Getting Rid Of Bed Bugs-How To Kill Bed Bugs          Click Here:   Bed Bug Control Products

Bedbug Pictures :What does a bed bug look like?

Adult Male Bed Bug Click on image to enlarge

Adult Female Bed Bug Click on image to enlarge

Bed Bug Nymph Click on image to enlarge

The common bed bug is visible to the naked eye. Adult bed bugs are brown to reddish-brown, oval-shaped, flattened, and about 1/4 to 5/8 inch long. Their flat shape enables them to readily hide in cracks and crevices. After a blood meal, the body elongates and becomes swollen. Eggs are not known to be placed on the host's body but are found on surfaces near where the host sleeps.

Inspection:

Look in any place that offers darkness, isolation and protection. These bugs will often wander. Inspect adjoining rooms where an infestation is found. Even when the bed bugs themselves cannot be found, their hiding places can be located by looking for the spots of fecal material they often leave in easily visible places.

Fecal spots and the bloody spots(looks like rust) left on sheets and pillowcases when engorged bugs are crushed serve as sure signs of infestation. Adult bed bugs are about 1/4-inch long and reddish-brown, with oval, flattened bodies. Bed bugs prefer to hide in cracks and crevices during the daytime and come out to feed on the host's blood at night, usually while the host is sleeping. Because they can flatten their bodies, they can fit in very small crevices, specially around the bed area. They are found in habitual hiding places, preferably close to a blood meal. Even though the their preference is to be close they will travel several feet However if necessary, they will crawl several feet to obtain a blood meal. Initial infestations tend to be around beds, but the bugs eventually may become scattered throughout a room, occupying any crevice or protected location. They also can spread to adjacent rooms or apartments.

Look for areas close by where the bed bugs are biting. Main areas of inspection are cracks and crevices in head and foot boards and attached side railings and supports. Look for any cracks or crevices where bed bugs may crawl into to hide. If the top of the mattress has any rips , the bed bugs may hide there as well. Look also in your bed springs, both top and bottom for any rips that might shelter these bugs.

Inspection Check List:

• Cracks and crevices in head and foot boards, attached side railings and supports
• Inspect mattresses top, sides and bottom. Check all buttons, seams and rips.
• Inspect electrical switch plates, pictures on walls, wall posters
• Inspect cracks in plaster or seams in wall paper.
• Inspect electrical appliances-radios, phones, televisions, ect.,looking in hiding places.
• Inspect tack strips under wall-to-wall carpeting and behind baseboards
• Inspect secondhand beds, bedding, and furniture. The newer better built mattresses do not offer as much shelter and protection for the bed bugs to hide.

Getting Rid Of Bed Bugs-How To Kill Bed Bugs

Step III: Bed Bug Treatment : Sprays and Dusts

We recommend use of spray insecticides and dusts for bedbug treatment. It is important to use a residual insecticide. The residual stays for a length of time.

You can get these at discounted rates in be form of kits at Bed Bug Kits

Cyonara 9.7

, CB D Force Aerosol       and Diatomaceous Earth /Pyrethrin Dust.
Most likely, you will need to treat 3-4 times in a space of a couple months, as you cut the cycle.

Residual Insecticide : (Cyonara 9.7, CB D Force Aerosol, and Diatomaceous/Pyrethrin) Usage:

Cyonara 9.7 Usage : Mix 12 ml.(measurements on the bottle)of Cyonara 9.7 with one gallon of water(Remember to use what you mix-within 24 hours.) Adjust the spray pattern to a mist by turning the nozzle. A fine mist is best for most spraying, but you may need to use a stream to get into some cracks and crevices. Spray around and under the bed and along the baseboards near the bed. After removing the drawers from the furniture, the inside of the cabinetry should be sprayed as well as the bottom and sides of the drawers. Do not treat the inside of the drawers. If needed the clothes in the drawers should be removed and laundered. Apply as a coarse, low-pressure spray to harborage areas including crevices, baseboards, loose plaster, behind bed frames and headboards, beneath beds and furniture, and to bedsprings and bed frames. Do not apply to furniture surfaces or mattresses where people will be laying or sitting. Infested bedding should not be treated, but should be removed, placed in sealed plastic bags, and taken for laundering and drying at high temperatures.

CB D Force Aerosol: This residual aerosol is ready to use, and you don't have to mix it. Spray in the same areas you would use the Cyonara 9.7

Diatomaceous Earth /Pyrethrin Dust is a ready to use dust that is ideal for use on the mattress and box springs. You may use it once a week for optimal results.

