There has been a lot of media coverage over recent years with the increase of Bed Bug infestation. This as lead to our staff here at Pest Solutions UK dealing with more and more enquiries for biting insects, most of which turn out (thankfully for the customer) not to be bed bugs, but one of the many other causes of what the industry commonly refers to as “Biting Insects”
When a building is affected by “ biting insects” there are normally a number of possible things that cause the bite or “bite like marks”.

The first (and possibly most common) is static electricity that is caused by movement on certain types of carpet and by electrical machinery, such as photocopiers, PC’s etc.

The second is by insect or mite infestation. Within the spectrum of “biting insects”, there are three types of pest we commonly deal with:-

• Flying insects – Midges, gnats or mosquito, which are usually seen and noted by staff and can enter via open windows or from internal breeding sites (usually identified during site surveys)
• Fleas, which reach the peak of the natural flea season during Autumn and early Winter. These insects are parasitic and feed of natural “hosts”, the most common encountered being, cat or bird flea. Staff and customers can come into contact fleas on public transport, in places of work or leisure and from infested animals. This is normally the way these insects are imported into the place of work.
• Mites (dust mite) are present in most every day situations. These pests do not bite. They have hairs on their bodies and secrete bodily fluids that are natural irritants to humans. Once on the skin the pests cause itchiness and skin irritation that come out in the form of bite-like marks, blotches, rashes and even the symptoms of colds/hay fever; such as runny noses and itchy eyes.

Treatment

Treatment against biting insects (or the symptoms of bites) is normally quite straight forward, though sometimes the logistics of organising the operation can be difficult due to health and safety restrictions.

We offer to carry out a full site survey to determine the actual pest that is causing the problem, this is sometimes done by a process of elimination and can include the use of non-toxic insect and flea detectors to offer twenty-four monitoring to rule out the presence of biting flies, fleas, or bird mites.

Once the pest as been correctly identified we will organise the appropriate insecticidal treatment, fly control, anti-static treatment or a combination of all three.
As treatments to carpets tend to be “blanket” coverage, the work is traditionally done outside of normal working hours to conform with pest control and heath and safety information.

If you are experiencing problems with bites, fleas, mites or any other flying or crawling insect give us a call 01942 872137, alternatively drop us an email here.

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