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Bed Bugs seek out people and animals, generally at night while these hosts are asleep, and painlessly sip a few drops of blood. While feeding, they inject a tiny amount of their saliva into the skin. Repeated exposures to bed bug bites during a period of several weeks or more causes people to be sensitized to the saliva of these bugs; additional bites may then result in mild to intense allergic responses. The skin lesion produced by the bite of a bed bug resembles those caused by many other kinds of blood feeding insects, such as mosquitoes and fleas. The offending insect, therefore, can rarely be identified but by appearance of the bites.
In the act of feeding on human blood, they may inject their own saliva into the bite area, leading to a localized area of itching and swelling. If scratched, the bite areas can become infected. Bed bug bites may go unnoticed or be mistaken for flea or mosquito bites or other skin conditions. Bed bugs also have glands whose secretions may leave odors, and they also leave dark fecal spots on bed sheets and around their hiding places.
Bedbugs are generally active only at dawn, with a peak feeding period about an hour before sunrise. They may attempt to feed at other times, however, given the opportunity, and have been observed to feed at any time of the day. Attracted by warmth and the presence of carbon dioxide, the bug pierces the skin of it's host with two hallow tubes. With one tube injects its saliva, which contains anticoagulants and anesthetics, while with the other it withdraws the blood if its host. After feeding for about 5 minutes, the bug returns to its hiding place. The bites cannot usually be felt until some minutes or hours later, as a dermatological reactions to the injected agents, and the first indication of a bite usually comes from the desire to scratch the bite site.
Although bedbugs can live for a year or as much as eighteen months without feeding, they typically seek blood every five to ten days. Bed bugs that go dormant for lack of food often live longer than a year, well fed specimens typically live six to nine months. Low infestations may be difficult to detect, and it is not unusual for the victim not to even realize they have bedbugs early on. Pattern of bites in a row or a cluster are typical as they may be disturbed while feeding. Bites may be found on variety of places on the body.
Bed Bugs may be erroneously associated with filth in the mistaken notion that this attracts them. Bedbugs are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide and body heat, not by dirt, and they feed on blood, not waste. In short, the cleanliness of their environments has effect on the control of bedbugs but, unlike cockroaches, does not have a direct effect on bed bugs as they feed on their hosts and not on waste. Good housekeeping in association with proper preparation and mechanical removal by vacuuming will certainly assist in control.
Bed bugs normally do not reside on people like head or body lice, immediately after feeding they crawl off and reside elsewhere to digest their meal. Symptoms after being bitten vary with the individual. Many develop and itchy red welt or localized swelling within a day or so of the bite. Others have little or no reaction, and in some people the reaction is delayed. Unlike flea bites that mainly occur mainly around the ankles, bed bugs feed on any skin exposed while sleeping.
The red bump or welts are the results of an allergic reaction to the anesthetic contained in the bed bugs saliva, which is inserted into the blood of its victim. Bed bug bites may appear indistinguishable from mosquito bites, though they tend to last for a longer period. Bites may not become immediately visible, and can take up to 9 days to appear. Bed bug bites tend to not have a red dot in the center such as is characteristic of flea bites. A trait shared with fleas however, is tendency towards arrangements of sequential bites. Bed bugs bites are often aligned three in a row, giving rise to the colloquialism "breakfast, lunch and dinner." This may be caused by the bedbug being disturbed while eating and relocating half an inch or so father along the skin before resuming for a blood vein.