Linen bugs in the house: how to recognize parasites and get rid of them forever at home

No matter how much people try to make their living conditions ideal, they still from time to time encounter such an unpleasant problem as the appearance of insects in the house.

Some of them are not difficult to deal with, but some cause a lot of trouble for household members. One of these unpleasant and annoying insects are bedbugs.

These parasites are characterized by an uncontrollable thirst for blood. Such proximity to small bloodsuckers causes a person to experience unbearable itching in the bite area, and scratch marks appear on the surface of the skin.

This leads to discomfort and suffering from the consequences of bites. In addition, there is a risk of introducing some kind of infection into the body. How can you recognize these small pests and can they be removed? This is what we will devote this article to.

Who are these bedbugs?

The entire body of the bedbug seems to be specially created by nature in order to suck blood from a person.

The fact that these insects are adapted to a parasitic lifestyle is indicated by the presence of a flat and wide abdomen, thin legs and a small head with a proboscis extending from it.

Due to the fact that the bedbug has a flat abdomen, it is quite difficult to crush it. He becomes less protected after he drinks blood.

In this case, the parasite can be destroyed without making any special efforts. A well-fed bug's body becomes more elongated, and in appearance it can easily be confused with a cockroach.

Bed bugs do not have wings, which provides them with additional protection from people turning over in their sleep.

The size of a hungry bug, as a rule, is no more than 3–4 millimeters, and its color can vary from pale red to yellow–brown.

An insect that is saturated with blood increases in size to 1 centimeter and acquires a red-brown color.

The jaw apparatus of the bedbug consists of two canals. The wide channel serves for the flow of blood from the human body, and the narrow one is necessary for the saliva released during the bite, which helps to dilute the blood absorbed by the parasite.

Bed bugs reproduce quickly. The adult female lays a large number of white eggs right in the human bed. This means that the newly hatched young are immediately provided with access to food.

And, although linen bugs are quite impressive in size for an insect, they are not so easy to detect. For a very long time, people have been noticing the appearance of more and more bite marks on their bodies, without knowing the reasons for their origin.

How are bed bugs different from other insects?

Unfortunately, in addition to bedbugs, other insects - pests - can live and successfully reproduce in our apartments and houses. These could be cockroaches, ants and fleas. However, bedbugs can be quite easily distinguished from them.

Compared to cockroaches, bedbugs are noticeably smaller in size. In addition, unlike cockroaches, during the process of evolution, bedbugs lost their wings, so they cannot fly at all.

Despite the fact that cockroach larvae also lack wings, they can be distinguished from bedbugs by their color: cockroach larvae have a noticeable pale brown spot in the chest area, and they are more impressive in size compared to bedbugs.

Bed bugs, unlike ants, are not inclined to form a separate nest. Their clutches can most often be found in close proximity to food sources. As a rule, they live in beds, inside sofas, under baseboards and in the joints of wallpaper.

Unlike lice, bed bugs always hunt at night. This means that the areas of skin they have bitten will begin to bother a person in the morning, after waking up.

In addition, lice prefer to parasitize exclusively on parts of the body covered with hair - the head, armpits and groin area, and bedbugs try to bite those areas of the body where there is either no hair at all or very little of it - arms, legs and back area.

A distinctive feature of bedbugs is the presence of a characteristic specific aroma, which is emitted by special glands of the parasites to scare away the enemy.

If you notice a rather unpleasant odor in the room, which is somewhat similar to the sweetish smell of slightly fermented berries, this indicates that there is at least a small population of bedbugs in it.

Bed equipment

When bedbugs are discovered, say, in a bedroom, people usually try to keep away from this sleeping place, preferring to spend the night in the living room or some other room. This should not be done, as continuing to stay in your own bed will reduce the risk of bedbugs spreading throughout the house. If a person moves to another room, then bedbugs will definitely follow. In this case, there is a great chance to breed bedbugs in different rooms.

Instead, you need to make your bed a bedbug-safe place to sleep. This will be the first step in the systematic destruction of bedbugs in your apartment.

