You might have heard or read about them from somewhere but what are bed bugs really? If you come across a good bed bug exterminator in Guelph, how would you ask them about these critters? Why are they qualified as pests? Why so many people have this “morbid” fear of them? What can they possibly do to us that we regard them as a repulsive type of insect?
Well, bed bugs are parasitic critters. They literally feed on human blood and from that of other warm-blooded animals. Unlike other pests in the insect world, bed bugs don’t have wings of their own and rely only on human things to carry them from one place to another without them even knowing it. Despite the fact that they are given a comical role in an old bedtime proverb, the truth of the matter is they are tiny pesky insects that can find their way and crawl onto you while you are watching TV on your sofa. The moment that you knew it, they bit you already and all that is left of you to do is to scratch that itchy area on your body they have made. Often people, whose home’s are infested by bed bugs, wake up the next day mystified by the itchy, red marks that they have on their skin. There are even times they’d suspect that they had just an allergic reaction to something they had eaten the previous night and with that dismisses the incident and qualifies it as nothing serious and nothing to be worried about. There are also people who’d think that those marks they have got are just one of the usual insect bites and brushes it off as nothing unusual. What are bed bugs? These reddish-brown insects are oval-shaped critters. They usually grow up to about 1 to 7 millimeters only and since they are nocturnal creatures, they are normally active at night. Although, they are able to come out from their hiding place during day time if they need to find a prey and feed on their blood. Hence, this explains the reason why when your home is somehow infested by bed bugs, they attack you at night and you will only find that out the next day because they left you with their red, swelling bite marks. And because they are flat and small, it is easy for them to fit in small crevices and cracks on your walls and hide. What Does A Bed Bug Bite Look Like? When a bed bug bites, it does not automatically mean to say that you will have red markings on your skin right away. There are people who happen to have an extra sensitive skin that even the slightest insect bite will render them to have welts and red blisters. If you are not among those people, then you are lucky enough then. However, what can be so annoying about bed bug bites is that it can be very itchy and irritating on the skin. The itching sensation is due to their saliva reacting to your skin and is irritating it, and manifests on the exterior as reddish marks. People who experience the symptoms of bed bug bites may experience one or all these symptoms at the same time:
Common Symptoms of Bed Bug Bites If a bed bug bites your skin, it does not automatically mean to say that you will right away have bite markings on your skin. There are instances that it will take several days before bed bug bite markings will start to appear on the affected area. You also need to be aware that bed bugs don’t have a need to come out from their hiding every single night just to feed. As a matter of fact, just like any other nocturnal insects, they will survive for more than 2 weeks without food or without consuming even a tiny drop of blood. What can be so annoying about bed bug bites is that they can be very itchy. Some people, who happen to have an extra sensitive skin, would experience a burning sensation underneath the affected area a few days after they’ve been bitten by these pests. Do you wonder why you don’t feel the bed bugs as they bite you? It is because they inject some anesthesia first into your skin prior to sucking out blood. This way you will not feel they are on you and you will only realize it moments later after their saliva made a chemical reaction underneath your skin already, causing the affected area to feel itchy. Sometimes when you scratch a bed bug bite, it can lead to what is called as secondary infection as it further aggravates the chemical reaction of bed bug saliva under your skin. When this happens, it can cause the affected area to have swelling welts and bleeding. What Can a Bed Bug Bite Resemble Like? Unless you are fully aware that your home has a bad case of bed bug infestation, you won’t have any suspicion that the bite marking syou have been having are actually caused by them. If you happen to react to their bites by scratching as they can be extremely itchy, it may cause the affected area to become swollen with a red center. At the early stages of a bed bug bite, it will resemble that of a mosquito bite. Or sometimes you may even suspect that it is due to a flea or something. There are two fashions in which bed bug bites would appear on your skin, they will seem to form a straight line or they may appear in groups. Unlike mosquito bites, their distinguishing factor is that their bites are more sporadic. As for the flea bites, they are usually smaller in size and would appear on your legs or ankles. Can Bed Bug Bites Cause You to Have Other Problems Aside from Excessive Itchiness of the Affected Area? It is such a relief to know that bed bugs and their bites can’t possibly cause any serious health concern. They are not known to carry and transmit illness to humans by their bites. Perhaps the only thing that you will need to concern yourself about with a bed bug bite is that if you have an extra sensitive skin, it might engender skin irritation following excessive scratching of your skin. Immediately following bed bug bites, it may also indirectly cause you to have insomnia because you will become fearful of falling prey to them again if they will bite you while you were fast asleep. People who happen to have an extra sensitive skin may possibly experience a series of more dramatic symptoms following bed bug bites. This may include engorged bite marks, burning sensation from within the skin or painful swelling of the affected area. There are extreme cases also when a victim’s body systems would undergo what is medically described as an “anaphylactic response”. In layman’s term, this refers to extreme allergic reactions of the skin against bed bug bites, particularly to its saliva which contains many other particles. This may be accompanied by difficulty in breathing, fainting, wheezing, itching, or hives. How Do You Treat Bed Bug Bites? While there is no possibility that bed bugs will put human health or well-being in harm’s way, without proper treatment their infestation can