| Bed Bug Bites |
Bed bug bites usually resemble raised red bumps appearing in a distinctive linear pattern on the skin. They are usually accompanied by intense itching. It is unlikely that you will immediately realise you have been bitten by a bed bug. The itching, which is most commonly the first sign of a bite, can take anything from a few minutes to a few hours to become noticeable.
For immediate relief from the bite, you are advised to run it under moderately hot running water for approximately a minute, which will reduce the swelling and take your mind off it.
Bed bug bites are extremely irritating, not only physically but emotionally too. The thought of a parasite considering you as potential prey can be very unnerving, but even worse is the inevitability of your imagination running wild as you imagine millions of these little creatures crawling all over your bed, your body and into every available orifice.
Bedbugs find their prey by sensing heat and they usually crawl towards it, or jump from the ceiling onto the sleeping body below. Bed bugs like to eat every five to ten days. It is rumoured that they can live as long as eighteen months without eating but that’s not gospel and with so many warm blooded people around, it is highly unlikely they’ll really ever fast for that length of time.
It is fairly easy to tell if you have been bitten, the area of the skin that you think has a bite will be irritated and inflamed. The bites will follow a specific pattern and will appear in one of two ways; rounded or irregularly shaped with a seeping puss-like centre, or as a row of raised red bumps running close to the surface of the skin, they are always accompanied by very intense itching.
A bed bug bites its victim by first injecting an anaesthetic into the body, immediately before sucking the blood out. This is a clever tactic because you don’t actually realise you’ve been bitten straight away, due to the fact the anaesthetic effect numbs the pain caused by the drawing of blood.
Although considered a nuisance, most bed bug bites are relatively harmless; it has been recorded however, on very rare occasions an allergic reaction to the bites has caused nausea, sickness and even anaphylactic shock.
To investigate whether you’ve been bitten by a bed bug, you should examine your bed sheets very closely. Although it is believed that bed bugs are too tiny to be noticeable to the naked eye, this is not entirely true. Bed Bug eggs are approximately 1mm in length and are coloured a creamy white tone, which means they can be seen, particularly on darker bed covers. Baby bed bugs, otherwise known as nymphs, are microscopic and also transparent so indeed, they are pretty much impossible to see, however, as they grow in age, they darken in colour to a reddish brown and they can commonly grow to the size of a lentil or apple seed. This means that adult bed bugs can without doubt be seen by the naked eye, so having an up-close-and-personal examination of your bed sheets may help you identify their presence in the first place. If you do identify some on your sheets, please don’t panic and immediately vow to burn every bed sheet and mattress in the house, these little mites can easily be gotten rid of in a much less drastic (and expensive) fashion.
If you find you are experiencing any of these symptoms, the first thing you should do is contact a pest control professional to eradicate these unwanted guests. For treatment of the bites, you should take some antihistamine to control the itching and visit your local pharmacy if you want to get a suitable cream to reduce the appearance of the bed bug bite.
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