Why You Can't Squish Bed Bugs And Effectively Kill Them

People often think to themselves that, with bed bugs being so small, you could easily kill them by squishing them. That is not exactly truthful or accurate. To better understand how bed bugs are able to survive taking a blood meal from humans that can roll over on them at any moment, you have to understand bed bug behavior and anatomy. Then you will understand fully why you need a bed bug exterminator. 

The Size and Body Shape of a Bed Bug

Lice are able to survive heads rolling over, and bed bugs are smaller than lice. That is because both of these blood-sucking pests have very flat bodies. It makes bed bugs the ideal parasite for attacking a sleeping victim because if the victim rolls over onto the bed bugs, the flat bodies easily fit with the less-than-flat surfaces of bed linens and mattresses. Additionally, a bed bug is extremely tiny. The adults can fit on the head of a pin, so rolling over on them is not going to do any damage at all. 

Squishing Them With Your Fingertips

Squishing them with your fingertips is not going to work either. Their tough exoskeletons and flattened bodies make your fingertips feel like padded cushions to them, and they just sink into your fingertips. Furthermore, they might bite your fingertips if they are hungry and have a "mind" to bite. If you spot an adult crawling on you, your best bet is to grab it with a pointed, angle-tipped tweezers and squeeze it with all your might. 

That might actually kill it, but that is just one bug in a bed that probably is crawling with dozens. Unless you lay in bed and do not move for hours, there is no way you will coax all of the adults out of your mattress and out of hiding and be able to grab and squish them all with a forceps tweezer. 

Forget Squishing Nymphs and Eggs

Eggs are the size of a pinpoint. Nymphs cannot be detected or seen with the naked eye until they reach their third or fourth nymph stage, and they go through five nymph stages before becoming adults. You cannot hope to squish or quash the eggs because the eggs so neatly fit into the tiny thread openings in your mattress and bed linens. You cannot squish the nymphs because you will not be able to see them until they are almost adults, and even then, you would have to strain your eyes to see their whitish to off-whitish bodies. 

Contact a company like Quality Pest Control for more information and assistance. 

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