Bed bugs

Bed bugs are small insects that live by eating human blood - nice! These vampiric little creatures love to snuggle up in warm mattresses and other furniture inhabited by soft juicy humans.

Although you may never have seen a bed bug, this is more to do with your lack of attention than their size- the adult can grow to around half a centimetre in length, which is about the size of a lentil or sesame seed. So you can see them if you look carefully.

Bed bug feeding

Bed bugs mainly feed at night, although they can feed at any time. They are most likely to feed just before sunrise. The bed bug bites with two sharp tubes. The first tube injects saliva into the person's skin to prevent the blood from clotting and also to provide an anesthetic which should prevent the victim from waking when being bitten. The second tube is the feeder through which the blood is sucked.

Effects of bed bug bites

Bed bug bites can go unnoticed, but they can also cause swelling and irritation. Bites can appear closely clustered, perhaps in groups of three.

The good news

Although bed bugs are physically capable of carrying infections which could be transmitted to the host (i.e. you) there is no evidence of disease being spread in humans by bed bug bites.

Treatment and prevention

It is very difficult to prevent infection - bed bugs can survive for many months without eating, and can be carried in clothing and furniture. Although they do not fly, they can crawl from place to place.

High temperatures will kill them, so washing clothing and bedding in a high temperature cycle will be effective. However this is not possible for a mattress. Steam cleaning has proven to be an effective method of treating infected mattresses.

This article was published on Wed 2 December 2009