Severe itching that torments the victim a little later is mistaken for a mosquito bite or an allergic reaction. And a reddened place with a dot in the center does not attract attention at first if the victim does not have sensitivity and we are talking about several bites. If the room is heavily infected, and the person is prone to allergies, his body begins to itch unbearably, appears headache, fever, nausea, there is an increase in lymph nodes. If the bite sites are also combed, which is typical for children, dangerous bacteria can get into open wounds, which leads to the appearance of abscesses.
Bed bugs in furniture deprive a person of proper sleep: the victim wakes up from itching and cannot fall asleep for a long time, mentally suffering from the presence of crawling insects in bed. Sleep disorders lead to psychological disorder. Often, families even have scandals on the basis of sleepless nights. But this is not all the consequences of living in a bedbug-infested apartment. Are bedbugs dangerous to humans and why exactly?
If the situation with the immunodeficiency virus is more or less clear and you should not be afraid of infection with bites, then with the causative agent of hepatitis B, the situation is much worse. During the experiments, scientists found that the virus persists in the feces of an insect for several days. Therefore, the victim, touching the affected areas, is able to pick up the infection.
There is another possibility of infection - through the inhalation of dust with the remains of bedbugs.
An impressive number of insects worsens the sanitary and epidemic situation in the home. Therefore, cheap hotels, refugee camps, homeless shelters and military field hospitals carry the potential threat of contracting dangerous infectious diseases.
Psychological disorders on the background of bedbug bites
In addition to the possibility of catching an infectious disease, they are dangerous in terms of the development of psychological problems in humans. Sleep disruption is just the tip of the iceberg. Restless sleep leads to the fact that a person becomes irritable, nervous and suffers from a constant feeling of fatigue. His performance is reduced, and quarrels often occur in the family.
With children, the situation is even worse. Especially if a child or teenager is terrified of insects. The presence of bedbugs in the house can lead to the development of phobias: children become aggressive and excitable, their sleep is disturbed and a nervous tic is observed. In order to avoid such a situation, the sanitization of the dwelling upon detection of bloodsuckers should be carried out without delay.
How to determine the presence of bloodsuckers in the home?
If the bloodsuckers under the mattress are not found, but suspicions in their presence have not disappeared, then at 3 o'clock in the morning the light should be suddenly turned on: if the bugs went hunting, they will clearly stand out on the white sheet. There is an opinion that bedbugs start only in untidy apartments, where repairs have not been done for a long time. This is not so: for unknown reasons, in recent decades, the number of bloodsuckers has increased catastrophically.
The sanitary condition of the apartment no longer plays any role for bedbugs: both residents of elite new buildings and residents of untidy Khrushchev apartments suffer from bites.
This phenomenon is observed in other countries as well. For example, in Florida, the number of bedbugs has increased tenfold, and in the United States as a whole, 80% of apartments in cities have been treated for these blood-sucking insects in the last decade. London has 25% more bed bug treatments every year, and Stockholm has the highest number of bed bug infested homes in Sweden.
How to get rid of bed bugs?
Finding bedbugs in a home is not a sentence. Fortunately, dozens are produced today effective means for the rapid destruction of bloodsuckers. In addition, if it is not possible to remove bedbugs on your own the first time, you can always resort to the help of professionals.
How to quickly get rid of bed bugs? You should start by buying poison. On sale you can find the following drugs for self-disposal of bedbugs:
It is difficult to list absolutely everything - there are plenty of them. If there is not enough time for independent pest control, and life has become a nightmare, you should think about calling professional exterminators.
Bed bug extermination services
SES specialists use professional equipment and highly toxic poison that penetrates into all cracks and instantly kills bloodsuckers. But you should carefully consider the choice of an insect extermination company, having studied all the available information and reading user reviews on the network. So, the guarantee of a company called Clean City bugs, cockroaches and ants is worthless: the company's employees can not cope with.
The destruction of bedbugs should begin immediately after the discovery of misfortune in the house. Bloodsuckers often migrate from neighboring apartments, so their elimination in their own home does not guarantee that pests will not reappear. What to do if the neighbors have bed bugs? It is worth carrying out explanatory work with all residents in the house and processing each apartment in order to forget about insects in bed forever.
Bedbugs can start in any apartment, there is no panacea to prevent their appearance. Everyone runs the risk of being bitten, if not in their home, then at a party or on vacation. Let's figure out how dangerous bedbugs are for humans and what to do with emerging bites.
How to determine that the bite was left by a bug, and not a mosquito:
- In the center of each redness, a small wound is clearly visible - the bite site, often by morning it is already covered with a crust.