be very annoying. In fact, they qualify more as a nuisance than a pest or a threat to human health. When bed bugs bite you, their bite marks may fade away naturally in a matter of 2 weeks or so. In between those periods, you must anticipate the severe itchiness that the bite marks can get. To help keep yourself from scratching bed bug bites, you might want to use an anti-itch cream or ointment. An antihistamine drug can significantly help too in keeping the itchiness and the burning sensation to a tolerable level. In the absence of an anti-itch cream or antihistamine, you may take advantage of an ice pack so as to help numb the affected area and relieve you of the uncontrollable urge to scratch. But if in case, you acquired an infection brought about by excessive scratching, you may use an antiseptic lotion or cream to soothe it down. Exterminate Bed Bugs for Good The moment that you discover that your home in Guelph is harboring bed bugs too, you should never waste time and hesitate in seeking professional help as soon as possible. Time is ticking, and if they are in a sizable number today, they may multiply to an unimaginable proportion each single day that passes by that you are not exterminating them. While there are various DIY approaches that you can employ to eradicate bed bugs, those do-it-yourself strategies won’t give you any assurance that bed bugs will never re-infest your home, right? Although bed bug bites are not hazardous to health, they can be excessively itchy and can become a discomfort to anyone concerned. Exterminating bed bugs can be very challenging, especially if you don’t know anything about them. But if you will seek professional help instead from a reputable bed bug exterminator in Guelph, things can become a lot easier and breezier for you because they can handle this kinds of pest infestation so very well. And after that, you can have again your good night’s sleep.
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Most pet lovers can relate to the problem of flea infestation, which is a common problem among household pets. I am certain that at one point in time, their beloved dogs, cats, or rabbits have had their own share of this trouble, too. If you have been having this kind of concern with your own pets, and the infestations keep recurring over and over, despite the fact that you did try a number of home remedies already or used a number of over-the-counter anti-flea soaps and leave-on powders, I suggest that you must consider enlisting help from a reputable pest control firm offering high-impacting flea control in Guelph.
Are you aware that:
Adult fleas are indeed parasites that survive by drawing blood from its prey. While they remain in the larvae stage, they feed on organic debris instead. But most of the time, they feed on the fecal remains of the adult fleas, which contain traces of undigested blood. Fleas are known to prey on very hairy or furry animals such as for as squirrels, dogs, cats, rabbits, dogs, rats, mouse and many other animals. These animals could either be wild or domesticated. Unlike others in the world of insects, these critters don’t have wings of their own. However, they are capable of jumping really long distances considering their sheer small size. The Reproductive Life of Fleas If it is a fad in the insect world to attach their eggs to a host, fleas are taking on a different direction instead. They lay their eggs on your pet’s coat or fur, but as they move about they fall off. Hence, they may be sporadically spread all over, from your beddings, rugs, upholstery, carpet, and even in the tiny cracks on the walls. Most of these eggs would hatch in a matter of 2 days time. Identifying and Managing Flea Infestation It is relatively easy to identify fleas in their adult form, and for this reason, the attention for control and extermination are usually directed to them. Unlike other pests in the insect world, fleas are easier to locate. The moment that the homeowner gets back to their house with their pets after say a holiday trip, fleas from all over will rush to their side without them noticing it or even catch their attention. Their goal is to get on to you and your pet to feed since they were not able to do so as you and your pet were away. Their eggs, their larvae, and their pupae, all these have a different story to tell. For the simple reason that these life stages are less active, and tend to be secretive too, you will usually find them in the most unlikely of spaces such as behind the picture frame or under the flower vase or furniture. When a female flea deposits her unhatched eggs on your pets coat/fur strands, they will eventually fall off from it as your pet moves about. Hence, they are randomly dispersed everywhere, most especially to areas where your pet usually spends much time in. Flea eggs are almost innumerable, that they actually represent half of the entire flea population in an infected household. Provided that the environmental conditions are favorable to fleas, the young flea larva will spin their cocoon in about 5-20 days from the day these eggs were hatched. The cocoon is the pupal stage in the life cycle of fleas, and they comprise at least 10% of flea population in any infested household. This is the last part of their developmental stage just before a full blown flea finally emerges. Flea Control and Treatment Serious flea infestation can bring about serious health concern to their prey, usually our household pets. There are also instances in Guelph that fleas caused some people a number of health concerns. Hence, it is important that you extinguish them at once. By design, the early life stages of a flea are cryptic by nature, thus the best course of action that you, as a homeowner, can take is to enlist the services of a professional pest control team so you can receive immediate help. I will discourage you from even considering to buy over-the-counter anti-flea products that are randomly found in the market today. Most of them are misleading the consumer and have little impact to fleas, thus may be of little to no help at all. If you hire a professional team for the job, they will conduct a thorough inspection of your vicinity to find out and locate the young fleas that are still in their immature stages of development. Then exterminate them before they even progress to the next stage. After confirming where exactly developing fleas are situated, the next step would have something to do with flea management plan. This a very important part of the job and you need to leave this to pest control team offering effective flea control in Guelph. |
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