General Info
Next time when you wake up in the morning with rows of red bumps or welts on your skin, do not blame it on an allergy, they are actually bed bug bite marks and you must take care of the bed bugs hiding under your bed or any other holes or crevices of your home immediately.
The question is where do bed bugs love to hide? Bed bugs are your housemates regardless of the fact if you want them or not. They sleep during the day in any creeks or holes that they might find in your walls, floors or furniture and come out during the night time when all the member of the house have gone to sleep.
Do not think of them as stupid insects because stupid is the last thing they are, in fact they are very smart. Bed bugs know exactly when the night has fallen and when their victims have gone to slumber, it is almost like they have watches and can read the time accurately. But in reality it's just how their biological system works.
If you thought vampires are the only one who suck blood and were thanking God that they were only a myth, here's a newsflash for you all, bed bugs also survive on blood and guess what? They are definitely not a myth. They are even worse than vampires, they suck your blood out and you don't even find out about it until the reaction on your skin takes place. Normally after you get a bed bug bite, it takes around 2-3 days and sometimes even up to 8-9 days depending upon the sensitivity of your skin for the reaction to take place.
The symptoms of a bed bug bite are similar to that of a mosquito bite. The affected area becomes red and gets swollen. However, it does have a unique pattern that it follows which differentiates it form other insect bites. A bed bug bite is in a linear manner often three in a row named as breakfast, lunch and dinner. When you are bitten by bed bugs, the infected area gets very itchy; often so itchy that you feel like scratching the skin off. However, bed bugs do not have the tendency to carry with them transmissible diseases and hence they do not pose any health threats.
If you see redness and swelling you must not confuse it with allergies or mosquito bite. To confirm that it is a bed bug bite, you must check the bed sheets for dark spots which the bed bugs leave behind because of their gland secretion. Once you are sure of the bed bug bite, you must get it treated immediately, delaying it only causes increase in itchiness and the patterns of bite aren't even that pretty to look at hence getting rid of it as quickly as possible is the best option.
There are several methods of treatment. However, to find out which treatment suits you the best you must go through trial and error with all of them. Which will cure you depends upon which method suits your skin the best. Doctors should also be visited because since they are an expert, they would be better able to identify the symptoms and suggest you the best method for ailment as per your skin type. Some of the methods include the following:
1. Cortisone cream to stop the itching
2. Calamine lotion
3. Just about any topical anesthetic containing pramoxine
4. Hydrocortisone cream
5. Naproxen or Ibuprofen or a anti-histamine like benadryl to help reduce swelling
6. Light paste of aspirin and water
7. Paste of baking soda and water
8. Gel from Aloe Plant
9. Mixing peppermint oil with water and bathe in it
However, treatment of the bed bug bite is not the only solution to the problem, you must also get rid of the bed bugs from your home otherwise the same problem would repeat itself and it would become a never ending cycle.
Nowadays, several insecticides have been made with the soul reason of killing bed bugs. These insecticides or bed bug sprays are very effective as long as you are spraying the infected area. So, before you actually purchase the pesticides or insecticides, you must find out places where they might be living. These include as mentioned earlier any creeks or small holes in your house or even in your furniture especially the bed.
Another way of getting rid of the bed bugs is hiring professionals. You can easily call up any pest control company and ask for the service of a professional. These experts are easily able to identify the infected areas and deal with it and within a few hours they can get your home free of bed bugs.
Till now we have discussed about the symptoms which can be used to identify if a bed bug has bitten you or is it some other allergy, we have discussed about the various methods which can be used for treatment and also how we can get rid of them. But wouldn't it be the best if we don't let the bed bugs enter our homes in the first place? Most of you would be thinking, is that even possible? The answer is yes, it is very much possible, all you need to do is follow some basic things and succeed in keeping yourself safe from a bed bug bite.
" Keep your house as clean as possible because bed bugs love to settle down in places which are dirty.
" Mop your floors and dust your furniture and walls regularly
" Change your bed covers frequently
" Make sure your bed does not have any torn parts or holes in it
" Do not buy second hand furniture because the risk of bringing in any bed bugs which might have been living on that furniture is high
Just follow these methods and we assure you that bed bugs would stay away from you. Do not take bed bug bites lightly; it is important to get rid of them!