- The bites are not arranged randomly, like mosquitoes, but in chains of several pieces, the bug moves forward, making punctures, until it finds a vessel close to the skin.
Despite the fact that with a large number of bedbugs in the room, they can leave up to 500 bites on the human body, the amount of blood they drink is insignificant - about 7 mg per insect. Therefore, fears that bedbugs can literally dry out a person overnight are absolutely groundless. The danger of bedbugs is different: they cause severe allergic reactions, deprive you of sleep and are carriers of serious infectious diseases.
allergic reactions
Allergy to bedbugs is a common occurrence, their saliva is a strong allergen, after being bitten by these insects, 80% of people in the morning find red, swollen spots more than a centimeter in diameter on their skin. They stay on the skin for 2-3 days, in rare cases - up to a week, and all this time cause unbearable itching.
With a significant number of wounds, the swelling can merge into one large spot, and a secondary allergic rash may also appear throughout the body. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to avoid the appearance of spots after bites, but everyone is quite capable of minimizing the consequences.
Immediately after detecting bites, you must:
- Wash the bug bite site with soap and water, and then treat it with an antiseptic to eliminate bacterial contamination and prevent infection of the wound.
- You can relieve itching with a solution of soda (1 teaspoon per glass of water) or antihistamine ointments (Fenistil-gel, Gistan, Ketocin).
- Do not comb the bite sites, this contributes to a further increase in itching, in addition, secondary infection and suppuration of the wounds are possible.
- People with pronounced allergic reactions need to take an antihistamine medicine (Suprastin, Claritin, Zirtek and others).
A certain danger is represented not only by bedbug bites, but also by being in the same room with them. Allergic reactions are also caused by insect excrement and chitinous shells that they shed during molting. With a large population in the room, in addition to lacrimation and nasal congestion, difficulty breathing and even Quincke's edema are possible.
Quincke's edema is perhaps the main danger that bedbugs can create. This is an acute reaction to an allergen, its symptoms are swelling of the subcutaneous tissue and mucous membranes. The spread of swelling to the larynx can lead to death from suffocation in a matter of minutes. If the face is swollen, the eyes have become like slits, the voice has become hoarse, and the breathing is noisy, you should immediately leave the habitat of the bugs and call an ambulance.
Sleep disturbance
The very presence of bedbugs in an apartment is already stressful, especially for squeamish people. And if you add itching from bites, especially tormenting at night, insomnia is guaranteed. Violation of sleep patterns leads to depression, deterioration of attention, memory, increases the risk of catching an infection.
Bedbugs prefer to bite children and young women, and this selectivity does not lead to anything good. Family members who literally did not feel the bites of these insects on their skin do not attach much importance to the torment of loved ones, which often becomes a cause of conflict. Appearance also suffers. The skin, completely covered with spots, and constant lack of sleep will not decorate anyone.
vector-borne diseases
There are a number of diseases that are transmitted through insect bites, they are called transmissible. For example, they include tick-borne encephalitis and mosquito-borne malaria.
For bedbugs, such diseases have not been identified. It has been scientifically proven that they are carriers of a number of diseases. However, it is still unknown whether bedbugs are dangerous as carriers; not a single case of human infection has been documented.
What diseases from this list can be dangerous? Coxiellosis and tularemia are transmitted not only by direct contact with the blood, but also by aspiration, through the respiratory system, so the presence of bugs carriers of these diseases in the room can be unsafe: the air in such housing is dusty with micro-remains of insects and their feces.
As a result laboratory research it was found that hepatitis B in the body of bed bugs persists for 2 months, moreover, it is actively excreted with their excrement.
Thus, infection by household means is not excluded, and in the presence of fresh wounds and scratches - through the blood.
Danger for children
Bedbugs have a well-developed sense of smell, even at a considerable distance they are able to find their prey. These bloodsuckers are the first to attack children - they have more delicate skin, which is easier to bite through.
Why are bites dangerous for children? All processes in the child's body occur faster and more actively, allergic reactions to bites are also more pronounced than in adults. The size of the spots in babies can reach 5-7 cm, occupy the entire arm or stomach. It is also not easy to find out the cause of these swellings - the child cannot describe his feelings, so they begin to take measures against bedbugs late, after a visit to a dermatologist.
In an effort to relieve the constant itching, the child itches, leaving scratches on the skin. Bacteria, which are introduced both on the paws of insects and by the victims themselves, become the cause of infection of the wounds and their suppuration.
Bedbug bites also harm the psychological state of the child, he develops irritability, frequent tantrums, fear of being alone, insectophobia (fear of insects).
Danger for travelers
In the countries of South America and Africa, the consequences of bedbug bites are more serious, and the list of diseases carried by these insects is much wider.
