Bed bugs have natural enemies that feed on bedbugs. This is important to know, although in practice it is not natural aggressors that will help you, but high-quality chemicals and a sanitation service. Find out who eats the insects that eat you.
A person can ask this question for two purposes. Firstly, he wants to have a pet that will eat bedbugs, and secondly, there are several other insects around, so he wonders whether these insects will eat bedbugs or not.
Power supply
The diet of domestic bugs is monotonous. Insects are blood-sucking parasites. Bed bugs feed exclusively on human blood. The victim is found by the heat emanating from it, the smell of carbon dioxide, which is released when exhaling. Parasites have a keen sense of smell and can detect even slight odors. Therefore, the blood pulsating in the human body also smells like it.
Interesting!
In a situation where the issue concerns life and death, the parasite can bite a pet or rodent. However, such blood does not allow insects to lay eggs and move to a new stage of development.
Apart from blood, bedbugs feed on substances found in eggs. The larva develops due to them. In the stage of suspended animation, the female feeds for some time on the unformed eggs that are in her body.
What animals eat bedbugs?
The following representatives of the animal world eat bedbugs:
- Hedgehogs are lovers of animal food, but they are not averse to trying bedbugs.
- Green toads.
- Birds.
- Rodents: mice, rats, hamsters.
- Cats, dogs.
The last specimens eat bloodsuckers for the sake of the hunting instinct: they playfully catch prey and feast on the trophy.
Among the animal world there are many who are not averse to profiting from domestic parasites. A person can use this for practical purposes. Only the role of biological enemies in the extermination of bedbugs is small enough to rely entirely on them.
Features of the meal
House bugs Pests are nocturnal. They crawl out of their shelters in the dead of night, when a person is fast asleep. Bites on the human body appear from 3 am to 8 am. The most voracious female of all. An adult drinks about 7 ml of blood at a time. The male requires 5 ml to be completely saturated. Nymphs of different ages drink blood to a minimum. Severe contamination of a room when a whole colony comes out to eat is dangerous for humans.
How to get rid of insects?
Over the centuries-old history of the coexistence of people, cockroaches and bedbugs in virtually the same territory, people have learned to cope with this problem. True, with varying degrees of success. Methods of combating both bedbugs and cockroaches depend on many factors: the degree of infestation of the room; the thoroughness of its processing; presence of children and pets.
Today, the treatment of contaminated premises by specialized services is considered the most effective. It is clear that cockroaches and bedbugs must be destroyed at the same time. This treatment has its own specifics, since the population of bedbugs requires certain means, while the population of cockroaches requires others. The work of specialists includes several stages:
- Search and elimination of insect migration routes;
- Searching for places where cockroaches and bedbugs accumulate, preparing all premises;
- Selection of insecticides: as a rule, products based on organophosphorus compounds or neonicotinoids are used to bait bedbugs; Pyrethroids are used for cockroaches.
First, the bedrooms are treated to kill bedbugs, then the kitchen, bathroom, corridor and balcony are treated to bait cockroaches. As a rule, insect pests are destroyed by cold, and in some cases also by hot fog (an additional paid service).
Thus, after effective professional treatment with the obligatory elimination of all insect migration routes, either cockroaches or bedbugs do not appear in the apartment at all, or after 1-2 weeks young bedbug larvae are discovered, which can be dealt with quite easily with a little re-treatment.
There are other methods for killing bedbugs and cockroaches, with varying degrees of effectiveness and safety. You can use the method of freezing, heat treatment, as well as the use of special pesticides and folk remedies.
Preparations based on karbofos in the form of sprays, powders and liquids are well suited for chemical treatment against cockroaches and bedbugs: “Dichlorvos”, “Reid”, “Prima-U”, “Raptor”, “Riapan”, “Forsyth”, “Primadid” and others.
Safety precautions include goggles, a respirator, gloves and protective clothing.
Folk remedies: freezing, high temperatures (from +45 °), strong odors (geranium, wormwood, tansy, chamomile, camphor, etc.). Their indisputable advantage is absolute non-toxicity.
Frequency of receiving food
Bed Bugs How often bed bugs feed depends on age.
