The Insect that Creeps in the Night

Bedbugs

Have you ever wonder why every time you wake up in the morning, you would find yourself having red spots and itching all over? Isn't this very frustrating? 

If you are facing this problem, one possiblity might be bedbugs.

A bedbug in comparison with a grain of rice
Source: click here

Bedbugs also known as Cimex lectularius, belong to the family of Cimicidae. They are actually small parasitic insects that feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals.

Bed bugs are small and oval in shape bearing a darker brown when mature and reddish after feeding. Their lifespan varies from species to species and also from their feeding and they can grow up to 5mm in length and 3mm in width. They're able to crawl at a very fast pace to compensate not being able to fly.

Bedbugs dwell in areas of the home and as the name implies, they mostly inhabit in beds, including mattresses, bed frame etc. Bedbugs can survive in a wide range of conditions such as surviving at temperature as low as 16.1 degrees celsius or as high as 40 degrees celsius. They prefer feeding at night and hate the sunlight. However they will feed even in the day time when required. Bedbugs are attracted to to their hosts primarily by carbon dioxide (CO2), then by warmth. Bedbugs can live for up to a year without feeding but they will normally try to feed every few days unless conditions do not permit (making them able to survive in desolated areas).

After having some knowledge about the bedbugs, now let's talk about the symptoms of being bitten by them and the eradication of them.

Source: click here

When you are bitten, the bitten area will turn red and become swollen, often accompanied with intense itching (normally caused by the saliva of the bedbugs). It is similar to a mosquito bite, red, swollen and itchy making it difficult to distinguish. You're tend to be bitten by bed bugs in a roll, normally 2 to 3 bites in a row. The possible reason is that the bed bugs are disturbed while feeding (turning over,scratching etc) making the bed bugs have to leave its host before returning back again to feed and biting on a different area. Another reason might be that it is trying to find a vein where it can get lots of feed (blood) from, thus trying several attempts to find the right spot.

The common symptoms as mentioned would be redness, swelling and itching at the area of the bite. In some rare cases, anaphylatic reaction may occur such as causing an asthma attack.

So how do you eradicate these nasty bugs??

Pesticides, vaccuumming and also high heat. Pesticides can be a real help to remove those bedbugs that have not been expose to pesticides before (not often seen nowadays) as there have been an increasing resistance to pesticides. So more people are opting for vaccuuming where bed bugs are. By vaccuuming every single corner of the house which is possible for it to inhabit or using high heat (above 46 degrees celsius), it is possible to leave your house bedbug-free. High concentration of carbon dioxide has been proven to kill bedbugs too!

The Young Soul Trapped In An Old Body

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, commonly known as Progeria or Aging disorder. As its name implies, babies born with this condition start to age at a very tender age and usually die at the age of 13 to 14.

Around the world, there are not many known cases of this disorder, affecting newborns at a rate of about 1 in 8million. Although Progeria is a genetic disorder, it is not inheritable.

Symptoms:

• The child will have normal appearance in early stage of infancy, symtoms start to surface at the age of 9 to 24 months.
• Growth delays, the child will have short stature, look smaller than children of the same age.
• Distinct facial appearences such as small faces, small jaws, huge heads, malformation of teeth, wrinkled skins, baldness.
• The affected child will develop similar respiratory, arthritic and cardiovascular conditions of an old person at later stage of the disorder.
• The growth of the affected child seems arrest and fast-forward at the same time in the same body. The child with the age of 10 will resemble the body size of a 3-yr-old, but the child will have the appearance of a 80-yr-old.

There is no treatment proven to be effective against this disorder. Sad to say, patients have difficulty living past the age of 13. There is a rare case of a Progeria patient living till the age of 21. Mentally, the affected child will be at his real age. Physically, he is growing at 8 times faster than normal kids!

Susana Lopez, is the oldest Progeria sufferer, 21-yr-old

Most of the affected children die of complications from the disorder, such as heart attack and stroke.