Delta Dust has a label to dust the mattress, but must be vacuumed up before sleeping on it according to label directions, so you would be vacuuming up all the residual dust.

A preferred dust for mattresses would be Diatomaceous Earth/Pyrethin Dust, which may be left on the mattress.

• Use a Bellows 8 Oz. Duster to really get into the cracks and crevices with the Diatomaceous Earth/Pyrethin Dust. Another tool used for dusting would be a small paint brush. Put a small amount of dust on the tip of the brush, brushing into cracks and crevices.


• Repeat the applications if you see signs of bed bugs again after two weeks.

Non Residual Insecticide Treatment Usage(May be used daily):

Clear Zone Pyrethrum Aerosol is a contact kill insecticide that will not leave any residue to continue to kill. It should be used to kill any bed bugs that are seen after treating with the residual chemicals listed above. This will keep you from having to mix chemicals each time you do see a bed bug.

Bedbug Diet

Although the preferred host is human host, it will feed on other animals, such as poultry, mice, rats, canaries, dogs, and cats if necessary. They normally feed at night, but may feed in the daylight in rooms that are not used at night.

Bed Bugs Life Cycle

Bed Bugs Life Cycle Diagram

The life cycle stages of a bed bug are egg, nymph, and adult.

Bed bug females lay about 200 eggs, usually at the rate of three or four a day, in cracks and crevices in the floor or bed. Eggs are placed in cracks, crevices and other isolated and protected shelters. Females lay eggs after a blood meal. Eggs will hatch in one or two weeks into Nymphs. Newly hatched bugs(Nymphs) begin feeding immediately. At room temperature, and with an available food supply, the nymphal period will last 14 to 30 days. They shed their skin (Instar)five times before becoming adults. Bed bugs will mate soon after becoming mature, so the time from egg hatch to egg laying will be 4 to 9 weeks, under favorable conditions.

Click on image to enlarge

Bedbug Habits

Bed bugs hide in cracks and crevices during daylight hours.

They hide in the folds and tufts of mattresses, coils of springs, cracks and hollow posts of bed stands bed rails and headboards. They may be found in box springs, inside the cabinetry of furniture and the bottom and sides of drawers.

They also can be found behind loose wallpaper, behind pictures on the walls, under door and window casings, and behind baseboards.

They also hide in upholstery of chairs and sofas.

They are not restricted to these places, however.

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What do bed bug bites look like and do they carry disease?

Bed bugs are not usually considered to be disease carriers.

They do suck blood from their host with piercing mouth parts but the bite is painless.

The skin may become irritated or inflamed due to the salivary fluid injected by the bed bugs .A small, hard, swollen, white welt may develop at the site of each bite.

It is important to recognize that not all bites or bite-like reactions are due to bed bugs. Bed bugs or their signs will be present if it is a bed bug bite.

Bed bugs do not live under the skin. If you experience biting sensations during the day, it may be an allergy related condition.

(Other possible sources of irritation are discussed in University of Kentucky entomology fact sheet Invisible Itches: Insect and Non-Insect Causes).

Preventing Bed Bug Infestations

It’s important to inspect used furniture, particularly bed frames and mattresses before bringing it into the home. Mattresses, in particular, carry the greatest risk of harboring Bed Bugs and their eggs. You should be wary of acquiring used furnishings, especially beds and couches.

A practice that we have incorporated in our traveling is to inspect for bed bugs in hotel rooms. If possible, carry a flashlight with you and inspect the bed area completely as described above. Also, you may want to inspect or vacuum luggage when you arrive home to prevent any transference.

A second common source for bedbug infestation occurs in homes where bats, swallows, chimney swifts, pigeons, or other wild hosts have been roosting. Although similar in appearance, these bedbug species that normally feed on bats and birds can be differentiated from the Common Bedbug that prefer humans.
The bat bedbug can and often feeds on humans. The bat bedbug has long hairs on it's body. Eliminate their bat hosts from the building and seal all openings so that bats cannot enter.

A thorough insecticide bedbug treatment with a residual spray such as Cyonara 9.7 should be applied to the area. Most likely, you will need to treat 3-4 times in a space of a couple months, as you cut the cycle.

Another group of bugs resembling the bed bug infest birds. These bugs are usually confined to bird nests. To control these parasites, the birds and their nests must be removed, and an application of with a residual spray such as Cyonara 9.7 should be applied to the area.