1. What do bed bugs look like?

The most widespread of the 108 varieties of bed bugs – the Cimex lectularius (found in temperate climates) – is well adapted to human environment, and bold enough to make its home in your mattress. Adult bed bugs are reddish-brown, flat, oval, and have no wings. A big adult can grow up to 5mm in length and 3mm in width, and they have tiny hairs coating their bodies. Babies are semi-transparent and lighter in color, but become darker as they mature.

Bed bugs are inherently bloodsuckers. If one is sucking the blood of a human, usually it’s because no other prey is available. They have been known to feed during the day, but prefer the hours just before dawn since they don’t like daylight. Our body heat and the carbon dioxide we emit are what attract them to us.

They either crawl up on the bed, or they drop from the ceiling or a wall. They infuse a little bit of local anesthetic into the skin with one tube when they feed, and haul out the blood with another tube for about 5 minutes before moving back to their hiding places. The local anesthetic is what causes the burning, itchy feeling when you become aware of the bite later on.

These bugs can exist for five months to an entire year depending on the weather. Their lifespan is shorter when it’s warmer and more favorable for feeding. A bed bug can stay alive in temperatures between 16°C and 45°C. They can survive up to a year without feeding, strangely enough.

2. Do Memory Foam Mattresses Get Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs aren’t as eager to set up shop in memory foam mattresses, since they have a more solid core and not as many handy hiding places. Since they like to conceal themselves in little, enclosed spaces, you still need to worry about your headboard, bed base and sheets.

The bugs can also be found in spring mattresses, since these have a lot of nooks and crannies and allow the bugs plenty roaming space. DDT is a potent substance that has kept the critters away for decades, but sadly, there is concern that the bugs have developed a resistance to the stuff. The best solution for getting rid of bed bugs in your spring mattress is to throw out the mattress itself.

Bear in mind you will give the bedbugs an opportunity to reproduce in another location if you just toss the mattress outside, so clean it first with bug spray and hot water.

How To Protect Leather Sofas from Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are minute, flat crawling insects from the Cimicidae family. They are usually reddish-brown, a side-effect of their diet. They feed solely on the blood of warm-blooded animals, including humans. Female bed bugs lay their eggs in concealed spaces, turning out as many as 500 in a lifetime. It takes them less than a month to completely develop, although the largest only get to about a fourth of an inch long.

Below are some exercises for homeowners who want to keep bed bugs from infesting their sofas:

Look for signs of bed bug infestation

Bed bugs move pretty fast and effortlessly through pipes and boards. The fabric of furniture, for example beds, sofas, chaise lounges, and futons is their favorite nesting place. The bugs have also been known to nest in clutter found around a sleeping area. Their favored habitat seems to center more on staying near to their food supply. That’s the human!

Because of their nocturnal nature and small size it can be hard to notice these blood sucking creatures. Their discovery is often due to the things they insects leave behind, such as fecal spots, blood smears, etc.

Patterns of bug bites in a row or cluster are another sign of infestation. Still, just because you found some irritated bumps on your skin doesn’t automatically mean you have bed bugs. A bed bug bite is nearly impossible to tell apart from a mosquito bite: it’s often a raised red freckle-like bump, usually extremely itchy. However, a bed bug bite will last a much longer period of time.

Protect Your Furniture From Bed Bugs Without DDT

As with any parasite, the question is, how do you get rid of bed bugs? DDT was the most widely used insect killer against bed bugs in the ’40s and ’50s, but it was prohibited in 1972 for the damage it caused to people. Most modern strains of the bugs have developed a h2 resistance to normal pesticides. High concentrations of carbon dioxide will do the trick, though this means you have to fully control your immediate environment.

A cheaper, easier solution is to wrap a mattress or sectional sofa suspected of being contaminated in plastic sheeting. As long as the plastic is waterproof and bite-proof, the contaminated furniture will in due course become free of the insects.

There are also a series of traps using heat, carbon dioxide, and even duct tape that can be used to get rid of as well as prevent a bed bug infestation.

Don’t Let Bed Bugs Give You Sleepless Nights

Bed bugs put humans in substantial distress, although they are not the most dangerous parasite to be in bed with. In some exceptional circumstances, they can cause nausea and illness through allergic reactions. On the other hand, some people may not even show signs of being bitten, just another reason why the bugs can be so hard to discover.

