As car advertisements and even multi-million dollar corporations such as BP switch to the pleasant rusticity of a ‘green’ image, it is becoming more and more important (and difficult) for us to distinguish between which consumer choices we make are in fact environmentally friendly, and which are simply riding the band-wagon. It is pretty hard not to offend at least someone with our lifestyle choices.

Self-reliance and common sense are really the only ways to deal with this problem. Difficult as it may be for environmental veterans to tolerate our confusion, we would ideally be living already in a society where admitting a lack of ‘green’ competence wouldn’t earn you the rank of a leper. Honesty is really the only policy for environmental change on a large scale, and that means skeletons coming from closets every now and again.

Seeming to be saying the right thing is the method of the sly. The technique of advertising cars in recent years has become particularly oblique and therefore good at doing this. Advertising the brand’s funded environmental research unit is often a good tactic. But this does not make the petrol car that we buy any more environmentally-friendly in itself. Despite the average car speed in Manchester city centre of just 6mph, the roads are never short of their glut of brand new shiny petrol powered cars. Trains to Manchester are by no means scarce, but perhaps we have come to ‘buy’ our right to drive with the little we pay for ‘offsetting’, buying away our guilt.

Maybe environmental pressures require us to learn a whole new set of ethics we were never taught in school. Understanding fuel and power, and how to determine when is legitimate for us to use them. Learning about where our recycling goes to and what exactly is done with it, and where our non-recyclable waste ends up. These, also, would take someone to admit their ignorance but it seems that the only way we might go about really changing the way we treat our environment is first not to fear our being in the wrong. We are all in the wrong, but there are some who will have the strength to aim to correct their ways.

Writing articles helping consumers make the most out public transport, for example how your day-to-day life can be made more environmentally friendly by using Trains to Manchester
Article Source

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

Wasps' Nests Destroyed in Sale £29.50

Wasps’ Nests Destroyed in Sale £29.50 – Sale Pest Control destroy wasps’ nests in the Sale & Timperley area at a fixed fee for 2009 of just £29.50. Presently the local council are charging £52.00. We work seven days per week and we do not charge extra for evening or weekend calls. If you have more than one wasps’ nest there is no extra charge to destroy the second nest and it is just £10 extra for the third and each subsequent one destroyed on the same visit. Call us on <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} h1 {mso-style-next:Normal; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; page-break-after:avoid; mso-outline-level:1; font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-font-kerning:0pt; font-weight:normal;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> 0161 930 8814.

The stinging wasp season is almost upon us once more, what would summer be without our old friends the wasps to pester us as we enjoy our evening barbeques?

The biology of the wasp means they are rarely seen much sooner than July as until then only the wasp queen is in the nest.

In spring the over-wintering queens leave their hibernating quarters to seek nesting sites which could be in a hole in the ground, a bush or artificial structures such as air-bricks eaves, lofts and attics, garden sheds etc.

The new queen starts to build her nest with a papery material that she makes by chewing small slivers of wood mixed with saliva; this is called Wasp paper.

She will raise the first few workers by herself and those workers will then commence the construction of the nest and feeding the immature Wasps to follow.

Nest building starts in earnest in June and will reach its maximum in size in September, when 5 – 30,000 workers may be in the nest. These workers will forage up to 400 metres from the nest. The size of wasp colonies will vary from year to year, the severity of the previous winter is probably the key factor.

In the Autumn the newly produced queens mate and leave the nest to hibernate, the rest of the nest dies out and the nest is never reused.

Many individuals react differently to being stung by wasps; some are hardly affected, others endure considerable pain and discomfort and a few become seriously allergic to being stung, which in some cases results in sudden death due to anaphylactic shock.
Control
It is adviseable to let a professional Pest Control Officer destroy a Wasps’ nest for the reasons stated above. An insecticide will be injected into the entrance to the nest. Returning wasps will carry the insecticide into the middle of the nest and within a short time all wasps should be dead.

It is not a good idea to allow a wasps’ nest to go full term as the new queens produced by the nest will invariably create nests nearby in the following spring resulting in many more nests the following year. For this reason several nests are often found close together in an area a locality.

Wasps’ Nests Destroyed in Sale £29.50

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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Pest Control in Blackpool & Other Seaside Holiday Resorts

Seaside pest control brings its own set of special circumstances which sometimes require a different approach to more inland towns.

