Bed Bugs

Bed-bugs are usually found in unhygienic conditions inside bedrooms as their name implies. They have a flattened appearance before a blood feed and are about five millimetres long with the look of a rather wide flea, reddish brown in colour. They hide under the buttons and increases of old mattresses, behind wallpaper, skirting boards and cracks in the floor.

They are wingless so they can't fly or jump like the flea. They are active during the night and have been known to drop from ceilings onto beds. They can survive without a blood feed for up to a year. Bites can cause welts to appear on the skin with three rows of puncture marks being characteristic. Itchiness and irritation affect some people more than others. A nuisance pest, generally harmless.