How to Find Bed Bugs Información relacionada disponible en español If you have an infestation, it is best to find it early, before the infestation becomes established or spreads. Treating a minor infestation, while an inconvenience, is far less costly and easier than treating the same infestation after it becomes more widespread. However, low-level infestations are also much more challenging to find and correctly identify. Other insects, such as carpet beetles, can be easily mistaken for bed bugs. If you misidentify a bed bug infestation, it gives the bugs more time to spread to other areas of the house or hitchhike a ride to someone else's house to start a new infestation. Learn about identifying bed bugs. Bites on the skin are a poor indicator of a bed bug infestation. Bed bug bites can look like bites from other insects (such as mosquitoes or chiggers), rashes (such as eczema or fungal infections), or even hives. Some people do not react to bed bug bites at all.
Looking for signs of bed bugs Where bed bugs hide Bed bug behavior and habits Looking for Signs of Bed Bugs A more accurate way to identify a possible infestation is to look for physical signs of bed bugs. When cleaning, changing bedding, or staying away from home, look for: Rusty or reddish stains on bed sheets or mattresses caused by bed bugs being crushed. Dark spots (about this size: •), which are bed bug excrement and may bleed on the fabric like a marker would. Eggs and eggshells, which are tiny (about 1mm) and pale yellow Where Bed Bugs Hide When not feeding, bed bugs hide in a variety of places. Around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard. If the room is heavily infested, you may find bed bugs: In the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains. In electrical receptacles and appliances.
Under loose wall paper and wall hangings. At the junction where the wall and the ceiling meet. Even in the head of a screw. Bed Bug Behavior and Habit Understanding the behavior of bed bugs (how they eat, live, and reproduce) will help you to find an infestation before it becomes established and to monitor for the presence of bed bugs after your home has been treated. Appear to prefer to feed on humans, but will feed on other mammals and birds as well. Will readily travel 5-20 feet from established hiding places (called harborage) to feed on a host. Even though they are primarily active at night, if hungry they will seek hosts in full daylight. Feeding can take 3-12 minutes. The rusty or tarry spots found on bed sheets or in bug hiding places are because 20% of the time adults and large nymphs will void remains of earlier blood meals while still feeding. Bed bugs need at least one blood meal before the individual bug can develop to the next of the six life stages.
They can feed more than once. Each stage also requires the molting of skin. To continue to mate and produce eggs, both males and females must feed at least once every 14 days. Each female may lay 1 to 3 eggs per day and 200-500 eggs per her lifetime (6-12 months but could be longer). Egg-to-egg life cycle may take four to five weeks under favorable conditions. Bed bugs can survive and remain active at temperatures as low as 7°C (46°F), but they die when their body temperatures reaches 45°C (113°F). To kill bed bugs with heat, the room must be even hotter to ensure sustained heat reaches the bugs no matter where they are hiding. Common bed bugs are found almost anywhere their host can live. Tropical bed bugs (Cimex hemipterus) require a higher average temperature than the common bed bug and are found in tropical and subtropical areas.Edit ArticleHow to Buy a Memory Foam Mattress Looking for some sleep on a memory foam mattress? Before you walk into a mattress store and waltz into the jaws of an unscrupulous salesperson, get the facts by following the steps in this how-to.
Make sure the memory foam is of high enough density to support your body properly. Look for memory foam that is temperature sensitive. Read the warranty information carefully. Check for ample testing done with real people. Ask for a "comfort test" period. Compare prices on Web stores of reputable direct-to-consumer distributors. Most memory foam mattresses are actually in two or three layers, with a memory foam topper glued to a foundation layer of urethane foam. If you have a good quality mattress, you may also consider buying only a memory foam "topper". Show more unanswered questions Get a written "comfort guarantee." Make sure it's at least 10-14 days or more. If you can take ice, in a zip lock bag, you can verify if the material is temperature sensitive. It will become firmer in the place you put the ice after 5-15 minutes. Salespeople will try to give you "facts" which will favor their product, no matter how inferior, so just remember density, temperature sensitivity and reading all you can about memory foam to be educated before you buy and you'll be happy with your purchase.
Most people don't realize how heavy a solid foam mattress is. Solid memory foam or regular foam mattresses are a real job to move or even to turn around even for two healthy people, and you surely don't want to carry one up stairs. Many memory foam mattresses are manufactured in China. Some of the latest products coming out of China are of super high quality and chemical free. Ask for the details of manufacture before you buy. Foam mattresses act like sponges, this means they absorb liquid. You should always use a waterproof mattress protector when you set up your memory foam mattress to prevent liquid from getting into the memory foam and to keep you sleeping cool during hot weather. The Tempur-Pedic™ liquid-proof mattress cover of very high quality (and very comfortable to sleep on), but it is not highly durable and should not be washed in a machine with the sheets. Such treatment will eventually lead to tiny rips and tears resulting in leaks and a dramatic loss in effectiveness.