How to kill bedbugs on a sleeping mattress

The first and not the easiest task is to completely clean the sleeping mattress in the infected room from living parasites and their eggs. It must be emphasized right away that all actions to treat the mattress, and other things, must be carried out without leaving the room with parasites, since there is a high probability of insects being physically dispersed to other rooms.

First of all, it is advisable to vacuum the mattress. This should be done as carefully as possible; it is more convenient to use a nozzle without a brush. It is better to install a disposable garbage bag. After each vacuum cleaning, it will need to be disposed of. With the nozzle you need to “look” into each seam of the mattress, behind each stripe, and walk along each scar. All steps should be repeated 3-4 times.

After such thorough treatment, the mattress must be thoroughly sprayed with any available chemicals. The most effective are drugs that contain permethrins. These are active insecticidal agents obtained from chrysanthemum flowers. Despite their high toxicity against insects, permethrins are safe for humans, and products based on them are almost odorless. In addition, the chemical is fatal to bedbug eggs, which may not have gotten into the vacuum cleaner.

After a couple of hours, the effect of the drug will be noticeable. Despite the fact that the vacuum cleaner seemed to have collected all possible parasites, it is surprising where so many corpses of bedbugs, usually small in size, came from. Of course, they don’t come out of thin air; anyway, the vacuum cleaner didn’t catch them in any microfolds.

After the exposure time indicated on the label of the product, you need to again arm yourself with a vacuum cleaner and process everything with it again, now collecting the corpses of insects.

How to deal with bedbugs - mattress protection

It is not worth leaving the mattress in the treated state overnight, since at night the bedbugs will fill it again and all measures will have to be repeated again. Also, you should not take the mattress to another room, hoping for the quality of its processing. Only time can guarantee a 100% absence of bedbugs. If, three months after the total destruction of parasites, the infestation in the apartment has not resumed, then the work has been done well. Parasite eggs and their young individuals - nymphs - may remain on the mattress and will gladly occupy new apartments.

The best and only option to protect your mattress the next night is to put it in protective covers against bed bugs. We are talking about special covers created for only one purpose - to prevent parasites from penetrating into the unevenness of the mattress. In addition, some models of such covers are impregnated with a solution that repels parasites.

Bed treatment

Treating the base of the bed is the next step that needs to be done during the same daylight hours. The sequence of action is similar to processing a mattress - first you need to thoroughly vacuum every nook and cranny, then treat it with chemicals, and then thoroughly vacuum everything again. Of course, all actions must be carried out both from the top of the bed and from below; for this, the base of the bed must be placed on its side.

Lucky are those owners who own a wooden, plastic or any other solid bed base. Much more problems will arise for people who sleep on a sofa that also has storage space. However, there is nowhere to go - the soft base of the sofa is processed in the same way as a mattress, only there are no covers for each sofa model. Therefore, it makes sense to stock up in advance on dense, soft, lint-free fabric of the appropriate size in order to cover all the fabric surfaces of the sofa.

Setting up defenses around the perimeter of the sleeping area

Now you can exhale and brew a cup of coffee, but before going to bed you need to take a number of steps to further prevent bedbugs from entering your sleeping area. There are several quite effective means for this.

Using special traps for bedbugs. These things are specially manufactured as a temporary, but very effective means of protection precisely for such cases. The Chinese industry produces quite a lot of similar protection products, but it is better to use domestic or American traps. Of the latter, The Climbup™ Bed bug Interceptor and BlackOut BedBug Detector have proven themselves very well. Of course, you can’t buy them in the hardware store across the street, but there are many online stores where these products can be purchased, both in Russia and on American sites.

Using special adhesive tapes. These products are not characterized by longevity, but the first 2-3 nights work great. The meaning of the action is extremely simple - bedbugs, trying to crawl through such a tape, stick to it and remain there. It is advisable to apply this tape only to hard surfaces, since traces of glue will remain on the fabric, although here everything depends on the quality of the manufacturer.

The best places for pasting are the perimeter on the floor around the bed and its legs. To completely protect yourself, you can glue the sides of the bed.