Firstly the very logistics of working in a busy seaside holiday resort can be problematic, even the basics of parking your van near the customers’ premises can be difficult especially when equipment needs to be carried. This can lead to increased charges which have to be passed onto the customer.

In summer premises are often open seven days a week and even twenty-four hours a day thus leaving little opportunity for the pest controller to go about his work.

This may not cause too much difficulty in routine preventative inspection visits but can cause extreme problems when infestation is detected in that often pesticides require premises to be vacated for a period of time.

In winter the opposite situation may occur where premises are closed for several months leaving a pest infestation to develop undetected.

Seaside holiday resorts usually have a large number of takeaways providing food to eat on the go and often will be littered overnight with uneaten food scraps providing food for rats and seagulls.

Often daily waste collections mean that bagged food waste is put outside overnight thus encouraging rodents.

Seagulls are obviously a nuisance with their noise and fouling but often will take food stuffs up onto roofs and ledges causing a build up of rotten materials which produce flies and maggots.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of seaside pest control is the resurgence of the bed bug which in recent years has seen numbers rise exponentially.

A high transient population of holiday makers often staying in inexpensive, high turnover accommodation means that the bugs can spread quickly throughout a resort and even expensive upmarket establishments are not exempt.

The very nature of a bed bug infestation means that it is difficult and expensive to cure and news of infestation is often of interest to local press who will often carry a story about a guest being bitten, thus ruining the reputation of the establishment.

Bed bug infestations require that the infested bedroom and those adjacent be treated thus losing revenue for the establishment.

A hotel or guest house could also find themselves liable for the cost of dealing with an infestation at the homes of their guests as the bugs are easily transported in luggage.

Pest Prevention carry out annual preventative inspections and treatment where necessary and can be contacted on 0800 019 8382 or

info@harrierpestprevention.co.uk

 Pest Control In Manchester & Other Large Cities by Ken Chadwick 

Big city pest control brings its own set of special circumstances which sometimes require a different approach to smaller and quieter towns.

Firstly the very logistics of working in a busy big city can be problematic, even the basics of parking your van near the customers’ premises can be difficult especially when equipment needs to be carried. This can lead to increased charges which have to be passed onto the customer and sometimes these can be substantial. 

Premises are often open seven days a week and even twenty-four hours a day thus leaving little opportunity for the pest controller to go about his work. 

This may not cause too much difficulty in routine preventative inspection visits but can cause extreme problems when infestation is detected in that often pesticides require premises to be vacated for a period of time.

 Big towns & cities usually have a large number of takeaways providing food to eat on the go and often will be littered overnight with uneaten food scraps providing food for rats, pigeons and seagulls which have now moved inland. 

Often daily waste collections mean that bagged food waste is put outside overnight thus encouraging rodents. 

Pigeons & Seagulls are obviously a nuisance with their noise and fouling but often will take food stuffs up onto roofs and ledges causing a build up of rotten materials which produce flies and maggots. 

Pigeons will often roost and nest in roof spaces for many years leading to a large build up of pigeon guano and often their droppings can make the walkways below slippery and dangerous.  

Most big cities have a varied ethnic mix with a variety of shops and restaurants supplying foods from all over the world. Often these foods are imported in bulk from countries where pests such as cockroaches are endemic and these pests are then brought into the U.K. hidden away in the goods and packaging. 

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of big city pest control is the resurgence of the bed bug which in recent years has seen numbers rise exponentially. 

A high transient population of visitors often staying in inexpensive, high turnover accommodation means that the bugs can spread quickly throughout a city and even expensive upmarket establishments are not exempt. 

The very nature of a bed bug infestation means that it is difficult and expensive to cure and news of infestation is often of interest to local press who will often carry a story about a guest being bitten, thus ruining the reputation of the establishment. 

Bed bug infestations require that the infested bedroom and those adjacent be treated thus losing revenue for the establishment.

The Return Of The Rat – Our Most Reviled Pest Thrives

The Return Of The Rat – Our Most Reviled Pest Thrives – The rat population of Britain is currently at an all time high, fortnightly waste collections, lack of sewer baiting and the late night takeaway are all cited as culprits in this rodent explosion, but what do we really know about the humble creatures that thrive in our sewers and induce almost universal fear and loathing in all who encounter them.

Rats are not native to Europe or North America but originate in Asia and almost certainly arrived in Europe as stowaways on trading ships, indeed the common name for Rattus rattus is the ship or black rat.