They can be infected with the following diseases:
- Yellow fever, in the body of a bug lives up to 15 days, infection is possible when insect feces get on damaged skin. The disease causes 30,000 deaths a year from liver and kidney failure. There is a vaccine that reduces the risk of infection by 95%.
- Smallpox - can not only live in the body of a bug, but also stand out in saliva. It has been scientifically proven that people can become infected with smallpox when bitten by carrier insects. In remote areas of Africa, it is bedbugs that carry monkeypox. This disease is milder than smallpox eradicated today, but it can also be fatal.
- Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoa that leads to the formation of ulcers on the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs. It is also distributed in Western and Southern Asia.
The most real risk of infection from bedbug bites is in Latin America. Triatomine bugs from the family of predators are responsible for more than 10,000 deaths a year from Chagas disease.
Why are bed bugs dangerous to humans? First of all, of course, with their bites, which can cause serious illnesses and disorders. Moreover, the more bedbugs in the room, the more dangerous consequences their constant attacks.
This is interesting
Epidemiologists note a constant increase in the number of bedbugs in developed countries. So, for example, in Florida over the past decade, the number of bedbugs inhabiting residential premises has increased 10 times. If we talk about this country as a whole, then already in 2007, 80% of urban apartments in the United States were ever infected with bedbugs. The situation is similar in Europe: in London, the number of indoor treatments from these pests increases by about a quarter every year. In Sweden, the largest share of bedbug-infested housing is in the state capital, Stockholm. As you can see, bedbugs have long been a worldwide problem.
Bed bug bites and their effects
Now let's take a closer look at the main threat from these insects. As mentioned above, bedbugs are dangerous precisely because of their way of life: in order to live, they must constantly bite a person and feed on his blood. At the same time, the very moment of piercing the skin is generally painless, but a few minutes later the victim will feel severe itching, because. in the process of sucking blood, the insect injects saliva into the wound, the enzymes of which prevent it from coagulating.
In general, the mechanism of this process is similar to mosquito bites, therefore, often, especially with a few attacks, the wounds that appear on the skin may not even attract attention. Slight redness remains at the site of the bites with a visible dot in the center, but if a person does not have special sensitivity, then he may not even suspect that dangerous bed bugs have settled in his house, and attribute everything to habitual mosquitoes or allergies.
It should be noted that with an increased individual sensitivity of a person, an allergy can go far beyond a simple rash - a headache, nausea appear, the temperature rises, and the lymph nodes increase.
“For a long time I could not understand what was happening to my child. He is only a year old, he cannot even show a finger, he simply does not sleep at night, he constantly cries, he is nervous during the day. I constantly saw some kind of bites on it, but I thought it was mosquitoes, I had already tried all the remedies for them, until, finally, I found a random bug. At first I didn’t even recognize it, I thought it was a cockroach, and then, as I thought, my hair on my head was already moving. For a week I poisoned them with everything I could, I myself poisoned myself, I carried the baby to my grandmother at night. Forgive me, my dear, for this month and a half of a nightmare.
Lydia, Tomsk
In addition, bedbugs are also dangerous because they interfere with normal sleep, and under conditions of systematic night attacks, the victim may well “earn” a sleep disorder. A person who wakes up from an itch, firstly, is not able to fall asleep for a long time, and secondly, finding the bugs themselves in his bed, he experiences real stress, which can have far-reaching psychological consequences.
See also our bed bug experiments:
We catch bedbugs and test different means on them - see the results...
Bed bugs are especially dangerous for children: the skin of babies is very delicate and sensitive, immunity is still being formed, so itching from bites is more painful for them, and allergies are protracted and deep.
In addition, multiple bites can lead to iron deficiency anemia that sometimes ends for the vulnerable child's body various unfortunate consequences. However, in some adults, this factor cannot be discounted: serious bites of pregnant women can lead to unpredictable consequences for both the mother and the unborn child.
In general, in the apartment where the child lives, bed bugs can be most dangerous, so you need to get them out of here as soon as possible.
Do bed bugs carry AIDS, hepatitis and other infections?
There is an opinion that bed bugs are also dangerous because they carry pathogens of various human diseases.
However, this is not entirely true.
Indeed, for the entire time of observations in the organisms of bed bugs different countries found causative agents of infections such as:
- Hepatitis B
- typhus
- relapsing fever
- Q fever
- tularemia
- yellow fever
- leprosy
- tuberculosis
- filariasis
- syphilis
- leishmaniasis.
However, despite the rather serious list, none of the studies revealed reliable facts of the transmission of these infections from an infected person to a healthy one.
