Having pests at home is horrible. Once you discover them, your mind is not going to put that issue aside and just ignore it because you know that they are a nuisance and can really affect you. Pests like dust mites and bed bugs are quite similar, and you need to learn how to differentiate them. First, you must know and understand their characteristics.
What are bed bugs?
Bed bugs are insects that have very particular qualities. They feed off their host, sucking their blood until they are full. This can happen to humans or animals, and they are constantly looking for ways to get to the host, so you must be cautious.
Regarding their appearance, they are brown, with the size of an apple seed, so sometimes they are quite difficult to see to the naked eye. However, it is not impossible. They have six legs, and once they have finished eating, they will look bigger with a reddish colour as their belly expands.
Late at night is the moment when they appear. Sometimes they go over your bed and start feeding off. Generally, they hide near you in random dark places. Even though they tend to suck blood they aren’t known to spread diseases, however you will find many bite marks all over your body in an irregular way since they do not follow a pattern while biting. The bites can cause some severe allergic reactions that can lead to a visit to the doctor and a loss of sleep.
Bed bugs can live up to 12 months if they continue to feed off a host. Their life cycle is divided into five phases of development in which it needs to eat blood, or it won’t become an adult.
What are dust mites?
You must have probably heard about them. They live in many places where dust is. These arachnids are very little and require a microscope to be seen. They’re translucent with globular shape. Their diet consists of eating flakes of dead skin cells and many other particles that are found in dust. Their life cycle tends to have five very characteristic phrases.
They aren’t dangerous to human beings, as they do not spread any diseases. However, they are the main allergy triggers around the world. Sometimes it is necessary to get tested to see if the person has a problem with them.
Bed Bugs vs Dust Mites
First, dust mites aren’t technically bugs, as they tend to look like a spider rather than a normal bug. Bed bugs do have six legs and a brownish colour, while dust mites are translucent. One of the considerable differences that matter is that bed bugs are visible to the naked eye, while looking for dust mites can be done only with a microscope since they’re minimal, so it is impossible to say you’ve seen them. You must probably have mistaken them with bed bugs.
The other thing that needs to be clear is that bed bugs are parasites. They are constantly looking for a host which they can periodically feed off, leading them to continue their growth. Females will lay more eggs, as they tend to produce more of them if they are well-fed. Dust mites are never going to bite you because their main diet is dead skin cells that are found in places where these are concentrated. Mattresses, carpets, furniture, curtains, among others, are the places they prefer, pretty much like bed bugs.
Although they do not transmit diseases, lead to allergic reactions. Bed bugs bite and with this, their saliva can cause itching and blisters. This is mostly for allergic people, but you must be careful. They don’t normally bite linearly, so you might identify quickly when they’ve bitten.
Dust mites leave faecal matter and dead cells that you breathe and go to your lungs. This may cause sneezing, itchy nose, stuffed nose, and other symptoms related to allergies. If they are in your house, it is almost impossible to get rid of them, but you can take prevention measurements and treatments against the problems they cause.