So, the first day of protecting your bedroom from bedbugs is complete. This will be the first night in the last few days that will give you a restful sleep without bites. However, do not relax - the hardest work is yet to come. We will look at the sequence of its algorithms in the next material - “Linen bugs - how to get rid of them at home.”

Ways to fight

Currently, store shelves offer a wide variety of products for killing bedbugs at home. You can get rid of parasites in the following ways:

1. using chemicals;
2. using folk remedies;
3. the use of heat treatment;
4. using a specialized service.

Each person chooses the best option for him to remove insects - bloodsuckers from his home. This directly depends on the family’s material wealth and a number of other circumstances.

Of course, the destruction of parasites by specialized services will require more financial investments than their removal on our own.

However, professional treatment guarantees complete ridding of the home from bed bugs. It is necessary to resort to their services if the degree of parasite infestation is very high, and it is impossible to cope with the invasion of blood-sucking pests on your own.

If there are a small number of bedbugs in the room, you can try to get rid of them on your own.

But, regardless of the chosen method of removing bed bugs, we must not forget that chemical insecticides are poisonous. In this regard, such drugs can cause allergies in humans.

Under no circumstances should insecticides be used by people prone to allergic reactions, as well as women during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

How to identify bites from nocturnal creatures

Linen bug bites are characterized by location. On the skin they form a line of several punctures (5 - 7) at a distance of 5 to 10 millimeters.

Bloodsuckers often bite women and children, since they have thin skin. During one night, 250 - 280 bites may appear on the body of a person sleeping in a room with bloodsuckers.

The bitten area itches, burns, swells, and swells. The victim confuses the symptoms with an allergy. However, taking antihistamines does not help. And the number of bites at night increases, and the suffering from them increases.

Application of chemical insecticides

Self-extermination of bed bugs using insecticides must be carried out in compliance with the necessary precautions.

1. Hands must be protected with rubber gloves, and respiratory organs must be protected with a gauze bandage or a respirator. This is due to the fact that chemicals have a negative effect not only on parasites, but also on humans.
2. To protect exposed areas of the body, long sleeves should be worn during treatment.
3. The head must be protected by a hat.
4. Upon completion of work, thorough washing of hands and face with soap and water is recommended. Then you need to leave the room to get some fresh air. The clothes in which the room was treated must be changed immediately.

Today, many chemical insecticides are used to get rid of bedbugs. At the same time, the stores offer a wide range of products from both domestic manufacturers and imported drugs.

Such insecticidal agents are available in the form of gels, emulsions, sprays, special solutions and substances with a solid base. They may also differ in their component composition and in what is used in the drug as an active substance.

The most common chemical insecticides today are:

• "Raid"
• “Executioner” – has a pronounced odor, although it is highly effective;
• "GET" is an effective, odorless drug;
• “Forsyth” is a drug with a pungent odor that often causes poisoning in humans;
• "Neopin";
• "Carbozol";
• "Foxid" and others.

You need to be very careful when choosing the means to kill bedbugs yourself.

Insecticides that are used over a long period may not always be effective, since insects gradually develop a strong immunity to them.

Basic fears

House bugs are afraid of:

• temperature changes,
• ultraviolet radiation,
• certain aromas,
• some chemical compounds.

You should also know what they are definitely not afraid of - this will help save not only time and money, but also energy, and also maintain peace of mind.

Not to be afraid of:

• bleach. This remedy indeed has a repellent effect, but it works in both directions. Its smell is very pungent, and the fumes have an adverse effect on the human condition,
• water with salt (this also includes baking soda and lemon juice). Absolutely harmless against parasites. In some cases, bedbugs even like the smell and taste of this combination,
• magnetic radiation. This method does not help get rid of bedbugs. In addition, it negatively affects a person’s well-being,
• ultrasound (you shouldn’t be fooled by advertising, all ultrasound products are a waste of money).

Some people believe that cockroaches help get rid of bedbugs: they supposedly knock out a wedge with a wedge, and the “cucarachis” will be able to destroy bed parasites. This is wrong. By turning to this method, a person will have to get rid of not only bedbugs, but also cockroaches. And the latter are even more tenacious. And, in addition, they are immune to almost all modern poisons.

