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Insect Bites

Ouch! Have you been bitten and are unsure what by? Unfortunately, it's often challenging to identify biting insects and determine whether you've got a pest issue and have to decide the appropriate course of action to take to resolve it.

The most important thing is to never allow a pest problem to spiral out of control; doing so poses grave risks to your health, property or business. It is never advisable to try to resolve the issue yourself; always contact professional pest control services.

The simplest way to distinguish the causes of bites is to determine whether or not you're being bitten outdoors or indoors. Midges and mosquitoes are the most common outdoor biters, and the best defence against these is reliable insect repellent or new midge-catching machines. Other outdoor offenders include biting stable flies, horse flies, ticks and berry bugs.

Being bitten indoors is a more significant cause for concern, as this implies insects are dwelling in your property, with the most common perpetrators being bedbugs, fleas and bird mites.

Bed Bugs
Bedbugs are blood-sucking parasites that primarily feed on people, though they're not averse to biting animals too. They shelter in cracks and crevices in furniture, beds, mattresses, luggage – anywhere close to humans, and consequently blood. Tell-tale signs of these creatures are waking up to bites on any part of the body and dark blood spots on bedding. To identify with the naked eye, they resemble apple pips in adulthood and are paler when they are younger. We recently carried out bedbug control for a customer with unexplainable bites on their leg; our professional pest identification identified the problem. A concerned hotelier who expected to require bedbug control in Manchester was relieved to be given the all-clear by our bedbug surveyor.

Fleas
There are several types of flea; bird, cat, dog, rabbit, human and the tropical rat flea, of which the cat flea is the commonest in the Manchester area. However, fleas are not picky and have no scruples about biting us when they are hungry for blood. Their favourite place to bite tends to be the legs or ankles, but they will aim for other body parts if needed. For fleas to reside, there will have been animals in the building or nearby. Fleas are dark and visible to the naked eye, so you may witness them jumping in carpets or even on an animal's coat. We used flea control in Manchester for a family who'd just moved into a new property; they had no pets, so they didn't believe they had a flea problem until they sought professional pest control advice.

Bird Mites
These tiny creatures, which are not insects because they possess six legs rather than 8, are pale coloured when they are hungry but turn dark red upon a fill of blood. They sometimes stem from nearby nests and pest birds, and poultry farms are often susceptible to them.

Remember that professional pest control is always the solution to biting insects; never attempt to tackle them yourself!