Where Do Bed Bugs Come From?

Bed bugs are present on all countries and in every continent. Though there was a significant lowering of bed bug infestations in the developed world during the second half of the twentieth century, recently that trend has been reversed.

Bed bug infestations can start from various sources. One of the most common forms of infestation is through contacts with infested furniture in hotels, motels, and other places of temporary accommodation. In fact a recent increase in bed bug infestations may have a direct link with the increase in the number of people who travel. Bed bugs are carried around in clothes and the luggage of travelers. However, it is rare to detect bed bugs in the clothes people are actually wearing at any given moment. Clothes that are carried in bags facilitate bed bugs to travel and spread. Another source of bed bug infestation is through the exchange of furniture or garments between people.

Once bed bugs enter a building they will spread throughout it. In buildings where there are multiple housing units, such as apartment blocks or condominiums, all of the units may become infested. This happens through the medium of common areas, as well as through holes and crevices in the walls used by utilities such as plumbing. Material used for separating housing units has a significant impact on the speed at which bed bugs spread through the complex. Buildings that have concrete separators have the least tendency to spread bed bug infestations through them.

Bed bugs feed on blood not on trash. As such, cleanliness does not arrest the spread of infestation directly. The idea that dirt causes bedbugs infestations is a misconception. However cleanliness, by depriving the bed bugs some of their hiding places, does slow down the infestation.

Because bed bugs have flat bodies they can hide in all sorts of unlikely places unseen. It is their ability to hide so completely out of site that has given arise to the second misconception; that bed bugs are so small that they cannot be seen unaided. Bed bugs can in fact be seen since they are about 4 mm in length. Even their eggs, which are about 1 mm in length, can be seen.

In order to stop the spread of bed bugs, infested households should act to eliminate the bugs as comprehensively and as promptly as possible when they are detected. If possible they should take the advice of professional pest control experts for this process. By taking prompt action and by acting as responsible householders and neighbors, bed bug infestations can be managed and controlled, and eventually eliminated.

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