Temperature changes

All parasites living in the house are very afraid of sudden changes in temperature. They are no less afraid of extreme conditions.

If unfavorable temperature conditions remain for a long time, then the bugs leave the “inhospitable” house and go in search of another, more suitable home.

Note! Regular ventilation is not a method of control. A radical approach is required here.

They don't like low temperatures. If the room temperature is less than 10 degrees, then they will at least feel uncomfortable. If we talk about heat, insects feel discomfort at temperatures of +35 degrees and above.

Recommended procedures are freezing bed linen and treating it, as well as furniture, with a steam generator.

If the temperature drops below 25 degrees and lasts for 2-2.5 weeks, then the entire population may die. But in a city apartment it is impossible to ensure such a temperature.

How can you create a low or high temperature regime? Detailed information is presented in the plate.

Application of ultraviolet

Bedbugs are nocturnal insects. If in the middle of the night the owner of the apartment suddenly turns on the overhead light, the parasites will immediately run away. If you do not save electricity, you can ensure that bedbugs crawl out to feed during the day. This will help you quickly catch them and destroy them.

This method cannot be called super effective. To achieve the desired effect, it will have to be used for a very long time. It is better to replace the use of the “Ilyich bulb” with a quartz lamp.

But this method must be used with great caution - quartzing has a bad effect on the human body. The insects, of course, will die, but the owner of the apartment may also develop health problems. They can appear either immediately after this procedure or a little later.

How does ultraviolet light work? When it comes into contact with an insect, it causes it to become blind. Ultraviolet light has an excellent repellent effect, but it does not destroy the pest. The lamp burns out only when used continuously for 3-5 days.

Application of odors

Some scents are great for repelling pests. It is recommended to use the aromas of the following plants:

• marsh wild rosemary,
• tansy,
• calamus,
• chamomile.

You can purchase these herbs at any pharmacy. They are used both dried and as decoctions. If the first method is used, then it is recommended to hang bunches of herbs in bedbug habitats. And they try to settle as close as possible to the source of their food - near the bed, on bookshelves, next to the computer.

Another option is sachets filled with dried plants. If there are a lot of bedbugs, you should make a large pillow and place it under your head at night. This can kill two birds with one stone - scare away pests, normalize sleep and restore the immune system.

This method is only relevant if you are not allergic to plants.

Important! The reaction of pests to odors is determined by the level of concentration of volatile substances.

Only undiluted odors repel bedbugs. If they are mixed, then there is a high probability of getting the opposite effect.

If the owner is not allergic to perfume, you can mask your own body odor using special scents. The brand of perfume and the smell itself do not matter - the aroma of the perfume will be confusing in any case.

Essential oils will help destroy not only adults, but also their larvae.

Recommended oils:

• peppermint,
• lavender,
• thyme,
• eucalyptus,
• carnation,
• tea tree.

Use of chemical compounds

Many chemical compounds help not only expel bedbugs from your territory, but also destroy them. All drugs used must have not only a powerful effect, but also a strong, repulsive odor. You can actively use:

• creosote,
• table vinegar,
• denatured alcohol,
• kerosene,
• turpentine,
• ammonia.

The smell should be as intense as possible. You can treat the premises either from time to time or regularly.

You won't be able to kill insects. Such drugs can only help create unbearable conditions for their lives. Against this background, the bugs will “get offended and leave”; they will simply feel uncomfortable being in an apartment that smells bad. But if the females have already laid eggs, then over time a new population may hatch.

When choosing a chemical product, you must take into account the recommendations of a professional exterminator. All actions must be performed strictly according to the instructions.

Traditional methods

But it is possible to destroy bedbugs in an apartment without the use of synthetic insecticides. There are many folk remedies that were successfully used by our ancestors.

Traditional methods of getting rid of bedbugs involve the use of denatured alcohol, acetic acid, kerosene, turpentine and cresol.

They are used either undiluted or solutions are prepared from them. These products are used to treat all bedbug infestations in the home every day for a long time.

Solutions based on turpentine or kerosene are used to treat baseboards, flooring and furniture made of wood.