After a full meal, an adult has enough reserves for 10 days. At the end of this period, the female must eat, since the process of laying eggs will stop. The larvae begin feeding almost immediately after hatching. To facilitate the process of searching for prey and to provide the cubs with a source of nutrition, females form nests in close proximity to the sleeping area. Nymphs feed 1-2 times a week. After receiving the next portion of food, the larva molts and increases in size by 1 mm. The entire period of growing up lasts 20 days under favorable conditions.
About cockroaches
Cockroaches, or as they are also called red-haired Prussians, would seem to be less safe for humans, causing many people a feeling of disgust and disgust. However, their waste products can cause a severe allergic reaction in humans.
For the favorable existence of mustachioed pests, three important factors are necessary - water, food and warmth. Insects find all these conditions in the kitchen, preferring to settle in various secluded places, crevices and cracks. Prussians leave their shelters in the dark so as not to become a human victim.
Making sure that cockroaches have appeared in the house is quite simple - you just need to turn on the light in the kitchen or bathroom at night. Traces of the presence of pests can also be revealed by excrement left behind and chitinous coverings shed during molting.
Cockroaches in the house
Natural enemies
Enemies of bedbugs Anyone who feeds on domestic bedbugs is interested in knowing that anyone who has encountered these parasites in their home is waging a merciless fight. Deep in my soul there is a hope that natural enemies will be able to exterminate the colony of bed bloodsuckers without human intervention.
- Much hope is placed on cockroaches. However, bedbugs and cockroaches living together is quite possible. Insects feed on different foods and settle in different parts of the apartment. There is nothing to share between these types of pests. Only when a nest of small parasites is accidentally discovered do cockroaches destroy the eggs.
- Ants are more dangerous to bed bugs. These insects can destroy both the eggs and the bed bugs themselves. However, you should not rely on the strength of ants. Parasites very rarely settle in the bedroom, where bed bugs prefer to live.
- Spiders. In a house where there is complete unsanitary conditions with spiders and cobwebs, you can count on a slight decrease in the number of blood-sucking insects. But it is unwise to bring the room to such a state.
What do spiders eat?
Spiders are classified as predators, which means they don’t mind eating bedbugs. The only thing that doesn’t fit is that house spiders catch the victim in a web that weaves under the ceiling. This is how insects try to catch small flying animals.
Bloodsuckers do not tend to get into it, which is due to the outdoor lifestyle. Their locations are marked under baseboards, in sofas and beds - where people spend a lot of time.
The danger to bloodsuckers comes from wild representatives, which are more often found in the natural environment. These include the hobo spider, which hunts on its own, without the use of improvised means. It is found in apartments and houses.
Lifestyle of cockroaches
These insects are omnivores and cannot do without water, drops of which they will always find in the cat's bowl, on the walls of the sink and on leaking pipes.
Food, water and room warmth are the three factors that provide Prussians with a comfortable life in the cracks and nooks of the apartment. Insects are not afraid of the noise of your refrigerator - they like the warmth of the running motor and the darkness behind the back wall.
The trash can is an ideal habitat for them: you can always find food and drops of tasty liquids there. Cockroaches try to crawl out of their hiding places at night so as not to be slammed by their owner's slippers: flight is their only defense against an unexpected attack.
Leftover food in the kitchen is the main cause of cockroaches
By the way, the Prussians can escape along a straight vertical surface, hide in a ceiling gap and, if necessary, dive: they have wings for this.
Cockroaches are so tenacious that even an increased radioactive background does not in any way affect their population size and reproduction.
How to prevent forest bugs from appearing in the house?
Since forest bugs are harmless to humans, unlike bedbugs, experts advise getting rid of them in simple ways, avoiding the use of potent insecticides. If mechanically collecting individuals every day seems too labor-intensive to you, then the easiest way is to prevent insects from entering living spaces.
The best option in this case is to install an anti-mosquito net. If bedbugs get into an apartment or house, you can throw them back out the window, closing it tightly afterwards. Of course, the smell may remain on your hands, but not as strong as after contact with the woody scale insect.
