Description

Adult bedbugs are 4 - 5 mm in length, wingless and uniformly mahogany brown in colour. They have long well-developed walking legs with efficient tarsal claws for clinging on to the host during feeding. Prominent antennae project from the head adjacent to the compound eyes.

Habitat

Infestations of bedbugs usually occur in the bedroomswith them hiding in cracks and crevices most of the time. They normally come out at night usually just before dawn to feed on the blood of their sleeping hosts. Bedbugs will normally hide close to where the host sleeps e.g. in the frame of the bed or mattress, in furniture, behind the skirting board or wallpaper or anywhere that provides a dark harbourage during the daylight hours.

Threats

The close association of bedbugs with human beings means that they cause substantial nuisance through their blood-feeding habit. They fed at night on their human hosts as they are sleeping. Although rare, there can be a risk of anaemia being suffered by the hosts. The nuisance and itching caused by the bites and the possibility of secondary infection is more common.