• Bed bugs are back with a hungry vengeance… in pristine upscale homes and condos, five-star hotels and resorts… as well as dormitories, hospitals, theatres, nursing homes, schools and more.
• They’re searching for their next meal… and they only eat human blood.  Don’t let it be yours!
  

The Bed Bug Bite…

• With their elongated beaks, bed bugs pierce our skin and inject their saliva that contains an anaesthetic to reduce our pain… and an anticoagulant to keep our blood flowing.
• In one night, bed bugs can leave as many as 90 bites on our face, neck, upper torso, arms, hands and legs.
• Often painless, these bites are small, red, itchy bumps and resemble mosquito bites.
• For some people, the bites can go away within hours or days without any treatment.
• Others don’t even know they’ve been bitten… and don’t see any bites for up to two or three months.
• And then, there are those people who are extremely sensitive to their bites… and can have immediate localized allergic reactions… bright red, painful, very itchy swelling.  Scratching these bitten areas can cause serious infection and other ailments.
• No diseases are associated with bed bugs or their bites. However… to discover bed bugs in your mattress – at home, in your dorm or at a hotel – and then to discover their bites all over your body… can cause immense trauma, along with persistent psychological distress.  
  
  

How Do Bed Bugs Get Into My Home and My Mattress?   

• Unlike cockroaches, bed bugs are not attracted to filthy environments, dirty homes or poor personal hygiene… bed bugs feed only on human blood, not human waste.
• They are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide and body heat… and their favourite hiding places are mattresses and pillows – the bed environment – that’s why they’re called bed bugs!   
• Bed bugs are hearty survivors who can tolerate weeks of freezing temperatures… and can even live from six to 12 months without human blood… comfortably entrenched in our mattresses and pillows.
• They’re also expert long distance travellers and amazing hitchhikers… cleverly surviving in our luggage and clothing, as well as planes, trains, cars, buses and cruise ships.
• They arrive home with us… a terrifying memento of our expensive vacation, successful business trip or excellent university education. 
• Your unsuspecting family, friends, guests or neighbours… even you!... can bring them right into your bedroom and your mattress. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

How do I know if bed bugs are living in my mattress?

• Bed bugs leave definite markings to advise their human host that they’ve assumed permanent residence in their bed environment.
• On sheets, mattresses and pillows… you can find dark spotting and staining from excrement and blood left by crushed bed bugs that have spent the night feasting.
• In many mattress crevices… you can find moulted skins, excrement and eggshells.            
• In severe cases, you can smell an offensive, sweet, musty odour produced by their scent glands. 
  
  

Help! What’s the Protect-A-Bed^® Solution?

• ALLER-ZIP™ bedding encasement with BUGLOCK™ offers total protection from bed bugs as well as dust mites… and with ALLER-ZIP™, you don’t have to discard and replace your infested mattresses… 

Click Here To learn about ALLER-ZIP™ total encasement for total bed bug protection
Aller-Zip™ assists in the management of bed bugs found in mattresses, box springs and pillows, and is not a cure for their total elimination.  

And here’s even more information about bed bugs…

• Prior to World War II, the bed bug was a common pest found in unsanitary homes, prisons and shelters and always associated with cramped living quarters and unhealthy conditions. With the widespread use of DDT in the 1940s and 1950s, bed bugs almost disappeared from North America. But now… they’re back… more resilient than ever before.    

• Bed bugs are small, (5-7mm, 3/8”) reddish-brown insects, with oval-shaped flat bodies and no wings. Because they’re so flat, they can hide in a crack wide enough to fit the edge of a credit card. Every five to 10 days, they like to feed on the blood of humans.
• Unable to fly, they’re rarely seen in the daylight. Unlike fleas or lice, bed bugs do not live on people, but only visit them when they’re hungry – and they’re very hungry and active during the night. After feeding, they turn dark red and become bloated.

• Bed bugs have a lifespan of about one year. In her lifetime, a female can lay 200 to 500 eggs depending on her human food supply and the temperature of her hiding places. Eggs hatch in about 10 days, are whitish in colour, pear-shaped and the size of a pinhead. Clusters of 10 to 50 eggs can be found in mattress, box-spring and pillow crevices, especially in seams, creases and folds.  
• “Bed bugs are well-adapted to living with humans. Like other successful parasites, they prefer to live near their next meal… and this means close to where people sleep or lounge. In recent surveys of bed bug infested apartments more than 90% of the insects were found living in beds, sofas and recliners.” – Pest Control Technology, August 2006