One of the main fears when dealing with blood-sucking parasites is the fear of illness being passed to the host. Bearing in mind as many as thirty different types of infectious agents can exist inside each insect, it would seem a reasonable theory that this parasite is no different. In spite of this, there are no known cases of disease transmission from one of these insects to a human, and extensive research on the subject had shown it’s probably not possible.

How To Kill Bed Bugs – FREE Guide

Before you download this free guide, I want you to follow these steps:

1. Cover your mattress with waterproof cover
2. Move your bed away from the wall
3. Put double sided tape around the feet of the bed
4. Wash your mattress sheets everyday in hot water
5. Put them in hot dryer for at least 30 minutes

6. Wash all your cloths in hot water
7. After using the hot dryer, put your cloths immediately in plastic zip bag
8. Make sure the plastic zip bag is waterproof and can be sealed
9. Change only a few cloth everyday

Download Your FREE Bed Bug Guide Here

The province reports that 11 lockers in the men’s and women’s general locker rooms are infested with bed bugs, as well as the fifth floor.
Infected areas will be treated by pest control on Saturday, Dec. 10, and again on Saturday, Dec. 17. The spaces will reopen following treatment.

General Manager, Troung of YMCA said he is going to install bed bug detectors in the locker room as soon as possible.

Bed Bugs Are Expanding Their Territory
From Library to YMCA, what’s the next target? Vancouver Downtown has already been infested by bed bugs since 2005.

The province reports that B.C. Housing, which operates more than a dozen apartment buildings for low-income people, has recently spent $720,000 over a one-year period dealing with the problem.
So far the problem still hasn’t been solved. Bed Bugs are infested a wider area, especially in public places. Not only in houses.
Why is The BC Government Not Doing Anything to Kill Bed Bugs
As usual, the BC government is too slow. They rather spent money on increasing the taxes, such as the HST.
Bed bugs spread away quickly, since they lay eggs quickly and only come out at night to suck on human’s blood and even pets. Bed Bugs are resistant to some pesticides.
Vancouver BC Has More Than 2000 Bed Bug Infested Houses

Can you imagine that? Vancouver has 1944 bed bug reports according to Bed Bug registry. The number is even bigger, because not everybody will register a bed bug report. Bed bug sufferers are busy trying to kill bed bugs and getting a good night sleep.

For those who has bed bugs, would know that having bed bugs mean sleepless nights. Every time a bed bug bites you, you can’t sleep anymore.

The first Bed bugs alert in the Vancouver library was Mount Pleasant branch. Now bed bugs are found the Burnaby and New Westminster libraries.

A Vancouver resident Brian King reported to the CBS new that bed bugs were hiding in his book borrowed from the library.

Bedbugs infestations have become a major issue around the Metro Vancouver area in the last 5  years. Especially in the hotels and rentals of downtown area, where the highest

Bed Bugs Can Hide In one of the Millions of Books

The library has started the put the books in a plastic bags and store them in a room under high temperature. Only heat can kill bed bugs.

The management of Vancouver Library system hasn’t decided yet whether to mount a full-scale inspection for bedbugs.

With 10 million books, bed bugs can hide everywhere and this can be serious problem if no actions are quickly.

Don’t wait! The longer you wait, the more bed bugs can multiply.

Three things you must understand to fight bed bugs:

- Kill Bed Bugs

- Destroy Bed Bug eggs

- Cut their food supply (blood)

Remember these important things:

- Bed bugs can’t swim

- Bed bugs die under heat

- Bed Bugs need blood

How To Kill Bed Bugs in Your Cloths

-Collect all your cloths that can be washed.

-Put them in a sealed bag and bring it to the laundry.

-Wash your cloths in the hottest setting (over 45 celcius)

-Put the cloth for 1 hour in the dryer (after washing)

- If you have white cloths, you can put it in bleach (save you some money)

For cloth that can not be washed

- Dry cleaning

- Clothing Steamer

After washing and drying

- Put your clothing a sealed plastic bags

- Put it away from the bedroom.