Getting acquainted with the issue of the transfer of serious human diseases by bed bugs, one cannot help but dwell on one of the most formidable world problems - the immunodeficiency virus.
Special experiments have shown that bedbugs can accumulate virions of retroviruses in their digestive tract, of which the most famous is HIV. However, even if present in the body of this insect, the immunodeficiency virus itself does not multiply, and moreover, passing through the digestive tract of the insect, it is excreted with excrement.
In other words, bedbug bites cannot cause HIV infection: even if the pathogen enters their body, it is not transmitted to a new victim when bitten.
However, it is still possible to catch some dangerous diseases through bedbugs. So, for example, observations show that the hepatitis B virus and some other infectious agents can remain in the excrement of bedbugs for up to several days, which means that a person, accidentally touching the place where they were left with his hand, may well “catch” the infection.
The second possible variant of infection is inhalation. Inhaling dust with the waste products of these insects, a person is also at risk of infection. Therefore, the more bedbugs in the room, the more different people there are in it, the worse its general sanitary and epidemiological condition.
Thus, drawing simple conclusions, one can understand that the most dangerous in this regard can be hotels (especially those that already have a very low cost of living), field hospitals, refugee camps and places where the homeless gather.
On a note
Living in the tropics of South America, the so-called kissing bugs are dangerous because they carry the causative agent of Chagas disease, and the frequency of infection by insects is very high. This disease in many cases leads to disability or death. Bed bugs, in turn, are also carriers of the causative agent of Chagas disease, but there are no documented facts of infecting people with them.
Bed bugs as a cause of psychological and family problems
As mentioned above, in addition to obvious infectious diseases, bedbugs are quite dangerous as a cause of serious psychological problems. Science has proven that mental disorders they can also cause somatic malfunctions of the human body, so you should not ignore this aspect of the forced neighborhood with bed bugs.
Many people are terrified of insects, and the mere thought of the possible presence of a bug in their bed does not allow them to fall asleep normally. This is especially true for women and children: psychiatrists regularly record the development of phobias in young children and adolescents who have experienced serious bedbug bites. In this case, the victims of bloodsuckers become overly excitable, aggressive, do not sleep well at night, they may develop a nervous tic.
In addition, itching from bites and constant checking of the bed at night disrupts sleep, deprives a person of normal rest, leads to the development of nervousness, a feeling of constant fatigue, and stress.
In the daytime, this responds with a decrease in working capacity, a deterioration in mood, and sometimes quarrels in the family.
Very often, bed bugs bite only one person, even when a couple or a couple with a child is sleeping in the room. The constant “groundless” complaints of one bitten spouse and misunderstanding on the part of the other, who is not attacked by bedbugs, can first lead to irritation of partners, and then even to serious conflicts in a couple.
Other biting bugs
So, the kind of Gladysh (family Gladysh) is called water wasps for their very painful injections. And the bugs of the Water scorpion family leave a serious tumor after their bite, which can hurt for several days.
One of the largest bugs in general - the giant belostoma, sometimes feeding on young frogs and fish fry - also bites amazingly painfully and is a real scourge of river and lake beaches in North America.
However, in fairness it should be said that in general, all these bugs bite a person only for the purpose of self-defense. If they are not touched and accidentally stepped on, they will try to avoid any contact with a person.
Other numerous and very common bugs both in nature and in settlements - stink bug, Italian shield bug or - can be dangerous only because they leave an extremely unpleasant odor on their hands. Therefore, they, too, should not be disturbed for no reason, and when removing them from the apartment, it is recommended to observe maximum delicacy.
Bedbug habitats in the house and important nuances of dealing with them
Why bedbugs are dangerous for humans is a question, although not rhetorical, but often discussed and very controversial. Are bed bugs dangerous? How much damage can they do? And what could be the consequences? There are many questions, and each of them is important.
Do you know that...?
Small, inconspicuous, but how disgusting! how much trouble they can bring to a person! But if you can cope with discomfort, moral disorder and minor physical ailment without additional medical care, then what to do if the disease has dragged on and acquired an infectious character? Unpleasant and painful bites are the minimum of sensations that human bugs can reward.
The seams and folds of the mattress are a favorite habitat for bed bugs.
Human danger
To understand the degree of danger, you should thoroughly study the structure of the bug - both external and internal. On the pages of a school textbook on biology, you can find comprehensive information about the suborder of blood-sucking insects, of which bugs are a prominent representative. Biologists refer them to the order of Hemiptera insects. This order of insects is considered one of the most numerous and widespread.
Bed bugs are a rather harmful type of insect. In size, they are from 3 to 5 millimeters in length.
