How often, after a hard and boring day, a person just wants to come to his bedroom, straighten out the bed and go to bed.
But are there really no dangerous things that could disturb his peace and harm his health? Of course, there are some. And their names are bed mites, lice and bedbugs.
Such parasites can be found in feather pillows and blankets. Their bites can cause an allergic reaction in humans, which can spread to the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, etc.
Bed mites
Where do such inconvenient neighbors come from that can harm the body? Oddly enough, they can appear in ordinary dust, feathers or fluff.
It is almost impossible to predict their appearance. But if they appear, it can be immediately noticed by the condition of the person who is beginning to develop an allergy.
Dust mites are not large in size. They can easily live in a large army on 1 gram of dust. Such parasites cannot tolerate temperatures that are too high or too low.
Ideal conditions for their habitat are between +20 and +25 degrees. Their main source of nutrition is human dandruff, which forms on the skin. That is why they can appear on his body.
When choosing small corner sofas, you should pay attention to their configuration, color scheme, coating texture, availability of additional storage space, design, quality of materials used, frame strength indicators and cost.Due to the fact that an accordion sofa with an orthopedic mattress must constantly bend when folded, it is very difficult to equip it with spring blocks. Read about the design of the sofa and the choice of mattresses for it here.
Bed tick bites can cause various forms of allergies in humans. As a rule, the first signs of this disease include redness of the throat, increased sensitivity of the eyes, cough, and the appearance of itchy redness on the skin.
All these factors indicate that unpleasant neighbors have settled in your bed. The only consolation in this situation may be that these insects are not capable of causing serious illness in humans, and it is very easy to get rid of them.
Fighting bed mites
One of the most common ways to combat bed mites is to simply ventilate the room or take all laundry out to the balcony.
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This method allows you to get rid of pests quite quickly, since they are not able to tolerate sudden temperature changes.
Another way to get rid of and prevent ticks in bed is to systematically replace feathers and down in blankets or pillows. This method should be used at least once every 5 years, and this will allow you not to think about the presence of parasites in your bed.
A good way to get rid of such a parasite is to dry clean feather pillows or blankets. By treating feathers with chemicals, they are cleared of dust and dirt, which deprives mites of their usual habitat.
Of course, there are cheaper methods for cleaning pillows, but not all of them guarantee 100% results, which can lead to additional problems. It should be noted that ticks cannot grow in artificial materials such as latex, polyurethane or foam mattresses.
How dangerous are bed lice?
Body lice, which are popularly called bed lice, differ from mites in pillows not only in body shape, but also in their mode of existence.
Unlike ticks, this parasite cannot exist without humans. Bed lice are born, reproduce and feed only on the human body. The main source of nutrition is blood. In order to get it, they take a small bite and start drinking.
Such a process cannot have a positive effect on the condition of the lice owner. The final result may be allergies, various redness on the skin, the formation of wounds and scars.
Body lice are also a source of very serious diseases that can be fatal. Among them are typhus. Therefore, in order to avoid contracting dangerous diseases, it is necessary to get rid of such parasites as soon as possible.
Since body lice live on the human body, appropriate means of control are chosen.
Appearance
Linen bugs grow to sizes of only 6 mm. A well-fed insect looks different from a hungry one. Body color, shape, behavior changes. Detailed description of bedbugs:
- Hungry. Flattened oval body. Dense chitinous cover that is difficult to crush even with effort. It is impossible to get rid of it mechanically. The color is dirty brown. There are small straight whiskers on the head. No wings, can't fly. Actively crawling, impossible to catch. Although some eyewitnesses argue whether bedbugs crawl or jump.
- Well-fed. Bedbugs feed on blood. As blood enters, the chitinous cover expands and becomes transparent. The body is rounded, due to this it increases in size. The color changes over time as the blood clots. Initially red, then turns brown. A well-fed insect is clumsy and slow. It's easy to get rid of - crush it by pressing on the shell.
- In the stage of suspended animation. Under unfavorable conditions—lack of food—metabolic processes slow down and the stage of suspended animation begins. The insect stops moving and gradually turns into a living mummy. Without movement, the body is transparent gray.
On a note!
