Bed Bug Bites

How to Treat Bed Bug Bites

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Nothing is worse than having bed bug bites all over your body when you wake up early in the morning. Instead of being greeted with a special in bed breakfast, you’ll start your day treating all those bites so that they won’t become worse. Some people like to leave it like that, some can bear the itchiness of it but most of us just want to get rid of the red marks as soon as possible. Not only that they are itchy, having to spend the rest of your day with red marks on your face is going to be embarrassing. Imagine you’re supposed to present a proposal in front of your potential clients in a multi-million deal that day. Would you want to stand before them with red blobs scattered all over your face and hands? I wouldn’t!

So what do people do to treat those bed bug bites? There are several ways that we can try to ease the itchiness and make the red marks disappear. First of all, you can use calamine lotion as I’ve mentioned in my previous post. Using calamine lotion can be done in two ways, either you apply the lotion before you go to bed (to prevent the bugs from biting every inch of your body), or you can apply the lotion after you’ve been bitten by the bugs (to ease the itchiness). This worked like a charm for me, and I recommend you to try this for an economical solution. Buying calamine lotion doesn’t cost you a fortune, and calamine lotion can easily be found in any drug stores at your locations.

If you can’t find any calamine lotion (strangely enough), you can instead use antiseptic cream which basically does the same thing. It eases the itchiness and prevents the red marks from getting infected. It’s quite easy for the bites to become infected due to excessive scratching on them. If you find that the bed bug bites have become infected (puss, prolonged swollen marks etc), you can start by applying antibiotic ointment such neosporin which will treat the infected area a bit. You should then go to your doctor for further treatment though, as oral antibiotics are probably the best solution, if the bites get really infected.

But as they say, prevention is better than cure. You should always make sure that your beds are free from bed bugs and their colony before thinking on ways to treat their bites. That is still the best solution for me :)

Bed Bug Bites - Aftermath

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Do you know what happens when bed bug bites? During feeding, these creatures use two hollow tubes on their heads to do two different things simultaneously, ONE: blood sucking and TWO: injecting their saliva which contains *anticoagulants and *anaesthetic into the skin of their host. Therefore, they might not result in immediate pain or discomfort until sometime later and even make a person feel numb all over. The blood filling their bodies sucked from the hosts could easily be seen then as they have translucent bodies.

A person will become more and more sensitive to the saliva if repeatedly exposed to them over time. This means that if a person is bitten again and again, later on he or she might develop an allergy and the intensity of the allergic reaction varies depending on the person. Some says that you might even feel hard to breathe. If you know that you’re allergic to these kind of pests, you should especially take good care of your dwellings and yourself at home and when travelling.

You will also find wounds or lesions similar to those of other blood sucking insects like fleas and mosquitoes making them sometimes hard to differentiate and recognized. They may also appear in many places on the body and might have a pattern-like presentation due to probable disturbances experienced during feeding. Some people say that a bite will not only cause a wound but also swells. In case you’re in doubt of what’s troubling you all night or unable to identify the problem yourself, refer a trained physician for help.

And these wounds are of course very very itchy, urging you to scratch. But help control yourself from spreading the problem to other areas with proper check up and treatment as soon as possible. You don’t want to let them enjoy another night having you as their meal and increasing your plight.

Some *terms you might want to know:

1) Anticoagulant(s): noun, medicine a drug or other substance that prevents or slows the clotting of blood, used to prevent the formation of blood clots, or to break up existing clots, eg in the treatment of thrombosis. adj having or relating to this kind of effect.

2) Anaesthetic: noun any agent, especially a drug, capable of producing anaesthesia which is a reversible loss of sensation in all or part of the body, usually induced by drugs which may be inhaled or injected intravenously, but sometimes induced by acupuncture or hypnosis. Could also caused by disease or injury.

(*from Chambers Reference Online)

Bed Bugs Behaviour

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Now that we know what do bed bugs look like and how to get rid of them, we might want to know a little bit more about how these ‘bad bugs’ behave. The common bed bug we have in our houses (well if we do that is), is Cimex Lectularius which is very good at adapting with human environment. Just like a man’s best friend - the dog - bed bugs of this type is the best creature that could turn your home sweet home into theirs. They love all the things you love most like your ark to dreamland - the bed - and your cosy ‘throne’ where you controlled hundreds of digital channels - the sofa.

Unlike humans, bed bugs work hard during the night, therefore they prefer to avoid the light and lay low during the day. So having them over at home won’t be a pleasant experience as you might have to adjust your body clock to entertain them! Well, they are not really friendly creatures though, not even social insects to be honest. Though they do move about and settle in congregations, they could as well be found independently; on their own and alone. And as these creatures are human blood suckers, body heat and carbon dioxide are the key attractions to them. Not dirt or filth as people has usually thought about other pests. This means that good housekeeping might help reduce bed bugs’ risks and avoid severe infestation but it is not what it takes to keep them away, for they feed on you, not your mess or waste. Spring cleaning is the first step to get rid of them but you need more than that to free your dwellings of them.

Their usual feeding time would be at dawn but that doesn’t mean they won’t bite at other times so always, always beware! Bed bugs only seek blood for feed every five to ten days and could remarkably survive for 12-18 months without feeding. Looks like these nasty little creatures are far tougher than they seemed to be. Though they usually remain close to the hosts, bed bugs travel easily from one spot to another so it won’t be so surprising if you actually brought them home from hotels, motels or other stay-overs infested by them. Especially if you brought home any bedding materials or furnitures with you. That’s why once these bad guys are detected or felt (through bed bugs bites) you might need to check out other possible areas they could be crawling to, to clear any infestation and close your doors to them for good!

How many eggs could a female bed bug produce? That’s up to 5 a day and up to 500 eggs in her lifetime! The eggs hatch after one to two weeks and the hatchlings might take up to 5 weeks later to reach maturity where they will become reproductive. But do not underestimate these young creatures for they need to feed immediately after hatching.

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