An insect expert has explained how the unseasonably warm weather means bedbugs are likely to be on the increase in the UK.
There have been reports of a widespread outbreak of bedbugs in Paris, prompting fears that the tiny creepy-crawlies – which are known to hide away in suitcases – will be rapidly multiplying on our shores, too.
Professor Mary Cameron, professor of medical entomology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said that although no academic studies have been done to confirm whether there’s been an increase in bedbugs, there’s certainly a perception of an increase. How can you spot them? As well as seeing the bugs themselves, they leave faecal spots. Prof Cameron said: "When they have a blood meal, they digest it, and their faeces look like digested blood, which is dark brown or black over time. So you can look for little droplets of dried blood in things like your bedside drawers and around cracks and crevices, the frame of your bed, or seams of mattresses.
Top Life Hack Stories Today "So, after you’ve got up, it’s unlikely that you’ll see them in your bed unless you’ve got a really bad infestation, and you’ll be aware of it then because you’ll have lots of bites. What are the bites like? People’s reactions to bites vary, said Professor Cameron, explaining that if you have not experienced bedbugs before, you may not react straight away to the antigens in their saliva, but over time you will."But most people will react to bedbug bites in a similar way to mosquito bites – they’ll be small, red and itchy."Do they transmit disease? "At the moment it doesn’t appear that they transmit any diseases like mosquitoes do," Professor Cameron said.
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