All the bedbug myths that keep you from getting rid of these parasites

What do flea bites look like on humans?

Flea bite marks are often confused with bug bites, lice and mosquito bites. Small red itchy blisters appear on the body, turning into wounds after a while. The swelling may not disappear for up to two days, and in the case of an allergic reaction, even for several weeks.

Most often, fleas bite in the lower extremities: feet, legs, ankles. Exposed areas of the body are rarely attacked. If a flea attack occurs on a sleeping person, then bites can appear all over the body (on the neck, in the armpits, and even on the face). In such cases, they are often confused with bedbugs.

Bedbug bites differ from flea bites in that the parasites leave a characteristic path. Fleas bite chaotically. Flea bites are at close and irregular distances from each other.

From the above, we will compose a list of the main symptoms:

• sharp pain;
• characteristic redness on the skin in the form of small swelling, randomly spaced from each other;
• the main area of ​​attack is the lower limbs;
• severe itching.

In some cases, flea bites can cause allergic reactions in the form of dizziness, fever, swollen lymph nodes, and suppuration of the damaged skin area. You should be extremely careful about the manifestation of symptoms, especially in young children, in order to prevent angioedema.

Myth 9: An air ozonizer can kill bed bugs.

Alas, this is also a myth. Yes, the ozonizer allows you to destroy microorganisms, and even on macroorganisms, including bedbugs, ozone acts as a strong poison. But when ozonizing a room, ozone is released from the ozonizer and fills the bulk of the room. But in hard-to-reach places and cracks, where, in fact, the bugs are hiding, it does not penetrate. Even if individual ozone molecules are sucked into the bedbug shelters with air, not having time to turn into oxygen on the way, they will not be enough to poison bedbugs here. But with a high probability, the ozone bugs will not even feel the ozone from the ozonizer: their hiding places are too deep in the furniture and while the ozone is drawn here with air masses, it will already turn into oxygen. Still, ozone molecules are very unstable and disintegrate in a few tens of seconds.

Theoretically, if all the bedbug shelters are opened and left open, and then the ozonator is turned on in the room, then some part of the parasites can be killed, since all insects will be in contact with ozone. But in practice, we have not heard of any successful destruction of bedbugs with such a device. At a minimum, ozone does not kill bedbugs as quickly as insecticides do, and it is not a fact at all that even theoretically it will kill them all when treating them indoors.

It is clear that when people try to poison the bugs with ozone, they do not get the result and the bugs in the room survive. And in order to finally destroy them, after using the ozonizer, the room still has to be treated with highly effective insecticides. Obviously, it is much wiser to immediately treat the room with an insecticidal agent and not waste time and effort on ozonation.

What fleas can bite a person?

Fleas feed exclusively on blood.The source of the meal is completely unimportant to them - the parasites that have settled in the fur of animals can easily migrate to the human body in search of food, but cannot live on it. There are several types of fleas that can bite a person:

Dog fleas

This species most often attacks humans. Dogs can carry an entire flea colony. Wool is an ideal environment for parasites to live. When there are too many fleas in a dog, they begin to spread and look for a new prey. It can also be a person.

Cat fleas

Cat fleas are less likely to attack humans. They pay attention to it only if the animal can no longer fully feed the entire colony.

Rat fleas

This species is often encountered by villagers. In an urban environment, rat fleas rarely attack humans. It is they who can carry the pathogens of the most dangerous infections.

Human fleas

Getting rid of human fleas is the hardest part. These insects (Latin Pulex irritans) feed exclusively on human blood. They can settle both in the dwelling and on the hairline of their victim. In the fight against them, special flea shampoos and gels will help. Lemon juice is great for first aid.

Bed fleas

These bloodsuckers live in linen, clothes, carpets. Insects live in folds. To combat them, you need to take out the affected object in the sun or simply get rid of it.

It is worth noting that any fleas can feed on human blood. They are carried not only by cats with dogs and rats, but also by birds, rabbits, and livestock. They will not be able to settle on the human body, but they will constantly disturb him with bites.

Myth 8: cockroaches, spiders and ants can eat all bed bugs.