You need to get rid of bedbugs in the suspended animation stage immediately upon detection, since when they smell blood, they instantly come to life and return to a normal lifestyle.
You can clearly see what bed bugs look like in the photo below. Females are several millimeters larger than males.
Linen bugs
Getting rid of lice
The most common remedy for lice are various shampoos, lotions and aerosols that must be applied to the hair and the entire human body.
If the location of lice is the head, then special combs can be used as a method of combating them. As a rule, they have a very small distance between the teeth, which makes it possible to remove parasites from the hair. But this method is less effective, so it is used extremely rarely.
In order to get rid of lice that are on bed linen, you just need to wash it at a temperature above 60 degrees. In such conditions, the parasites die.
You can also simply hang your laundry outside or on the balcony. In this case, the bed lice will die on their own, since they will have nothing to eat.
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In order not to worry once again about how to rid your home of such neighbors, it is better to engage in prevention. It is necessary to wash your body and head thoroughly to prevent lice from appearing on them.
It is better to change bed linen at least 2 times a month and regularly clean feathers and wash covers on mattresses. This will reduce the risk of lice reappearing on the human body. In general, preventive work related to washing things must be carried out in conjunction with all methods of completely getting rid of them.
If the linen is washed thoroughly, but the lice have not been removed from the body, they will reappear in the bed.
Similarities of parasites
In addition to their differences, blood-sucking insects have some similarities, including:
- a flea or louse feeds on blood, and in its absence they quickly die;
- Both types of ectoparasites cause severe inconvenience to the owner. He suffers greatly from the bites;
- When they bite, they inject dangerous substances and infections with saliva that can become a threat to health.
Parasites are carriers of dangerous diseases.
The danger of bed bug bites
Bedbugs are another type of parasite that can live in a person's bed. They have absorbed something from ticks and lice.
Just like ticks, they are able to live without constantly being on the human body, located on it only when feeding. From lice they took a source of food - blood. But, unlike body lice, bedbugs do not cause serious diseases that could be costly for humans.
The most common diseases that occur from bed bug bites are the following:
Various allergic diseases and reactions that can develop in the form of cough, redness on the body, watery eyes;
The appearance of wounds and ulcers. Such an illness can arise from a permissive attitude towards one’s sleeping place. In the case of a large number of parasites, numerous blisters and wounds can form on the human body.
In appearance, bedbugs differ from ticks and lice, being larger in size and different in shape. Ideal conditions for their existence are in rooms with a temperature of 10 to 25 degrees.
However, they are very sensitive to high-degree heat. At a temperature of 50 degrees they die instantly. At zero degrees they do not die, but fall into a state of suspended animation.
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Ways of occurrence of bedbugs and habitats in the house
Without wings, the parasite cannot cover significant distances, this is obvious. But the flat structure of the body allows the small pest to literally seep through the smallest cracks. In multi-apartment buildings, bedbug specimens calmly move along ventilation shaft corridors, electrical wiring ducts, through sockets, panel joints, etc. | Read about finding bedbug nests...
These are the ways the insect spreads, but this is where bed bugs come from in a single apartment:
In a suitcase from travel/business trips. Staying overnight in contaminated hotels is especially at risk for lovers of the hot tropics. Even one randomly found female is capable of reproducing an entire colony in record time (one clutch contains 5-50 eggs daily!).
With used furniture. Those who want to save money on buying new interior items run the great risk of bringing bloodthirsty guests into the house in addition to a used chair, sofa or bed. Such savings can later turn into even greater expenses. Fighting bed bugs on your own is not always successful, and the services of professional exterminators are not cheap.
On clothes. It is enough to visit an infected apartment or stay overnight and receive a new guest in your own home in the folds of folded/hung clothes.
At night, linen bloodsuckers go out to “hunt”. And during the day they hide in secluded corners near the residents’ sleeping places:
- In the folds of upholstered furniture.
- In wallpaper joints.
- Under the mattresses.
- In bedside drawers.
- In cracks and baseboards.
- Under the paintings.
- On bookshelves.
- In curtains, sockets, etc.
A high level of adaptability allows the parasite to settle even in household appliances, especially those with wooden parts.
