Growth Rate of Bed Bugs is Bad News
Bed bugs thrive in places where large numbers of warm blooded animals sleep. For this reason the parasites, which live on a diet of blood from animals and birds exclusively, are more common in hotels, motels and apartment buildings than they are in private homes and more likely to be found in urban areas that in the countryside.
It was only recently that bed bugs became uncommon among a large segment of humanity. Even today there are large areas of the world where bed bugs have never stopped being common. It was only with the development of insecticides in the 1930s that the bug was driven from our beds. The use of DDT and similar products made the bed bug essentially extinct in the USA by the 1940s. But the pest lived on in the wild and elsewhere.
The dramatic increase in the number of reported cases of bed bug infestation in North America began in the late Nineties. The unwelcome return of this pest after a half century absence is not currently under control, with a reported 5 times increase in populations in recent years.
It is believed that there are a number of factors behind this new epidemic of bed bugs. The increase in international travel has been cited as one possible cause. Another widely cited contributory factor is new methods of pest-control. In the 1990s fumigators began to use bait to control cockroaches rather than pesticide sprays. The bait introduced poisons into the colonies. This process was found to be more effective and less intrusive than spraying and the use of insecticidal and other sprays was reduced to almost nil.
The discovery that outbreaks were popping up in geographically disparate locations led to the discovery of problems in the poultry industry. Epicenters in Delaware, Texas and Arkansas were found to center around poultry farming operations. Infected poultry were transferring insects and eggs onto the workers.
The infestation problem in New York City id particularly acute. In the 2004-2005 period the city saw the total number of reported cases of bedbugs in the last half of 2005 surpass by 20 per cent the total number of cases reported in all of 2004. Toronto, Canada, was added to the list 2004. Both outbreaks are thought to tied to the presence of large populations of international travelers.
A central difficulty in getting these numerous outbreaks under control is the resistance the insect has developed to the chemicals used in the cockroach sprays that were so prevalent in the 1950-1990 era. Deltamthrin resistance was found to have increased 260 times over the kill point found in the original studies of the chemical.
The spread of bed bugs is assisted by the growth in long distance travel and the concentration of humans in urban centers. International travelers pick up bed bugs when traveling in countries where the pest has always been present. National travelers and tenants pick them up in hotels, motels, schools, the workplace: anywhere we gather in crowds of individuals from diverse regions.
The EPA in the United States has called a summit to address the growing problem of bed bugs.
Get important information and details on the right ways to get bed bug control easy and fast! When you have all the tools you need to effectively achieve bed bug control, you will be able to start enjoying your sleep without itching.
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Facts to Know About Bed Bugs
Bed bugs are small reddish brown parasitic insects that feed exclusively on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded creatures. They are very small, only 5-7 mm long and with a flat body. They are a menace in places where there are many people, such as in hotels. People must learn more about these insects, as these can be potentially very harmful to human beings. Bed bug bites can cause mild to moderate allergic reactions like itching and hives.
The problem of bed bugs has existed for centuries. These parasites are known by many different names such as redcoat, heavy dragoon, and mahogany flat. The world thought that it had totally eradicated them in the last 50 years with the extensive use of pesticides but the bugs have recently come back in big numbers because of the increase in international travel. They are also tougher to kill because they can now resist the old pesticides.
The first signs of a bed bug infestation are actual bites from lying in bed. Some more warning signals are fecal and blood stains on the bed sheet, crushed bed bug corpses, and cast skin. Persons who think that they have a bed bug infestation should consult and employ an expert pest control service to thoroughly inspect the house and plan a way to eradicate the bugs.
When bugs are found to be present, a number of measures can be taken to eradicate the infestation. They can be physically removed through vacuuming. A high efficiency particulate air filtered vacuum should remove almost all bugs and their allergens.
They can also be removed by sticking tape onto them or brushing them into a container of alcohol. Excluding and then sealing off openings to their harbor sites also helps by keeping bugs isolated where they will eventually just die.
Applying extreme heat or cold on bugs is also effective because bugs die at extreme temperatures. Steam cleaners typically generate over 45 degree Celsius heat and this is enough to kill bugs that come into contact. A drawback of this method is that steam cleaners can only cover a small area. Mattresses also are hard to disinfect with this method because they tend to absorb the heat before it can get to the bugs. Commercial efforts are also underway to develop rapid freezing sprays.
Pesticides are far less effective than they were fifty years ago, when they nearly killed off the bed bug population at the time. Present bugs are nearly immune to those older pesticides. To kill off the bugs of today, a properly formulated residual chemical insecticide must be applied on all possible surfaces that bugs may crawl and reside in.
There are many other ways to deal with bed bug infestations. Since a multi-pronged approach is usually the best one to take, a pest control service really must be employed to determine the right mix of methods to be used. For prevention, individuals should look into buying or making a plastic cover for their mattresses.
Find your own Bed Bug Cover today.
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