How Do Bed Bugs See the World?
If you have hired a bed bug exterminator in Kitchener in the past, they would have advised you that bed bugs’ sees the world very differently. It is because their eye structure is way much different from us, humans. What bed bugs have, as is common to most other insects, are compound eye structure. Scientists are on the assumption that such critters with a very complex eye system would not be able to see the world in color but rather have their vision in plain black and white.
Did you know that a bed bug’s eye is comprised not just but one or two lenses, but have hundreds of them instead? These hundreds of lenses in their eye structure are fitting together in hexagonal form and are referred to as facets. Each of these facets of lenses have two components, one on the inside and the other on the outside. And because bed bugs are equipped with this kind of complex eye structure, they are able to see the world in 3D. These hundreds of individual eye facets form together these parasite’s eye. All these hundreds of eye facets are attached to a tube that enables them to direct the light down to a central system known as the rhabdome. It is sensitive to light and translated information about the outside world is transmitted via an optic nerve going to the bugs brain.
Each individual eye facet in a bed bug’s eye sends a uniquely different picture to the brain. The moment that they are processed by the brain and has been put together, what comes up and seen by the bed bug is a mosaic-like image. If you are familiar with computer graphics, what bed bugs exactly sees is just a matter of pixelated images. Nothing is clear, nothing is crisp. And it is in this manner that a bed bug can see you when he is about to get closer, you are just a matter of pixelated image to it. However, scientist are not able to determine exactly yet that if bed bugs move, do these pixelated vision also get updated on a facet-level first or as a whole already? Should bed bug’s have their immediate vision updated on a lens-by-lens level, then there is a probability that they are seeing the world as a constantly updating image. It is going to be like looking through, say a kaleidoscope, while at the same time you have put a 3D eyeglasses on.
One of the reasons why bed bugs come out from their hiding places at night is to feed on the blood of their human prey. Or sometimes from that of any warm blooded animal they can come close to. You can come up with as many assumptions as you can have on why they come out at night to feed but nothing is certain except for the fact that they need to feed. Many people assume that they come and attack at night because humans wouldn’t be able to detect their presence at night since they are fast asleep. While others contend that bed bugs, with the complexity of their eye structure, have rendered them to become too sensitive to light and are able to see things far better in the dark.
The truth of the matter is bed bugs are not too sensitive to light but they are to extreme temperatures instead. In fact, they are able to come out at night even if you leave the lights on. What they veer away from is the sunlight as they might find it too intense and too warm. Remember, light or sunlight is a form of energy and energy is heat. So if there is too much of it, they would rather stay away from it. I guess this explains the reason why we often hear our old folks say that the best way to get rid of bed bugs on an infested item is to have them exposed under the heat of the sun for a couple of hours and they will just fall off from where they are in hiding.
As for the case of indoor lights we have at home, they are not too intense, I suppose, hence they are able to withstand it and come out to have a“bite” on you even when you leave them on at night. Keep in mind that when it is time for bed bugs to feed at night, regardless if there is a light on, they will come out and look for a prey and that could be you.
As I did my research on bed bug vision, scientists have found out that their eyes can pick up heat signature from their surroundings. Therefore, even though they have poor eyesight, they might have been relying on the heat signals that they can detect to determine the presence of a possible prey they can feed on. I think this is the possible reason why most who constantly suffer from bed bug bites have their bite-induced welts on the central part of their bodies, where heat signature is said to be most intense in. The heat in your body is more intense as you approach the center of your torso, as well as in your arms and legs.
If you need help on your own bed bug infestation problem, before you enlist any kind of professional help, make the right kind of preparations first and consider these pointers I am giving here:
Before professional help could finally come, prepare everything first. Remove your beddings, include all your linens and clothings. Remove as well all textile materials that can be loaded to your washing machine, which may include pillow cases, mattress covers, pillows, etc. And segregate those items that can be dry cleaned instead. As much as possible, wash all items that have been in contact and used on your bed in hot water. This help kill bed bugs in hiding and even their left over eggs.
Once done and everything are cleaned and washed, make it sure that you put them in a tightly sealed storage bin or container to keep bedbugs from getting their way back to them again.
Empty out your closets and take out all stored towels, undergarments, shirts and all. Line them all up for hot water washing at a later time. Your hired bed bug exterminator in Kitchener may have to access them as well for possible treatment, too. So it is good to have them ready as early as now.
Move objects and furnishing that you suspect have not been brought inside the bug infested room and keep them away from it as they might get contaminated just before help or treatment arrives. The professional team of pest management group will need to get easy access to these areas, too.
Don’t miss out on your lampstands, bookshelves, dressers, desks, chairs, and if any of them have drawers, pull them out as well. Remember, bed bugs will try to hide themselves in anything they possibly can, including your wooden furnishings.
Once treatment is completed, let the room stand alone for more than 3 - 5 hours just so these pesky critters would be completely annihilated. This is also an ample amount of time to allow the treatment and its effluvium to totally dissipate.
Wait for your mattresses, beddings, sofas, etc, to completely dry first before you lay or sit on them again. While most of the treatments being used by the professional pest management group are safe to human skin, there are instances that they might emit an offensive or strong odor that you wouldn’t like. So just to avoid being annoyed by those kinds of smells, allow those treated furnishings to completely dry first.
Following treatment, seal your box springs, pillows, or mattress in airtight sealed bags or storage bins. There are available mattress disposable bags that you can make use of for this purpose.
Now, many people think that having a bed bug infestation has something to do with their hygiene at home or it might be that they are maintaining a poor sanitation habit, reason that they have this kind of pest infestation. It is all wrong! Your home’s cleanliness has got nothing to do with bed bug infestation. It does not even mean that you are living in filthy and unfit conditions. Successful bed bug extermination in Kitchener does not happen overnight. You will have to follow the suggestions and advices of your hired professional to keep these critters at bay.