Bed Bugs In Sale and Altrincham
Bed Bugs In Sale and Altrincham
Sale & Altrincham Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs In Sale and Altrincham – One of the most hated and misunderstood pests known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep at night as kids with the words of our parents in our ears ‘sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite’?
Bed bugs probably started to feed on man at about the time we moved into caves, the ‘bat bugs’ Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bug evolved to feed on human blood when our ancesters started dwelling in bat infested caves.
Until the arrival of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common unwelcome guests in much poor quality homes.
The later part of the 20th century experienced pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being largely restricted to inexpenisve holiday camps and student lodgings etc.
Many people confuse dust mites, which aren’t visible to the naked eye, with bed bugs which certainly are.
Bed Bug Bites
Adult bedbugs are reddy-brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and decidely swollen after a feed of your blood.
They experience an incomplete metamorphosis which means that the young are just smaller copies of the adult, they do not have a pupal stage like a flea or flies.
Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every 7 – 10 days, emerging in the hours before dawn and sensing their host target by sensing the exhaled carbon dioxide from human breath and when close in on their target, infra red body heat.
In the absence of a suitable human to dine on they can lie dormant for periods of many months.
Signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bed sheets and on the underside of mattresses and many people can react badly to their bites.
The early 21st century has seen bed bug numbers explode across the world, the cheap availability of global travel and economic migration have both been blamed for the increase.
What is sure is that thet are now making a major return not only in low quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.
One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug problems every year from 1995 – 2001.
A single night away in an infested hotel is all it takes, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control firms are also now reporting instances of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a single journey to work on an infested bus or train can be enough to spread the infestation to your own home.
They are an expensive pest to eradictate as contrary to popular mythology they do not just live in beds. They hide any nook and cranny conveniently close to a sleeping human being, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed-side bed side telephones etc and treatment is both difficult and time consuming. They have even been found living under the toe-nails of infirm persons and in the folds of flesh on heavily over-weight people.
They are not a pest that can be tackled by an amateur and a professional will almost certainly be required.
That concludes this article entitled - Bed Bugs In Sale and Altrincham
Squirrel Infestation in Sale, Cheshire
Squirrel Infestation in Sale, Cheshire
Squirrel Infestation in Sale, Cheshire - The grey squirrel population in North West England has rocketed over the last 20 years to the degee that they are now a major pest species.
The grey squirrels which we see in our gardens and parks (Sciurus carolinensis) are not native to Britain, having been brought here less than 200 years ago from America.
Like other members of the Sciuridae family, the Grey Squirrel is a hoarder; it hoards food in lots of small caches for later recovery. Some hoards, especially those made near the site of a sudden surplus of food.
Others are more permanent and are not retrieved until many months later. It has been estimated that each squirrel makes several thousand hoards each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the positions of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to locate them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a short distance of the cache.
The nest of the grey squirrel is called a dray (or drey) and it is usual for the female to have two litters per year, each of two to four young..
They are minor problems, rooting up bulbs and taking food intended for birds but can become major pests when they come into our houses.
It is increasingly common for pest controllers to attend homes where a dray has been built in a loft or attic space.
Squirrels are rodents and as such have continually growing teeth; the word rodent comes from the Latin ‘rodere’ meaning ‘to gnaw’ and this they do very well indeed.
It is rare to enter a loft space where a dray has been built and find that they have not chewed electrical wiring, indeed it is estimated that up to 40% percent of fires without an obvious cause cause may be started by rodents chewing on the wiring.
Unfortunately they can also chew through water-pipes, especially with the recent trend towards plastic push-fit piping.
As if that wasn’t enough, most household insurance policies specifically exclude damage by rodents so if a squirrel floods your house by chewing through a pipe in the loft you may find yourself without cover.
Removing squirrels requires professional help, not least in as much as the law regarding squirrels needs to be obeyed. You cannot simply buy a packet of rat poison from your local hardware and deal with them that way as you would be committing a criminal offence.
Furthermore you cannot trap them and move them some distance from your home, quite apart from the fact that removing a squirrel from the area of its food caches would probably condemn it to death by starvation, it is also a criminal offence under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 under which it is illegal to release a grey squirrel in Britain.
That applies also to rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing injured squirrels.
In most cases trapping is the the only option and this must be done in a specified manner with routine, timed inspections of the traps.
Trapped squirrels should be then despatched humanely.
That concludes this article – Squirrel Infestation in Sale, Cheshire
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