INSECT BITES

Sometimes it can be difficult to identify biting insects and if you’ve actually got a pest problem or not. And then you have to decide if you need to do anything about it – and what to do. But don’t let a pest problem get out of hand because it could damage your health, property or business.

If in doubt, ring or email us for professional pest control advice on how to identify biting insect infestations and how to get rid of biting insects. We’ve 30 years experience in pest control, provide free pest control surveys and free insect identification to identify biting insects.

And we’re available 7 days a week for advice and help. We really do know what we’re doing; you can trust us to get it right.

There’s more information below as well to help you identify pest problems.

The simplest approach is to separate insect bites into two groups; being bitten outdoors and being bitten indoors.

If you’re pretty sure you’ve been bitten outside, it’s probably the dreaded Scottish midge or mosquito. The best approach for these in Scotland is old fashioned insect repellent or the new midge-catching machines. There are also biting stable flies, horse flies, ticks and berry bugs ready to attack us outside.

Being bitten indoors is a lot more worrying because the bites are from insects that are actually living in your house or building; the most likely nasties are bedbugs, fleas and bird mites.

Bedbugs
Bedbugs are blood sucking parasites that feed from people especially, though they’ll bite animals too. They hide in cracks and crevices in furniture, beds, mattresses, luggage – anywhere that’s close enough to people for them to crawl out at night to feed on our blood. Bites on any part of the body overnight and dark blood splodges on sheets and beds are good signs to look out for. You might even find one in the bedding; they look like apple pips when they are adult and paler when they are younger.

We used bedbug control in Perth recently by a customer who couldn’t find a reason for the bites on their legs; our professional pest identification found the problem. And a worried hotelier thought they’d need bedbugs control in Pitlochry but our bedbug survey gave them the all clear.

Fleas
There are several types of flea; bird, cat, dog, rabbit, human and the tropical rat flea. The cat flea is the commonest in Scotland. They aren’t fussy though, they will all bite us when they are hungry for blood. Normally the bites are on the legs or ankles but can be on other parts of the body. Also, there will have been animals in the building or nearby. The fleas are dark and visible to the naked eye so you might see them jumping along the floor or even on and off the animals they are feeding on. We used flea control in Perth for a family being bitten in a house they’d just moved into; they didn’t have pets and had never thought they had a flea problem until they asked for pest control advice. A customer thought they needed flea control in Crieff too after taking in a stray dog; but it was the midges, m’lud, the dog was innocent.

Bird mites
These are very small and aren’t classed as insects because they’ve 8 legs not 6. They’re pale coloured when they are hungry; when they move it looks like specks of sand shifting around. After they have had a feed of blood they turn dark red. You might get them in a building from pest birds or nests nearby. They are also found on poultry farms and in back yard henhouses. We used mite pest control in Crieff recently to treat an infested hen hut; the customer hadn’t spotted how itchy his hens were. And we identified the reason for office staff getting bitten at work and used mite pest control in Perth to get rid of the pest problem. It makes us scratch just thinking about it!