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Informative Essay On Bed Bugs

Decent Essays

Does My Bed Have Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs are small insects that take up residence in soft furnishings, particularly mattresses. Bed bugs feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals, and human hosts can suffer an allergic reaction. If you suspect that you have bed bugs in your home, it is crucial that you find and eradicate them before they reproduce and spread.
What are bed bugs

Bed bugs are small, non-flying insects that feed exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals – making humans the perfect hosts. Most bed bugs will feed while their host is asleep. While feeding, the bed bug will inject a small amount of saliva into the host's skin. Hosts can develop a sensitivity to bed bug saliva over time, and this can eventually result in an intense allergic reaction. Bed bugs feed every five to ten days, and a well-fed bug can live for six to nine months. However, bed bugs can survive in a dormant state for over a year without food. …show more content…

However, bed bugs can also move between apartments through holes in walls and through pipes or tubes that are shared.

Signs of bed bugs

The first sign of bed bugs is usually a bite. A bed bug bite can take between a couple of hours and two weeks to appear. Unlike flea bites, these bites do not have a red centre, and will usually appear in a row of two or three. Bites can become red and swollen, and may be itchy. Although bites do not require medical treatment, steroid creams and oral anti-histamines can alleviate symptoms.

Adult bed bugs, hatchlings and eggs are all visible to the naked eye. Adult bed bugs are about 5mm to 7mm long, range in colour from white to orangey-brown, and are oval and flat in shape. A female lays about five eggs a day. These milky-white eggs take about two weeks to hatch, and the newborns, called hatchlings, are about the size of a poppy

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