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Bed bugs have probably been pestering people for ever, particularly in warmer countries. In fact Aristotle wrote about them in 400 BC, but they were not common in the United Kingdom until after the Great Fire of London in 1666.

People believed that bed bugs lived in timber because the bed bug infestations only started after 1670. It is supposed that the bed bugs that had come in with timber imported to rebuild London.

And they have been there ever since, with the exception of around fifty years between the 1940’s and 1995. A comparable pattern may be traced in most of the developed Western world, because after the Second World War there was a determined effort to clear out the old bomb-ravaged city ghettos and start again.

As they went through the cities clearing and washing they used tons of DDT which virtually wiped out bedbugs and some other common household pests.

The powers that were in the United States also went on the rampage with DDT with a similar result. Then something occurred and we can be fairly precise about the date: in 1995 reports of bedbug infestations started pouring in again.

One area of London reported infestations of bedbugs doubling every year from 1995 to 2001 and the US National Pest Management Agency reported a 71% increase in bedbug incidents between 2000 and 2005. A pest control firm in North Carolina said that 25% of the hotels it surveyed between 2002 and 2006 had a bedbug problem.

Bedbugs feed by inserting two tubes through the host’s skin, one pumps in a sort of saliva containing anticoagulant and anaesthetic and the other sucks blood. This saliva can cause irritation in individuals in the form of lumps, which may or may not itch. Having plenty of bites may result in anaemia.

The greatest danger most people run is secondary infection from scratching with dirty finger nails. In 2008, the World health Organization offered the opinion that there was some evidence that bedbugs might cause asthma and that being bitten often might make the victim more prone to other illnesses.

Bedbugs have all the right apparatus and behavioural patterns to be able to spread diseases, but there have been no known cases to date. However, knowing that there are bedbugs around can cause some people to get paranoid about them, which often leads to insomnia and irritability.

If you discover bedbugs in your motel, you should report it to the manager and if you live in rented accommodation you ought to tell the landlord. If it is your own place you should seek advice from the local Environmental Health Agency attached to the council, because bedbugs can spread from one household to the next very fast.

Many old terraced houses are not entirely sealed off from one another enabling bedbugs to roam and establish new colonies. Bedbugs can also be carried home from hotels in your suitcase or clothing. Bedbugs are a matter for public concern, but they are not life-threatening.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to test for bed bugs. If you want to know more, visit our website now at Pest Management at Home.

If you wake up one morning with itchy bumps on your body, you will in all probability think that you had been bitten by mosquitoes or ants the night before, but there is also a possibility that bedbugs have got at you. If this occurs in your own bed, then you have concerns. If you are in a hotel, go and complain to the boss.

You can be certain that most hotel bosses will take issues concerning bed bugs very seriously, because it is well known that the numbers of bedbugs are increasing rapidly and have been since 1995.

It is also everyday knowledge that large compensation payments have been given against hotels. Some of them were valued hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most so-called \’bed bugs\’ will only feed on humans if their favourite host, often chickens, are not available, but there is one that only sucks human blood and that species is called Cimex lectularius.

Cimex lectularius was virtually extinct in the Western world by the late 1950\’s because of the extensive use of DDT in residences and hotels to eradicate all insects such as ants, bed bugs, silverfish, millipedes and cockroaches.

However, there has been a gigantic resurgence in the number of bedbugs since 1995. In fact, between 1995 and 2001, one report on bedbugs in London reported that incidents of bedbug call-outs had doubled every year.

The resurgence in bedbug numbers has been attributed to global travel and immigration from Asia and Africa. However, it is also probable that they were never entirely eradicated and that they have become tolerant to contemporary insecticides. There is not a lot you can put down or spray around now that will kill bedbugs.

So, what do bedbugs look like? Well, there are plenty of different types of bed bugs, but most of them are brownish, unless they have just fed and then there is a red tinge to them. However, they may also be white to yellowish. Sometimes, they look striped because bedbugs are covered with short hairs which reflect light like a stripy lawn.

Bedbugs have a beak-like mouth-piece with two tubes. One tube pumps spittle into you and the other sucks blood out. The spittle contains anti-coagulant and an analgesic, so that you do not know that you have been bitten until long after the bedbug has left.

Some Individuals never know they have been bitten, because they are not allergic to the saliva, others get a bump or slight swelling almost right away, but once in a while the swelling can take a week to appear. These bites may or may not be itchy.

If you travel far, or if you go to regions of the world that are less worried about hygiene, you must be careful about not taking bedbugs home with you. They will not remain on your body, but they may lay eggs in your clothing or hole up in your suitcase.

Consequently, either before you go home or immediately on arrival have your clothes washed at a temperature above 46c and treat your suitcase with a jet of steam or hot air.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on numerous subjects, but is currently involved with Bed Bug Covers For Mattress. If you want to know more, please go over to our website now at Pest Management at Home.