Another blue dream of those who were sick when biology was taught at school. There is an idea that if both bugs and cockroaches live in the apartment, then the cockroaches will eat the bugs. Or a spider under the ceiling, harmless to humans, will overfill these parasites. Someone even sends us quotes from Wikipedia that “Natural enemies of bed bugs are dirty predators, cockroaches, ants, ticks, centipedes, spiders (especially Thanatus flavidus). Pharaoh's ant venom is fatal to parasites. "

Formally, this is the case. Indeed, cockroaches, capable, like vacuum cleaners, of consuming anything in general that may contain at least some nutrients, quite actively eat bedbug eggs if they find them. Indeed, if the bug falls into the web and gets entangled in it, the spider will eat it, and the spider actively pursuing its victims can catch up and kill the adult bug itself. Indeed, if a bug falls into the nest of the pharaoh ants, they will bite it and kill it.

But in a real apartment, such cases are rare and do not affect the population of bed bugs in any way. The predator-prey relationship and the maintenance of proportions between the steps of the ecological pyramid are not observed here due to the fact that bedbugs are not the main food for any other species that lives in a human dwelling. Therefore, no insects, spiders or centipedes will destroy the bugs in the apartment.

Simply put, cockroaches and ants do not target bed bugs on purpose. And the accidental eating of bedbug eggs by them does not in any way affect the number of bedbugs, since both cockroaches and ants very rarely climb into those places where bedbugs hide and lay eggs. There are usually no cockroaches or ants in beds and sofas. And even if spiders start in an apartment, then in single quantities, and therefore even a targeted hunt for bedbugs does not cause damage to the bedbug population.

One of the species of spiders of the genus Tranatus - in the wild, these spiders actively hunt bedbugs

Therefore, you do not need to expect that any invertebrates will destroy your bedbugs, and then you will destroy these "saviors". Nobody, except you or the specialists hired by you, can completely exterminate bedbugs. Therefore, take the initiative into your own hands and destroy the bugs yourself, or call pest controllers.

Why are flea bites dangerous for humans?

Parasites are able to coexist with a person in his home for years. In addition to painful bites and nasty red spots, fleas can transmit dangerous infectious diseases. Their treatment can be time-consuming and costly. Here is a list of the most dangerous viruses ever carried by fleas:

• Typhus: the infected has a high fever, vomiting, aches.
• Brucellosis: the disease seriously affects the human nervous system, the temperature rises. Often, the disease spills over into more acute forms. This leads to arthritis, disrupts the reproductive system.
• anthrax: the patient's body is covered with non-healing ulcers. The infection affects internal organs and is fatal.

They say fleas can carry pathogens dermatitis, hepatitis A and encephalitis... Parasite attack can provoke the occurrence allergies.

Frequent flea bites are detrimental to on the nervous system... Because of this, constant phantom pain occurs. A person at this moment feels a sharp prick, but the bite mark does not appear. Someone even begins to itch the whole body at the mere thought of insects. In this case, only complete disposal of parasites with specialized means and sedatives will help.

A remedy that can be found in any home

This is table vinegar. Suitable for both children and adults. But the recipe for the vinegar solution varies greatly:

• one recipe recommends a tablespoon for a glass of water;
• another preparation of a solution of 9 percent vinegar with water at the rate of 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water;
• the third recipe suggests diluting the vinegar essence to the concentration of ordinary table vinegar (9%).

Tested that table vinegar does not harm the skin, even after applying the daily compress. Therefore, the best option than to remove lice is a 9 percent solution.

Allergic reaction

For allergy sufferers, even a few flea bites are extremely dangerous. If you do not seek help in time, the consequences will be dire. Insect saliva causes a serious deterioration in well-being, accompanied by fever, difficulty breathing, and damage to the gastrointestinal tract. Bites can lead to inflammation of the larynx, angioedema and suffocation. In some cases, death is possible.

Even a healthy person is not immune from an allergic reaction. A purulent rash, fever and headache are signs of pulicosis. Its causative agent is a human flea. These insects can infect the victim with worms, salmonellosis, plague.

The danger

In many tropical countries, there are sand fleas that invade under the human skin and stay there constantly, receiving regular blood supply. A huge number of eggs are gradually formed in the body of a flea, bites on the legs cause severe suppuration. If the parasite is not removed in time, it can even cause limb amputation.

Fleas bite strongly and regularly, injecting toxins into the human blood that irritate the skin. These parasites are dangerous because they carry various infectious diseases. In medicine, there are about twenty-five diseases that fleas carry. They can be transmitted through the blood, as well as mechanically.