Bed bugs reproduce at the speed of light. This happens especially quickly at optimal temperature conditions and at night. The optimum temperature for their reproduction is 18-25 degrees above zero. As you can see, the usual room temperature.
Bed bugs develop through an incomplete transformation cycle. What does it mean? The female goes through the process of her development in several stages: egg - larva - mature individual.
A laid egg and a larva that appears after a while do no harm. All power appears in the bug when it turns into a large, formed individual.
Are bedbugs dangerous: we understand the facts
Fact one. The degree of danger is low.
After an insect bite, a person begins to experience itching, observes the appearance of reddened areas of the skin, and feels a subcutaneous burning sensation. This happens to 80% of bitten people. Such an outcome of the event is the most prosperous. They got rid of the bugs with the help of special disinfectants, the itching and burning disappeared, the skin acquired a normal shade.
Fact two. The degree of danger is medium.
Fact three. The degree of danger is above average.
Fact four. The degree of danger is high.
Bedbugs bite absolutely everyone indiscriminately. It doesn't matter to him whether you are healthy or sick. Blood for them is the source of life. Therefore, they bite sick people, and after "with a clear conscience" they attack people who are absolutely healthy. This happens often. The result - a person, in addition to allergic itching, becomes the owner of dangerous infectious diseases.
The appearance of helminths is not even the worst thing that you can “get rid of” after being bitten by an infected arthropod bloodsucker.
Psychological shocks and physical suffering are the result of bedbug bites. These nocturnal bloodsuckers distract from the joyful moments of life, concentrate on itching and burning of the skin, disrupt proper sleep, weaken the immune system and reduce performance indicators.
Bedbugs are very dangerous to humans. Remember this, watch your health and do not let the bug into the house.
Not everyone is wondering why bed bugs are dangerous. “We seem to have bedbugs that bite a little, but it’s okay, they won’t disappear, I’ll contact the pest control service,” some people think so, not realizing what danger bedbugs pose until the situation worsens. After such carelessness, it takes a long time and methodically to remove insects, as well as treat some diseases. In addition to physical discomfort, the neighborhood with bloodsuckers causes a lot of moral suffering. What other dangers threaten a person in the vicinity of bedbugs?
The occurrence of an allergic reaction to numerous bedbug bites is the most common disease in the world, about 80% of the population of our planet have such a predisposition. The bitten areas of the skin become inflamed, redden, itching does not go away for a long time, sometimes lasting up to ten days. In this case, serious treatment is required - taking medications, lubricating the skin with special ointments.
Bed bugs are most dangerous for children. The skin of the child did not have time to harden and insects easily pierce it in any place on the body. And an allergic reaction in children is always more pronounced than in an adult, the disease is especially difficult.
In rare cases, when it is necessary to see a doctor, red blisters, tearing and a runny nose appear. Quincke's edema, bronchospasm and even anaphylactic shock develop. The attack occurs even after touching the chitinous shells of insects or their excrement. With severe allergies, the body reacts even to the smell of bedbugs in a heavily contaminated room.
The risk of infection in the wound
Numerous itchy bites after night attacks of bedbugs do not give rest, they itch unbearably, as a result of which the skin is damaged. A little dirt in an open wound and abscesses form in this place, they heal for a very long time, so in no case should you scratch the bite.
Dangerous diseases
Scientists from different countries conducted research, and found in the body of these insects the causative agents of many human diseases, including typhus, plague, hepatitis B, leprosy, syphilis, tuberculosis, and this is far from full list. There is no evidence that insects carry the immunodeficiency virus. Experiments have shown that the virus, entering the stomach of the bug, does not multiply and is subsequently excreted with excrement.
Even if we exclude such an outcome of events, nevertheless this rarely happens, imagine that bedbugs live in places teeming with bacteria, and then they carry them on their paws and proboscis. Children who are often bitten by bedbugs develop iron deficiency anemia.
Nervous disorders and psychological problems
Bed bugs for a person are dangerous with the appearance of psychological problems.
The most important thing is that the bugs do not let you sleep at night. Insects are active from 3 to 7 in the morning. A working person needs to wake up early in the morning, if insects disturb him at five o'clock, he may no longer fall asleep. There is a feeling that someone is crawling in bed all the time, you have to get up, turn on the light, examine yourself, linen and the whole bed. As a result of lack of sleep, attention decreases, memory and mood worsen, and there can be no talk of a normal working process.
Prolonged proximity to bloodsuckers leads to quarrels in the family. It happens that bedbugs literally exhaust one person with their bites, while the other does not feel them. There is misunderstanding, irritation, cases of serious conflict situations are not uncommon.