The common bed bug occurs in the southern United States but is relatively uncommon in Missouri. Yet, traveling to areas infested with the blood-sucking insect, it’s easy to unintentionally invite bed bugs into your home (and bed). In simple terms, bed bugs are opportunistic “hitch hikers.”
Biology & Life Cycle
Bed bugs are brown, flat, oval, wingless and slightly smaller that a pencil eraser when unfed. They possess a piercing beak through which they suck the blood of a host. When engorged with blood, the bed bugs body becomes swollen and elongated, and the color changes to a dull red. Newly hatched bugs are the same shape as adults but translucent and nearly colorless. Like ticks, bed bugs need a blood meal to survive and devleop.
Habitats in Missouri
Bed bugs are found in nearly every place people tend to gather, including homes, hotels, schools, offices, and even retail stores. There are documented cases of bed bugs more than 3,300 years ago! The bugs are not known to carry diseases but are undesirable because of their irritating bite.
Diet & The Search for Food
Bed bugs hide in cracks and crevices in and around the bed during the day and come out at night to feed on people asleep in the bed. The result of their bite is an itchy, slightly elevated area of skin at the site of the beak insertion. Bat bugs, swallow bugs and poultry bugs are other species related to bed begs that may seek out humans when their normal host is not present.
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Request a Free Pest Inspection
Or call or text us at 636-297-1335
Or call or text us at 636-297-1335
Management & Eradication
If you notice bed bugs, thoroughly clean bedding, mattresses and pillows. Lightly but thoroughly mist all crevices in the bed frame and mattress with an aerosol insecticide. Do not treat the surface of the mattress. Instead, focus on the creases around the edges and buttons. Treat all crevices in the infested area, especially around windows, doors, baseboards, etc.
When an infestation is uncontrolled, it is recommended you contact a licensed professional like Hometown Pest Solutions. Our exterminators deploy chemicals and treatments not found on store shelves.
Please visit the University of Missouri’s Bed Bugs webpage for more information about bed bugs.