Symptoms of A Bed Bug Infestation
The bed bug bite symptoms are not often easily identifiable. They are often known as mystery bumps or rashes since they appear without any knowledge of why or how. First lets look at how a bed bug attacks its victim. In the time just before dawn for a bed bug will come out of its hiding spot usually a dark concealed area, even a crack in the wall can be a place to hide for a bed bug.
Once they emerge they are about 1/3rd of an inch in length and half that in length. There bodies are of a reddish brownish color, after they have fed it is actually possible to see blood running through them. The insects can only crawl they can not jump or fly.
A bed bug bites or should I say sucks by first inserting a small tube into the victims skin injecting saliva to numb the area, then a second tube is inserted that is used for sucking the blood. The bedbug may suck for as long as five minutes but normally only about a minute.They will sometimes prey upon the victim multiple times in a night. This is normally in a row of bits and will leave a bed bug symptom of a rash.
Bed bugs may not feed on a nightly basis they in fact only feed every few days. It has also been shown in studies that a bedbug can lay dormant when there is no food supply for up to six months.
How To Treat Bed Bug Bites
If you do believe that you have been bitten by a bed bug from having bumps or a rash appear almost miraculously overnight. Do not fret often times the bedbug bites are just a little itchy and will go away on there own in a few days. The application of cortisone cream can ease the itch of the bites or rash. Do not eve scratch at the rash or bumps this can cause a blistering of the area and then scabs to appear.This can then lead to infection of the skin that can only be cured by prescribed antibiotics.
Other bed bug bite symptoms include the appearance of a small trail of blood on the skin this is left from the bed bug as it crawls from its feeding spot if it has consumed to much blood. Also these nasty little insects can leave a reddish trail on sheets as they crawl around the bed. Be sure to immediately wash sheets if you see this and look for the other signs of bed bugs.