Carpeting and upholstered furniture may become unusable from these products, since the oily base leaves traces on the upholstery and its color changes.

The fabric surface is usually treated with solutions based on vinegar, ethyl alcohol or denatured alcohol.

It is better to leave the home treated with these products for a certain period of time. If possible, it is better to spend the night in another place, since all these products have a very pungent and unpleasant odor.

You can also use tansy or wormwood as a means to remove bed bugs, since these herbs have a pronounced aroma that is unpleasant for insects. The smell of these plants can scare away parasites - bloodsuckers, forcing them to leave their homes.

But the aroma emanating from the herbs disappears quite quickly. Therefore, in addition to the fact that you will need to frequently replace the plants with new ones, they should only be used in combination with other means to kill bed bugs.

They are also well suited for use as a preventive measure against insects in the house.

It must be remembered that it is impossible to completely get rid of insects using folk remedies.

How to tell if there are bedbugs in your bed

Obviously, the safest thing to do is to disassemble the bed and see whether there are bedbugs in it or not. But it is long and difficult. You can understand that parasites are here or come here at night by certain signs. There are few such signs.

First: the actual bites. Especially if they appear strictly at night and are discovered in the morning - these are small itchy red bumps on the body, arms and legs, among which separate chains of 3-4 bites are found, lined up. It's almost certainly bedbugs.

We are often asked what insects other than bedbugs can bite at night. There are few such insects. These are either fleas, or linen lice, or mosquitoes. Mosquitoes do not bite in winter, plus mosquitoes do not bite parts of the body covered with a blanket. They do not leave chains of 3-4 bites characteristic of bedbugs.

Fleas bite more often during the day, plus they jump well, but bedbugs cannot jump.

People can also be bitten by linen lice, but for people leading a normal social lifestyle this is very rare. Linen lice usually infest and can survive on the underwear and clothing of people who do not change or wash these clothes for months. If you bathe and wash your clothes regularly, the lice on them will die, even if they somehow end up here. Plus, lice bite around the clock, without significant night activity.

There are no other specialized insect parasites in human housing, well, at least in Eurasia. Dust mites, cockroaches, woodlice, and silverfish do not bite people. Therefore, if you are regularly bitten in the house at night, it is almost certainly bedbugs. And if you don’t see them, it doesn’t mean they aren’t bedbugs. It just means you haven't found them yet.

But bedbug bites are not noticeable in all people. More than half of those bitten in the morning do not have any traces of bites on the body and no symptoms. Therefore, you may well find these parasites in the bed, but until then you will not even suspect that they are there.

The next sign is blood stains that are found on the bed. They appear due to the fact that sometimes a person tossing and turning at night presses down and crushes a well-fed bug with his body. Such a bug's abdomen is swollen from the pumped blood, and if you lie on it, the parasite bursts and the blood flows out onto the bed. By morning it dries out and a stain remains in its place. However, such spots are a relative rarity and they appear more or less regularly only when there are a lot of bedbugs in the apartment.

The third is bedbug excrement. They look like small, about a millimeter in diameter, black balls, similar to dots, that can be seen on the bed, and near the bed, and on the mattress, and on the wooden elements of the bed, and even on the body - wherever bedbugs exist, they leave droppings.

By the way, it is in these feces that pathogens of dangerous diseases can be found. When a bug bites itself, it does not infect a person with anything, but if you scratch the bite site and smear such a ball on the scratch, or, for example, inhale it with dust even just from bed, infection, for example, with hepatitis is theoretically possible.

Already in the bed itself, if you disassemble it, you may not catch a live bug, but you may come across the remains of the chitinous coverings of these parasites. They simply look like dry, transparent bugs and are usually found in secluded places where bedbugs hide during the day.

If any of these signs are detected, it means that there are almost certainly bedbugs either in the bed or near it.

There are also such ambiguous signs. For example, smell. Yes, bedbugs themselves smell so unpleasant, sickly sweet, like stinkbugs on the street. But this smell is usually not felt indoors, at least if the infection is not critically strong.