Brown Rat

In Asian folklore the rat is a prominent character, in Hindu mythology the elephant-headed god Ganesh is accompanied by a rat wherever he travels. An offering to Ganesh and his companion Vahana the rat is therefore an important part of Hindu worship.

To the Romans the sighting of a white rat was considered to be lucky but if you found that rats had chewed your belongings then you should postpone any business affairs that you were planning that day or they would surely fail.

Reviled in the west, the rat is revered in Chinese mythology, being part of the Chinese zodiac and respected for its quick wit and resourcefulness. The rat is considered good luck in China & Japan where it is credited with bringing the gift of rice to the world.

To the Polynesians rats were an easily bred and transportable source of food

In 1347 the Mongols laying siege to the Crimean city of Caffa began to succumb to a mysterious illness that killed swiftly and mercilessly. In order to weaken the city the Mongols catapulted the bodies of their own dead over the city walls and within days the inhabitants of Caffa also fell prey to the disease.

However, a group of Italian merchants were allowed to leave the city and return to Italy, and probably unknowingly took with them the Black Death, Yersinia pestis.

Black or Ship Rat

The ensuing plague raged throughout the continent reaching Britain in 1348 with up to 90% mortality in some areas and it reappeared in Europe in every generation for over four hundred years.

We now know of course that the rat was a carrier, or to be more precise the fleas that the rats carried on their bodies were the agents of plague transmission.

Indeed whilst being in no way established in fact, it is possible that the children’s story of the Pied Piper of Hamlyn is an allegory of the plague, it certainly indicates that the rat population was booming at the time.

Every cloud however has a silver lining and the survivors of the 14^th century plagues found that they could now demand higher wages and better conditions as the shortage of workers in the wake of plague deaths created a seller’s market for labour. The rise of the Yeoman Farmer and the British class system could be argued to be attributed to the humble rat.

Into modern times and the Black Rat is now almost extinct in the British Isles, having been replaced from the 18^th century onwards by the Brown or Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus) and it is this creature that now thrives in our sewers, on our streets and in our homes and it is when we encounter it there that it creates most revulsion.

A typical rat weighs around 200 – 300 grams or half to three quarters of a pound, and has a tail around the same length as its body, often making it appear bigger than it really is.

One of the primary functions of a rat’s tail is thermo-regulation; it uses its tail to dissipate body heat. When a rat’s temperature falls it restricts blood flow into its tail.

Rats are rodents, the word comes from the Latin ‘Rodere’ meaning ‘to gnaw or eat away’, aptly named as their teeth never stop growing and they gnaw on hard objects to keep them sharp, unfortunately this can often include electrical wiring and water pipes. A rat’s teeth can penetrate mild steel.

Often a rat will move into a loft or roof void looking for somewhere safe to give birth, being excellent climbers the interior of the cavity wall of the building is a common route, especially if there is an underground breach in the drainage system.

They are sexually mature at around 13 weeks and have a gestation period of about 20 –22 days giving birth typically to 7 – 10 young per litter.

They are naturally shy and nocturnal creatures said to suffer from ‘neophobia’ a fear of anything new in their environment.

Often the first signs that a house is infested will be the patter of tiny feet on the upstairs plasterboard ceilings, although with the modern trend for roof insulation an infestation can often go undetected for quite some time. In homes with floorboards gnawing will often be heard in the sub-floor area.

Their need to eat will often betray their presence, food stored in cupboards will be taken, cereal packets chewed, chocolate and crisps are favourites, although a rat often has a diet that we would find somewhat strange.

The rat has no ability to taste ‘bitter’ foods so it can quite happily munch away on a bar of soap for the fat content. Pest controllers use this as a safety feature and all rat poison is coated in a bitter substance that the rats can’t taste but which would make it totally unpalatable to a dog or a child.

Although the rat is no longer a plague carrier it does come with a number of unwelcome traits. It is a carrier of a number of diseases including Murine Typhus, Salmonella and Weil’s Disease, spread from rats’ urine, which unfortunately usually claims at least one life in Britain each year.

If you have a rat infestation then you have a legal duty to remedy it and in extreme circumstances forced entry to your property can be made against your will.

As a final sting in the tail, many household insurance policies specifically exclude damage by vermin so if a rat chews your wiring and the house burns down you may find yourself without insurance cover.

