What Causes Bedbugs?
A bedbug is a nocturnal insect from the family cimicidae. Bedbugs are wingless and have an oval-shaped body with reddish-brown color and are often mistaken for ticks or small roaches. Bedbugs feed off the blood of humans and other warm-blooded hosts in the hours before dawn. Bedbugs have a life span up to 18 months. Bedbugs were once thought extinct in the United States, before having a resurgence in the late 1900s. Bedbugs are often found in poor sanitary conditions, but can be easily transferred into any living environment.
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Dormant Stages
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Bedbugs have the ability to survive without feeding for more than a year at a time. The ability of bedbugs to survive long stretches without feeding enables bedbugs to travel or be carried from place to place until a food source is found.
Travel
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Bedbugs were thought to have been eliminated in the United States due to the use of DDT and other pesticides. It is believed bedbugs returned to the United States with the help of international travelers. Bedbugs can travel from place to place on clothes and in suitcases.
Apartments and Hotels
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Apartments and hotels are two of the most common sites to find bedbugs. Bedbugs can easily travel from room to room or apartment to apartment using voids in adjoining walls. Bedbugs also travel using holes used for pipes, cables and wires that may connect rooms.
Furniture
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Bedbugs are commonly found in mattresses, but can also live in furniture like couches and chairs. Bedbugs can be transferred from house to house in used furniture.
Animals
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Bedbugs can also reside in animals. Birds, like chickens and turkeys, can harbor bed bugs while certain species of bedbugs can also live on animals like cats and bats.
Signs
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Signs of bedbugs may include pinhead sized dark spots on furniture or mattress from drops of blood or bedbug feces. Other signs of bedbugs may include: sheddings of old bedbug skin, bite marks and collections of eggs. Old skins are usually less than one-quarter inch long while eggs are white and also close to one-quarter inch in length.
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