The most dangerous are encephalitis, salmonellosis, typhus, hepatitis B and C, anthrax, trypanosomiasis and others. In addition, these blood-sucking insects carry helminth eggs, which can enter the stomach. This is how pets become infected, which bite the parasites from their fur. And from an animal, helminths can be transmitted to humans.

Flea bites are terrible for people because these insects are carriers of very dangerous diseases, some of them, in the absence of urgent medical attention, can be fatal. Such diseases include:

• anthrax,
• typhoid fever,
• salmonellosis,
• tularemia,
• encephalitis.

This is not a complete list of diseases carried by different types of fleas. Today, scientists know more than 200 different pathogens of infections that enter the human body after being attacked by a blood-sucking insect.

The parasite is not as harmless as it seems

How to relieve itching and eliminate inflammation?

Scratching the affected area can lead to the penetration of infection into the body. Treatment should begin by washing the wounds with soap and cold water. This will help relieve itching, remove the saliva of the parasite. Ice will help relieve swelling, soothe the skin. A cold compress has the same effect. In extreme cases, you can cauterize the bites with alcohol.

Natural remedies for bite treatment

It is worth using folk remedies only if there are no medications, and the lesion is very small. This will help:

• Apple cider vinegar (0.25l) + water (0.5l);
• Soda (1 teaspoon) + water (1 glass);
• Attach a freshly brewed teapot and leave for 5 minutes;
• The bite can be treated with aloe vera juice;
• For severe pain, ammonia will help. One teaspoon should be diluted in a glass of water and applied to the affected area.

You can substitute apple cider vinegar with lemon juice. Self-medication is possible only if the bite did not cause an allergic reaction.

Pharmacy preparations

Special antihistamines can relieve severe itching. Most often they have an ointment or gel texture.

Fenistil-gel

Due to its light texture, the drug is quickly absorbed into the skin. The cooling effect relieves severe itching, relieves pain, removes irritation.

Balm "Star"

This inexpensive drug is very popular. It soothes the skin, relieves pain after a bite.

Hydrocortisone ointment

The main advantage of this drug is blocking an allergic reaction. Apply ointment to a fresh bite.

Miramistin

The tool will help treat the affected area and reduce the risk of complications.

Flucinar

The drug relieves inflammation, relieves itching. They should smear the bite site to avoid an allergic reaction.

Sulfuric ointment

Sulfur ointment is the most readily available option. It will help disinfect wounds and reduce the risk of infection.

If the child is over 5 and under 12 years old

At an older age, parents have significantly expanded the ways of how to quickly remove lice and nits at home. At this age, you can already use some pharmaceutical drugs for annoying insects.

Pediculen ultra for lice in children

From the age of 5, the Pedikulen Ultra spray “becomes available”, which allows you to even remove lice from girls with long hair at a time. The product contains anise oil and alcohol. This is what is a contraindication to use for younger children.

Important!

An allergic reaction is possible on delicate skin.

Supplied with a comb and a magnifying glass. The spray is generously sprayed over the entire length of the hair, dabbing the skin as well. After half an hour, wash the hair, removing the remedy. Damp hair is carefully combed to remove dead nits and lice. The quality of the work is checked with a magnifying glass.

There are many pharmaceuticals on sale: Nyuda, NOC, Veda, Paranit, Pedilin, Para Plus, Veda 2.

How long does it take for flea bite marks to disappear?

The term for the restoration of the skin depends entirely on the individual characteristics of the organism.An important condition is the condition of the bitten flea. The bite of an ordinary insect disappears in several hours, and a trace from an attack of an infected individual can remain on the human body for several weeks.

Insects bite adults mainly in the lower extremities. A child affected by a flea attack may completely become covered with skin irritation due to his small stature. In this case, the wound healing process may be delayed.

Eyewitness reviews

Many eyewitnesses already know: if a flea has bitten, what to do first, since they have encountered this problem more than once. Very often spending a vacation on the seas, living in recreation centers, you can encounter such a nuisance as flea bites. People recommend taking the Rescuer with you and treating bites if necessary. This contributes to their rapid healing and elimination of unpleasant symptoms.