Hated, despised and unloved the humble rat continues to share and shape our environment in ways that we do not see or appreciate and despite our best effort the rat and man will always co-exist.

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The Joint Is Jumpin’ – The Story Of The Flea (Ken Chadwick)

The Joint Is Jumpin’ – The Story Of The Flea -Contrary to popular opinion cat & dog fleas do not live on their chosen animal, they merely jump onto their host at feeding time, and dinner for a flea of course is blood.

In nature the fleas live and breed in the nest of animal they feed on, in reality of course in a modern house the ‘nest’ becomes the carpets, rugs and soft furnishings.

Flea (Ctenocephalides felis & canis) infestations are becoming much more prevalent in recent years, centrally heated homes provide an ideal environment for the life cycle of the insect, which can be completed in as little as 16 days.

The increased presence of urban foxes in many towns and cities may be responsible for the increased number of flea infestations as foxes always carry a generous population to share with the neighbourhood cats and dogs.

The well fed flea lays its eggs in the nesting material, carpets in a modern dwelling, which hatch out into larvae which crawl away from light and hence are to be found deep in the pile. In the egg and larval stage they are also pretty resistant to insecticide which is why it is rarely possible to cure a flea infestation with one treatment.

The larvae eat the blood rich droppings of the adult flea before pupating to emerge as a young, hungry flea

Human beings do not taste especially nice to fleas and our blood is not of sufficient quality for them to breed, but in the absence of a cat or a dog we will do!

In the absence of a host the immature flea can go into a dormant state without feeding for up to a year or more and then revive within seconds on feeling the vibration from the footfall of a potential meal. For this reason properties which have been empty for a while often provide a little surprise for the new owners.

Often the family holiday is the time when people notice they have a flea problem, having put the family pet in kennels for a couple of weeks the resident flea population is starving and eager to greet them on their return.

There is however a dangerous side to fleas, we all know they were responsible for transmission of plague and thankfully we don’t have that to contend with anymore but they can set off serious skin irritations in susceptible people including dermatitis.

They also have a more sinister side. The flea is an intermediate host for tapeworm.

When the flea dines on an animal infected with tapeworm it can ingest the worm eggs which pass into its guts. These infected fleas can then be ingested by a cat or dog during self-grooming and the worms infect the new host.

Worse still it is easy for a human baby or toddler to accidentally ingest these fleas when crawling on flea infested carpets.

In order to clear a flea infestation it will be necessary to treat both the animal and the carpets and soft furnishings of the property and outdoor areas where the animal may frequently visit. A professional pest controller will often use both an insecticide and a growth retardant hormone to interfere with the flea life-cycle. The cat or dog will need to be treated at the same time by a veterinary surgeon.

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Most responsible home-owners and tenants will have buildings & contents insurance so that in the event of fire, flood or pestilence they will have cover for themselves and their………….wait a minute! Did I say pestilence?
Early last year I was called out to a local home, a pleasant modern detached house on a popular local development.
The owners had been away for a week’s holiday and whilst they were away little Mrs Nutkin had decided to build her nest ( a squirrel’s nest is called a dray or drey) in the loft of the property. Being a squirrel she was awfully good at chewing things and one of the things she decided to chew was the water

A closed bin lid is no protection

supply pipe to the header tank in the loft.
The young couple returned home to find the ceiling brought down, the house flooded and carpets and furniture ruined.
A nasty shock but at least they had insurance cover, they were always careful to ensure their cover was adequate……or so they thought!
Bad news was in store!
The vast majority of household insurance policies have a clause excluding damage by vermin, and as soon as they mentioned ’squirrel’ to their insurance company they immediately invalidated their claim leaving them pick up the cost of thousands of pounds worth of damage.
I wish I could say that this was a rare, isolated case but it isn’t.
As a point of interest here in the U.K. The law regarding squirrels is a little complicated.
Although the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is now endemic throughout virtually the whole U.K., it is still regarded in law as an illegal immigrant. It was imported from the United States and Canada in the 19th century and has gradually established itself throughout Britain.
However, despite the fact that they are common, it is still a criminal offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1984 to release a grey squirrel in the British Isles, so pest controllers trapping squirrels are not allowed in law to relocate them.
Unfortunately the grey squirrel is a carrier of Squirrelpox virus to which they themselves appear to be immune but the effect has been to devastate our native population of red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), the ‘Squirrel Nutkin’ of fame, whose numbers are now down to a few isolated populations.
Squirrels are rodents, the word itself comes from the Latin “rodere” - ”to gnaw, eat away” and this they do very well indeed, especially electrical wiring and water pipes when they enter your home.
If you have squirrels in the garden be afraid, be very afraid!

