
The order numbers about four thousand species, includes various ecological forms: terrestrial, aquatic, predatory and parasites. These include ectoparasites of humans, animals and birds.
Despite the significant improvement in the sanitary and epidemiological situation over the past century, everyone can still face the representatives of the latter group in our time. So, in living conditions and office premises, the most common bed bug is.
This uninvited guest can enter a person's dwelling in different ways.
- With various things brought from infected premises.
- On clothes.
- On contact with objects that may contain eggs and bug larvae.
- It comes by itself, migrating along the walls of houses or ventilation shafts, from premises where disinsection measures or repairs are carried out.
Adult bugs can move at a speed of more than 1 meter per minute in search of a host, the larva - up to 25 cm per minute. The parasite has an oval body 4-6 mm long, strongly flattened in the anteroposterior direction, which allows it to colonize such hard-to-reach places for people and light as the space under the baseboards, under the wallpaper, cracks in the floor, picture frames, old books, etc. etc. Body color - from light yellow to brownish brown. After saturation, the body darkens and becomes more rounded, and the bug itself is less mobile.
Characteristic features are short leathery elytra, which do not cover the abdomen, and reduced lower wings. There are three pairs of walking limbs on the body. The oral apparatus is of a piercing-sucking type, has two channels: for the absorption of liquid food and for the secretion of the secretion of the salivary glands.
Development is indirect (without metamorphosis), bypassing the pupal stage, the larvae are outwardly similar to the adult.
The male fertilizes the female by piercing her abdomen at the location of the genitals. On average, the female lays about five eggs per day, 500 in her entire life. The time of appearance of larvae from them is from five days to two months, in direct dependence on the ambient temperature (the higher, the sooner). Larvae feed on blood along with adults. At a time, the bug is able to drink an amount of blood twice its body weight. The average lifespan of an adult insect is one and a half years.
The bed bug survives in a wide temperature range from -25 to 50 degrees at any stage of its development. Eggs are resistant to pesticides. Adults and larvae can go without food for a long time (about six months).
Once a day, at night, the parasite leaves its shelter in order to feed. The bites themselves are not noticeable due to the presence of the anesthetic in the saliva.
After a while, a local reaction appears in the form of a small blister, redness, swelling. These phenomena are accompanied by severe itching, which, depriving a person of normal rest and sleep, leads to discomfort. When scratching, an infection can get into the wound. In some cases, in response to the ingestion of insect saliva, a strong allergic reaction develops, requiring urgent measures.
Bites from other blood-sucking insects (mainly mosquitoes) can be accompanied by similar local manifestations. To date, there is no reliable information about bed bugs as carriers of dangerous diseases.
The presence of bedbugs in the room can be indicated by a number of such indirect signs as:
- Regular appearance of multiple marks on the skin (the bug usually makes several attempts to get into the capillary). In this case, there are no mosquitoes in the room.
- The presence of traces of blood on the bed linen.
- With a significant increase in the number of parasites near their habitats, feces are found in the form of a large number of black dots, fragments of the integument of larvae, a specific smell is felt.
In order to catch the bug by surprise, you need to suddenly turn on the light at night and carefully examine the sleeping place and the space adjacent to it - wallpaper, bedside tables, baseboards, etc.
If your fears were not justified, then as a preventive measure you can recommend:
- Regular wet cleaning.
- Timely repair of residential and office premises.
- Compliance with the rules of personal hygiene.
If the enemy is found, it is necessary to proceed to its destruction.
Garments are exposed to heat treatment for at least 20 minutes. Microencapsulated organophosphorus and chlorine-containing preparations are used to destroy insects in the room and interior items. The main advantages of which are high efficiency and safety, as well as long-term aftereffect. This prevents insects from reappearing in the room. A significant disadvantage of these substances is a strong unpleasant odor and high toxicity. For this reason, it is undesirable to use them independently for pest control. It is better to entrust this matter to specialized services that have qualified personnel, the necessary equipment and means for this.