Outdoor enthusiasts also face the problem of flea bites when they go camping and sleep in tents. They argue that after the defeat, severe itching occurs, which is difficult to ignore. But, as you know, it is impossible to comb the wounds, especially in the absence of basic sanitary conditions.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated. The main thing is to take action on time.

How are flea bites different from other parasite bites?

A flea attack can be easily confused with the bites of other blood-sucking insects - bedbugs, lice and mosquitoes. People who first encounter these parasites may be unaware of the true source of itchy wounds for a long time.

The hallmark of a flea bite is sharp pain. The fact is that the saliva of a flea does not contain an anesthetic, unlike a bug. Fleas, for example, bite painlessly. Flea bite marks are randomly located, there are no characteristic marks. Jumping insects most often attack the legs of their victims. Fleas attack at any time of the day, and bugs only at night.

Parasites multiply very quickly. Therefore, do not delay getting rid of them. If you cannot overcome the pests on your own, then you should definitely seek help from professionals.

There is an easy way to check for insects in your home. A white sheet of paper is placed on the site of the alleged habitat of the parasites. After a while, black dots will appear on it, these are fleas.

Myth 5: Bedbugs jump

This is analogous to the previous misconception. It occurs when a person sees an insect that bites him, tries to catch him, and the insect jumps, and does it so quickly that it seems that it simply disappears from the place where it was sitting before. At the same time, a person either does not know anything about fleas, or he is sure that fleas in the room do not bite, and if someone here attacks a person, then these are bugs. Accordingly, he believes that these are some kind of special jumping bugs, or simply concludes that ordinary bed bugs can jump.

The result of this misconception will be insect treatment of sleeping places in which fleas do not live (a person thinks that he is poisoning bugs), and the untouched places of their usual habitat - baseboards, gaps between boards in the floor, resting places for pets, carpets and dusty corners ... Consequently, fleas do not disappear after such events.

In reality, bugs cannot jump due to the weakness of their legs. If the insect jumps, then it is not a bug. Indoors, it can be either crickets or fleas, and only fleas bite people from them. To destroy them, you need to find places where both adult fleas and their larvae accumulate - the latter can swarm in the dust, in dirty corners, in accumulations of garbage, in the latrine of pets. And after the examination, all these places need to be treated with flea control agents.

Prevention

Even the cleanest apartment can have parasites. They are brought by pets from the street. You need to wash your pets' paws after walking and exclude their communication with street cats and dogs.To fight fleas in dogs and cats, special collars and drops will help.

The aroma of the essential oil repels parasites. Fresh plants have the same property: peppermint, cloves, eucalyptus, tea tree. To combat insects, plants should be placed in the apartment. Before that, it is important to make sure that households are not allergic to these smells. Please note: folk remedies can be used exclusively for prevention, they cannot destroy parasites.

If pets are absent, but fleas are still bred, you should check the cleanliness of your shoes. Sometimes such "uninvited guests" get into the house together with dirt. In no case should you move around the apartment in street shoes. Fleas often settle on depopulated wallpaper, at the joints of water supply pipes, under window sills, in carpets. These areas need to be checked carefully. Often fleas climb from the next apartment along the staircase or through the hood and cracks in the baseboards.

Flea attacks often occur on ground floor apartments. They climb from the basement through cracks in the walls and floor. High humidity is an ideal habitat for bloodsuckers. It is important to keep the room dry and clean. If neighbors complain about the appearance of "biting enemies", carry out preventive treatment with insecticides.

Flea control takes a lot of time and effort. In some cases, getting rid of them is very difficult. Then professional pest control services and SES come to the rescue. Professionals will quickly rid the apartment of pests, but will not be able to insure against their return in the future.

People who once had to deal with blood-sucking parasites are trying in every way to exclude their re-invasion. To do this, you need to carry out weekly wet cleaning, ventilate the home. Keep the apartment dry, watch out for pipe leaks. Animals living in the basement are the main carriers of harmful insects. It is important to call specialists on time to catch them (in the case of rats - to destroy them). Spread aromatic substances, dry tansy or wormwood throughout the apartment. These odors will make the premises unsuitable for the settlement of parasites.

Myth 6: Bedbugs have adapted to insecticides and cannot be destroyed by anything.

This myth circulates among independent bedbug fighters as a kind of justification for their own unsuccessful attempts to poison insects. They say that insecticides for bedbugs are not taken, and therefore it is impossible to remove them and there is only hope for some kind of super-powerful tool that the parasites have never encountered.