There is an easier way to find out if there are bedbugs in the house: set an alarm clock for 4-5 o’clock in the morning, get up sharply, turn on the light and inspect the bed and your body. If bedbugs bite every day, then you will see such a friend. They are easy to recognize: they look like small, semicircular, flat insects, some brown, others yellowish. If some parasite has sucked blood, then its abdomen is red, because the blood itself is visible through the integument. Moreover, they can be seen - we are sometimes asked about this, and apparently, the person means that bedbugs are microscopically small and cannot be seen with the naked eye. Here you can see. Even the smallest nymphs have a body length of more than a millimeter and are, in principle, distinguishable, especially when well-fed, with blood in the abdomen. But adult bedbugs can be accurately identified: they are the size of a pea. That is, you will look at them even when you are sleepy at night.

If you didn’t find them one night in particular, then set your alarm clock for 3-4 nights in a row - if there are bedbugs in the house, you will find them. If you don’t find it, it means it’s not bedbugs.

Heat treatment

What distinguishes bedbugs from other bloodsucking insects that live in human homes is that they can easily tolerate low temperatures down to -20⁰C below zero.

During the winter period, you can take some pieces of furniture outside on one of the frosty days to expose them to low temperatures. But this does not guarantee that bedbugs will not appear in the apartment again after some time.

Insects can be killed in a shorter time by heating. However, it is important to remember here that not all furniture in the apartment can withstand exposure to high temperatures.

But most of the furniture and places where insects are located can be treated with steam. This method is considered the most effective today.

But such work is carried out only by employees of specialized services who have all the professional equipment necessary for this.

As a result of heat treatment, the eggs of linen bugs, which are resistant to other methods of killing insects, even die.

"Gifts" from neighbors

Among the variety of possibilities for infesting premises with bedbugs, the most common is transfer from neighboring premises. The reason is that it is impossible to completely isolate an apartment from them: they penetrate through doors, sockets, ventilation, etc.

In order not to later wonder where bedbugs in the sofa come from, you need to remember that insects move one by one, therefore, if you regularly carry out wet cleaning and the apartment is not cluttered with furniture, it is quite easy to see the “pioneers”.

Bedbugs often appear in apartments adjacent to the one where disinfestation is carried out. If the treatment is carried out by professionals, there is a high probability that they simply will not have time to scatter to neighboring apartments, but if you are trying to destroy parasites using traditional methods, then there is a high probability that bedbugs will “take over” neighboring apartments.

How to treat bed linen?

To get rid of bed bugs, it is necessary, in addition to treating the room and bed with various means, to carefully treat all bedding, linen and clothing.

In winter, pillows and blankets can be taken outside and thoroughly frozen. You can also steam them, which is also very effective.

All bedding should be removed and washed at the highest possible temperature. The same must be done with clothes.

Before re-laying linens or putting on clothes, they must be ironed thoroughly.

This ensures that all insects and their eggs are destroyed.

When is it time to take action?

If you find bites on your skin, you need to think carefully. You shouldn’t immediately think about how and with what to kill bedbugs - you need to make sure of their presence. First, you should carefully examine the mattress or sofa, as well as all the nooks and crannies in the bedroom. It is almost impossible to notice small eggs, but adult insects usually sit side by side during the day in their nest, without running away from there.

There are other “symptoms” of the appearance of bedbugs:

1. Blood stains on bed linen.
2. Black crumbs (excrement) near the bed.
3. The presence of skins that are shed by the larvae.

Bites on the body are also quite unusual. As a rule, the bug leaves a “path” of 3-5 bites, this is the only way it is completely saturated. Typically, such marks can be seen on the neck, arms, chest and other open places.

How to prevent bedbugs from appearing again?

To prevent the appearance of bloodsuckers in the apartment, it is necessary to take preventive measures.

1. While on a trip, you need to carefully check your hotel bed for bedbugs.
2. When you arrive home, you should carefully check your bags to ensure that bedbugs have not entered your personal belongings.
3. When buying used furniture, you also need to check it carefully, paying special attention to all the cracks and recesses.
4. The bedroom should be kept clean and should not be cluttered with rubbish.