Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) have made a firm comeback across Europe, and Barcelona and Girona are no exception. Tourism, international travel and the insect's resistance to many conventional insecticides have pushed infestations up fivefold over the past decade. If you keep waking up with bites you cannot explain, this guide is for you.
What are bed bugs?
Bed bugs are small insects, 4 to 7 mm long as adults, with a flat oval body and a reddish-brown colour. They feed on one thing only: human blood. They are also nocturnal, hiding away by day and emerging to bite while you sleep, drawn out by your body heat and the CO2 you breathe out.
A few facts that put the problem in perspective:
- An adult can go up to 12 months without feeding.
- A single female lays between 200 and 500 eggs in her lifetime.
- They pass easily from room to room through plug sockets, skirting boards, pipes and cracks.
- Hygiene has nothing to do with it: they turn up in five-star hotels as readily as in spotless homes.
Signs that you have bed bugs
Catching an infestation early makes all the difference. These are the signs worth watching for:
- Bites in a line or cluster: as they feed, bed bugs tend to bite several times in a row, leaving a trail of 3 to 5 welts (what dermatologists nickname "breakfast, lunch and dinner"). They itch fiercely and swell.
- Bloodstains on the sheets: small reddish smears left behind when you roll onto a bug that has just fed.
- Black specks on the mattress: droppings that look like little smears of biro ink, clustered along the mattress seams, the bed base and the headboard.
- A sweet, cloying smell: a heavy infestation gives off a sickly odour, something like rancid almonds, produced by the bugs' scent glands.
- Shed skins and eggs: translucent cast-off shells and whitish eggs around 1 mm across, tucked into the mattress seams, behind the headboard, inside picture frames and in gaps in the floor.
How do bed bugs get into your home?
Bed bugs are seasoned hitchhikers. These are the usual routes in:
- Travel and hotels: they slip into suitcases, rucksacks and clothing during stays in hotels, hostels or holiday flats. In Barcelona this is by far the most common route.
- Second-hand furniture: pre-owned mattresses, sofas, bedside tables and headboards can arrive with bugs already hidden inside.
- Infested neighbours: in blocks of flats, they travel from one home to the next through party walls, electrical conduits and pipework.
- Public transport: less often, they hitch a ride on metro, bus or train seats and cling to clothing.
Why are they so hard to get rid of?
Several things about bed bugs make DIY remedies almost pointless:
- Insecticide resistance: many populations have grown resistant to pyrethroids, the active ingredient behind most shop-bought sprays.
- Unreachable hiding places: they wedge into 2 mm cracks, inside plug sockets, behind wallpaper, inside books and in the deepest seams of the mattress.
- A drawn-out life cycle: the eggs take 6 to 10 days to hatch and the nymphs can last weeks without a meal, so a single treatment is rarely enough.
- Sprays scatter them: reaching for insecticide without the right know-how often sends the bugs fleeing into other rooms, spreading the infestation instead of ending it.
Effective professional treatments
Professional bed bug control works because it combines several methods in a single plan:
- Thorough inspection: a painstaking check of mattresses, bed bases, headboards, bedside tables, skirting boards, picture frames and any likely hiding spot, so that no source is missed.
- Washing textiles above 60°C: we strip out and launder all affected bedding, curtains and fabrics above 60°C, the temperature that kills adults, nymphs and eggs alike.
- Spraying the room: using a spraying machine, we apply biocides authorised by the Ministry of Health to the mattress seams, cracks, skirting boards and every refuge the bugs use.
- Gas shock treatment: a closing burst of gas reaches the refuges nothing else can, after which the room stays shut for 48 hours and is then ventilated.
- Follow-up: a return visit to check on progress, since the eggs can hatch after the first round and a second treatment is sometimes needed.
Bed bug elimination in Barcelona and Girona
At ERRADICAT we specialise in the treatment and elimination of bed bugs in homes, hotels, holiday flats and hostels across Barcelona and Girona. Our certified technicians follow a straight, honest protocol (washing above 60°C, spraying and a gas shock) and show you how to keep them from coming back. Get in touch for a free visual inspection.