In reality, this is not an absolute myth, because bedbugs in certain places and cities do sometimes show resistance to certain insecticides. For example, research shows that bugs are resistant to fenthion in several psychiatric hospitals in Moscow, and cypermethrin-resistant parasites are regularly observed in some areas of Moscow. That is, such stability is real.

At the same time, the number of such resistant bugs is very small. The same studies that identify insecticide-resistant populations show that the proportion of such resistant insects does not exceed a tenth of a percent, and usually even less. At the same time, bugs that are resistant to some kind of insecticide usually concentrate in separate places, where their ancestors once appeared, having passed on such resistance to them.

In fact, this means that out of several thousand apartments, only one can contain such bugs that are resistant to one remedy. And they should still be seriously lucky so that you decide to poison them with a drug based on exactly the active substance that does not take them.

The consequence of this delusion is the reluctance of a person to poison bedbugs at all, or attempts to fight insects in other, less effective ways.Even if a person finds a new remedy and tries to use it, he does it without much hope of a result, just carelessly, without opening the hiding places of insects, without treating all their shelters. As a result, the parasites are not destroyed.

Interestingly, this myth is very easily refuted. Just take a bug from your apartment, put it in a jar and apply the agent chosen for baiting on it. If he dies from it within 2-3 hours, it means that he has no resistance. At the same time, resistance in bedbugs develops in general in the entire population, which means that if one individual does not have it, then the rest do not. And specifically with the drug from which the insect died in the jar, other bugs in the room should also die. Even if the bugs are resistant to a particular drug, it is enough to take a remedy based on another active substance and poison them with it - cases of resistance to several insecticides at once are extremely rare.

In practice, out of thousands of treatments, we have encountered such resistant bugs literally several times. The likelihood that you have such insects in your apartment that are resistant to one insecticide is very small.

Most likely, your bedbugs can be poisoned with most standard remedies. And if this does not work out, then the point is not in the means and not in resistance to it, but in the quality of the treatment itself.

Very often, by the way, we are told that, they say, they took a remedy, treated the apartment with it, the bugs disappeared for several weeks, and then began to appear again. And they conclude that the remedy did not work. This is not true. If the bugs are gone, then the remedy worked - this is exactly the effect it should provide. The remedy kills those bugs that already live in the room, but protects the room from re-invasion. And if the bugs disappeared after the persecution, it means that they did not have resistance to the drug, but there were holes in the walls, gaps between the heating pipes and uncovered ventilation through which new parasites climbed into the apartment. As experience shows, such ways of penetration of bedbugs into an apartment are much more common than insect resistance to agents.

How to use this product to fight parasites?

Now let's talk about how dust is used. Instructions for use:

1. You can determine the places of movement and habitat of bedbugs by the black dots, as well as by the skins of their larvae. In all identified foci of accumulation of pests, we advise you to apply a thin layer of dust, not forgetting about the inside of furniture, carpets, skirting boards, claddings, ventilation boxes, door frames, heating, sewerage and plumbing systems. In the process of "treating" furniture, do not forget to treat all internal parts with powder, in addition, it is necessary to saturate the furniture upholstery and folds of covers with it.
2. To comply with safety rules, use protective gloves, overalls, hermetically pack and remove foodstuffs, remove animals and people from the premises, open the vents so that the smell does not cause poisoning.
3. After completing the complete treatment of the rooms, wash your hands and face with soap and water.
4. When cleaning the premises, also use protective clothing and gloves. Use a soap and soda solution.
5. Those surfaces that have been treated with dust are allowed to be cleaned after three to six hours, for this you can use a vacuum cleaner. Powder placed in shallow holes and skirting boards is removed after two to three months.
6. When performing disinsection of upholstered furniture, it is better to use aerosols, which contain substances similar in properties.

How did you deal with parasites before?

For a long time, dust from fleas also helped to effectively get rid of, because these insect pests have existed in homes for a long time, regardless of the family's material income and its social status.

During the Middle Ages, courtiers had a special duty to remove these jumping parasites. In those early days, a rabbit skin thrown on the floor was a remedy for fleas. Fleas gathered in a skin, which was then burned, and a new "bait" was placed in its place.