Clean your mattress

- Put double tap around your bed

- Spray your mattress and box spring with lots of bed bug spray

- Seal your mattress and box spring in waterproof plastic cover

- Tape up the opening of the mattress cover with duct tape.

The idea is capture all these bed bugs inside and let them die inside

-         Throw out your pillows, but seal them with plastic bag.

Buy new pillow and taped up covers as well.

Bed bugs can hide anywhere in your room. They prefer to stay close to their prey (that’s the human body). They like to hide in the wooden material.

Bed bug can hide in

- cracks
- electrical outlets
- behind wallpaper
- picture frames,
- between beds and mattresses
- Clothes
- Shoes
- Clock
- Modem

How to spot bed bugs in their hiding places?

Besides your bed, look beneath loose wallpaper, in desks, and nightstands for bed bugs.

Using a flashlight carefully inspect for bed bugs at night. Remove clutter and clean up your room to find those bed bugs easily. Reorganize your furniture. Inspect backside of your paintings.

Use a brush to remove dust, and you can find bed bugs in cracks and crevices.
When you find them spray immediately with bed bug spray. Use a vacuum with he-pa filter to suck them out.  Immediately seal the bag after vacuum and throw it away outside

You thought it might be some mosquito bites, so you forget about. After a couple days you got more bites. You see some small crawling insect moving around your bed. You pull up your mattress and see a bunch of disgusting crawling brown insects. You’ve got bed bugs!

Great! You tell your landlord and she is ignore everything.

What if your landlord knows that there are bed bugs in the apartment?

You talk with the other tenants and found out that there were bed bugs before you moved in. Yes, it happens!

Some landlords don’t tell you that their apartment is infested with bed bugs. They still rent out the room after the previous tenant has moved out. Very irresponsible.

What can you do in this case?

Landlord should empty the apartment

If there are bed bugs in the apartment you’ve got a big problem. It’s very easy for bed bug to from one room to another room through all those cracks and small holes.

Majority of the houses in North America are made of wood. The walls has tiny holes and cracks, which makes the bed bugs easy to hide and move to another room.

I understand that the landlords are losing money if they don’t rent out their room. They should think about the safety of the tenants. Bed bug are very difficult to kill. They can live for the whole year inside the house.

As long as there are human being (the host) is inside the apartment, they can get food and multiply. Yes, the human blood is their food.

The first thing to get rid of bed bugs is to cut the supply of food

Is easier said than done.  Bed bugs need blood. They are parasite and need a host (that’s you) to live.

My advice is to empty the whole apartment and spray with bed bug spray or use some kind of heat in the entire apartment to kill all the bed bugs.

Yes, kick out all the tenants, but make sure the tenants don’t bring the bed bugs to another place.

This city is know well known as the most bedbug infested city in the United States.

Many pest control companies in New York are now busy and fully booked.
New York City government has allocated $500,000 to fight bed bugs. Bed bug don’t carry disease, that’s why the government didn’t pay attention to control the pest, until now.

How bed bugs infestation start in those cities?

Bed bugs spread away easily from one location to the next. They hide in the cloths, suite cases and even the shoes of the human.
Many bed bug carriers don’t even notice that they have bed bugs, until they got bitten. Bed bugs spread around through travellers. Hotels, airplanes and cruise ships are now their favorite hidding and feeding places.

Yes, bed bugs love human blood. They only need 5 minutes to suck your blood and can hide for up to a week to come out again. That’s why it’s very difficult to find and kill bed bugs. More diffiuclt than ants and any other crawling insects

How do you spot a bedbug, or stop before infestation?

Check mattresses for dark blood spots (bed bug shit), and DON’T pick up used mattresses or furniture left out on the street.

Yes, one of our stupid fellow tenant picked up a used sofa from the street and made the entire apartment full of bed bugs now.

Here are the 2010 most bedbug-infested cities

:

1. New York
2. Philadelphia
3. Detroit
4. Cincinnati
5. Chicago
6. Denver
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Dayton, Ohio
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Los Angeles
11. Boston
12. Indianapolis
13. Louisville, Ky.
14. Cleveland
15. Minneapolis, Minn.

You might want to avoid traveling to those cities.

If you still want to visit these cities, better check out the hotels whether they have bed bugs.

If you know any hotel that has bed bugs, please post a comment here