True bugs (Heteroptera) are generally flatter than beetles to what they look like. The bed bug (Cimex lectularius) was almost no longer in the West. She is 5 to 6 millimeters long and is reddish-brown to brown. They live in groups during the day and stay in cracks and crevices. They cannot withstand the cold. With the advent of central heating they flourished in the West. Bedbugs are in temperate regions only active during the summer or in well heated rooms.
They survive freezing temperatures for several hours, but die by prolonged exposure to +45°C. Do you come from a high-risk area, then do your clothes in the dryer. A professional (and expensive) control consists of several hours of heating throughout the property to 60⁰C.
Around 1940 they were largely eradicated with DDT, to which they have developed resistance. Because of our increased mobility, and their resistance they occur from 2000 again.
The adult bug is a good survivor who can stand many months without food. She lives of blood from, inter alia, human beings. The snout consists of a tube that sucks blood, and a second that injects narcotic and anticoagulant substances. So one does not feel the bite and the blood clots less likely.
Exhaled CO2 and body heat (and smell?) attract these animals. The legs appear favorite. The stitch wounds resemble mosquito bites: small, red bumps.
The bugs are about an hour before dawn most active. Bedbugs are only during the stabbing on their host. Then bed bugs seek shelter in the seams of mattresses or small crevices in and around the bed, where the females lay eggs.
From a bite of a bedbug (Cimex lectularius) you usually see multiple bumps together. If a bedbug is disturbed while eating, he starts again. And you find e.g. 3 bites in a row.
A bite can itch terribly for days. Unlike mosquito bites that continue to itch one day. Often the itching starts in the course of the day or a few days later.
Bed bugs harass you in bed, and also bite under the covers.
Bedbugs have stink glands that produce a characteristic odor: an oily, sweet smell when there are enough present.
In ideal conditions (high temperature and the presence of hosts) the cycle from egg to adult is two months. Failing that, the cycle may take 1 to 2 years, they can survive without food for more than one year.
Unlike other blood-sucking insects such as mosquitoes and some fleas, bedbugs can not transmit any diseases.