Fascinating grey squirrel facts

· Their scientific name is Sciurus carolinensis.
· They were introduced from USA /Canada to approximately 30 sites in England, Scotland and Wales from 1876–1930.
· Grey squirrels eat seeds, buds, flowers, shoots, nuts, berries and fruit from many trees and shrubs. They also eat fungi and insects, and occasionally birds’ eggs and fledglings.
· They store nuts in the ground in the autumn, but do not remember where they store them. They rely on scent to find them.
· They can be right or left-handed!
· Squirrels moult their coat twice a year, once after winter and then in the late summer before the weather gets colder again.
· They do not have ear tufts.
· They can live to 5-7 years of age.
· They have four fingers and five toes.
· The upper fur is mainly grey with mid-brown along the upper back, and chestnut over the flanks, limbs and feet. Their underside is white. The tail hairs are grey, banded with brown and black and a white fringe.
· They weigh 450-650g.
· Their body is 24–26cm long and their tail is 19-24cm in length.
· Squirrels live high in trees in a nest made from twigs, leaves and moss. This is called a dray.
· The dray may be in a hole in the tree or set against the trunk and branches.
· Pregnancy lasts 44 days and their young are called kittens.
· Kittens are born with their eyes closed, without teeth and with no hair. After about seven weeks they look just like small versions of their parents and are ready to leave the dray.
· There are generally 2 litters a year (rarely 3), with 3–7 kittens in each litter.
· Average densities in broadleaf areas are approximately 8-18 grey squirrels per hectare, and 0.1-1 per hectare in coniferous areas.
· They do not hibernate over winter, but may be less active when weather conditions are bad.
· They can hang upside down!
· They can swim!
· Grey squirrels do not appear to be susceptible to Squirrelpox virus, but may carry and transmit it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Chadwick

That concludes this article entitled – Squirrel Floods House

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Bed Bugs On The Rampage (Ken Chadwick)

Bed Bugs On The Rampage – One of the most feared and misunderstood pests known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us have dozed off to sleep at night as children 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 dine on human blood when our ancesters started dwelling in bat infested caves.

Until the advent of DDT in the early 20^th century bed bugs were common non-paying guests in most poor quality housing.

The later part of the 20^th century saw pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug infestations indeed, their presence being largely confined to cheap holiday camps and student accomodation etc.

Many people confuse dust mites, which are not visible to the naked eye, with bed bugs which certainly are.

Adult bedbugs are reddish-brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and decidely swollen after a feed of human blood.

They have an incomplete metamorphosis which means that the young are just smaller versions of the adult, they do not have a pupal stage like a flea or a fly.

Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every 7 – 10 days, coming out in the hours before dawn and sensing their prey by detecting the exhaled CO2 from respiration and when nearing in on their target, body heat.

In the absence of a convenient human to feed on they can lay dormant for periods of up to 18 months.

Signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bedding and on the underside of mattresses and some people can react badly to their bites.

The early 21^st century has seen bed bug numbers explode across the globe, the cheap availability of global travel and economic migration have both been blamed for the resurgence.

What is certain is that thet are now making a major comeback not only in poor quality housing but high class hotels, schools and even hospitals.

One London borough reported a doubling of bed bug infestations every single year from 1995 – 2001.

A single night away in an infested hotel is all it takes, they hitch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control companies are also now reporting instances of transport related bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a simple journey to work on an infested tube or train can be enough to spread the infestation to your home.

They are an expensive pest to eradictate as contrary to popular opinion they do not just live in beds. They infest any nook and cranny conveniently close to a sleeping human, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed-side telephones etc and eradication is both difficult and time consuming. They have even been found living under the toe-nails of infirm people and in the creases of flesh on grossly over-weight people.

They are not a pest that can be eradicated by an amateur and a professional will almost certainly be needed.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Chadwick

Ken Chadwick B.A. (Hons) is a Pest Controller and author on pest control issues. For further information please visit http://www.waspgo.co.uk

That concludes this article entitled – Bed Bugs On The Rampage

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