Bed Bugs Alert: Know the Bed Bugs Symptoms

Many people these days are unaware of bed bugs symptoms. It is understandable since bed bugs together with some pests have been exterminated during the widespread use of DDT in the United States after World War I.

But because of international travel and immigration, bed bugs symptoms are making a comeback. But people don't detect bed bugs symptoms until someone complains of excessive itching and has oval-shaped insect bite marks which are often mistaken as moquitoes or dust mites bites.

When a household experiences a typical bed bugs symptoms, they don't check their mattresses, beddings, and couch uphosltery for bed bugs. Member of the household just spray gel-type insect spray to kill cockroaches or mosquitoes. But this kind of insect spray does not kill bed bugs, and therefore, furniture and upholstery remain bed bugs infested.

* Bed bugs - symptoms of infestation

How do I know if my home is infested with bed bugs?

A heavily infested home would have an offensive, sweet, musty scent. This odor is released by bed bugs' through their scent glands.

Another bed bugs symptoms to look out for is fecal or excrement stains, egg cases, and shed skins of bed bug nymps in crevices, cracks or holes on the bed or near it. Furniture near the bed should be checked also. Bedroom wallpapers, bed springs and clothings in your dresser, should be examined for these reddish brown excrement stains.

Your living room couch should be checked for these stains, especially if you or any member of your family get bed bugs symptoms such as swollen bites after sitting from your couch. Every place in your house where a person stays more than 30 minutes must be checked for bed bugs.

-- Hiding Places

A thin crack or seams of mattresses are one of the hiding place of bed bugs. Bed bugs wants to live closer to their source of food, which is human blood, so cracks near the bed or around the bedroom and livingroom are the primary places of bed bugs hiding places.

Once you find a bed bug in any parts of your house, the other parts of your house will undoubtedly have bed bugs too.

-- Finding Bed Bugs

Inspect your entire house the moment bed bugs symptoms are detected. Dismantle the bed, check the headboard, inspect the seams of of your mattresses. If you found reddish brown excrement and sheddings of insect skin, it means that your house is infested with bed bugs.

If you detected these bed bugs symptoms, you must tear off your wallpaper too. Chances are that bed bugs have created their bigger colony under the wallpaper. Every wood furniture that you own should be inspected for bed bugs too. They may have bed bugs too because bed bugs prefer wood or cloth as their hiding place rather than plastic or metal.

Empty the contents of your nightstands and examine it inside and out. Tip it over to inspect the crevices, cracks, recesses and corners of the woodwork underneath. Since bed bugs love woods, there is a big chance that they are hiding in there.

-- Some bed bugs facts

Bed bugs bites are often mistaken to mosquitoes or dust mites. So how would you know the bed bugs symptoms? Below are some basic bed bugs bite facts:

    * Bed bugs feed by piercing human skin with its two elongated beaks.
    * One of the beak injects saliva that contains anesthetic to reduce pain to pierced skin and an anticoagulant to keep the blood from clotting.
    * The other beak sucks the blood.
    * Bed bugs are nocturnal insects. They are very active during the night, especially an hour before the dawn breaks.
    * Bed bugs are oval-shaped and flat, and they can therefore hide in extremely thin cracks which is the reason why their breeding site are very hard to find.
    * An adult bed bug can live eighteen (18) months or longer without feeding and just stay in their hiding or breeding places until a host comes along and satiate their need for blood.
    * Bed bugs are often called the hitchhikers because of their ability to travel long distances by riding on suitcases, luggages and clothings.
    * Female bed bugs lay 300 eggs.
    * After ten (10) days bed bugs nymps are hatched from eggs.

 

 

 

Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance: Strengthens Fire Prevention

The damage of getting your house razed by fire is insurmountable; fires at home can break out anytime and anywhere and can damage livelihood, household appliances and more. In 2018, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) recorded a total of 14,316 incidents of fire from January until December. 

This is why every March is Fire Prevention Month in the Philippines, and BFP’s campaign for this month is safety consciousness among our people every day of the year as a positive preventive approach to a problem that can be solved by more caution, vigilance, sobriety, exercise of common sense and respect for the law.” It is a campaign that focuses on exercising vigilance at home and keeping oneself knowledgeable on the best way to protect your home and family from destruction brought about by fire. 

“Cebuana Lhuillier has always committed to be of help to the Filipinos at all times, and our call for Fire Prevention is a reflection of that, our insurance products that aims to keep our clients protected at all times is a complementary effort to our advocacy for this month.” said Jean Henri Lhuillier, President and CEO of Cebuana Lhuillier.

PJ Lhuillier’s insurance arm, the Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Brokers, Inc (CLIB), has also expressed its support for BFP’s campaign through the years. It has been a staunch advocate of having Filipinos insured, posting almost a 35% contribution to the total number of insured Filipinos through microinsurance. CLIB has also worked together closely with the Insurance Commission in promoting microinsurance in the country, they have settled over more than 5,300 million claims worth over Php 500 million  they have serviced  over 16,500 claimants. Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Brokers’, Inc. is also the first and only ISO-certified insurance broker in the Philippines.

Also launched this month in conjunction with the celebration of the Fire Prevention Month is a promo dubbed “Panalo ka sa ProtectMax” where clients of the ProtectMax product of CLIB get a chance to win Php 25,000. The promo is open to all clients who will purchase 5 ProtectMax COCs; these 5 COCs are equal to e-raffle entry. For the promo, 20 lucky raffle winners will be selected and will win Php 25,000. 

“This Fire Prevention month, it is very important to drumbeat awareness on fire safety and prevention, and the importance of being protected. CLIB believes that an information and education drive is very important to ensure that everyone is well-informed against conflagration.” said Cebuana Lhuillier Insurance Brokers’ Inc., Jonathan Batangan.

For clients who are interested to keep themselves protected without having to go to Cebuana Lhuillier’s more than 2,500 branches, they may purchase Home Insurance via the ProtectNow app or website, just log on to protectnow.com to see CLIB’s full range of products online.

They’ve also mounted the #SunogFreeWorryFree: ProtectMax Kontra Sunog webinar which aims to highlight the importance of being ready for untoward situations especially fire, and the importance of having protection whenever there are threats of conflagration.

Returning OFWs find hope in Balikabayanihan Program

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew of the bittersweet stories of returning Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Often, they go abroad for high-paying jobs so that they can save and send money to their families back home. But migration stories don’t always guarantee a happy ending, and they need help when they are forced to return home.

“Dahil ang pagkakaakala ko ay ang pagiging OFW ang sagot sa lahat ng naging problemang financial namin at gusto kong maiahon ang aking pamilya at mapagtapos ang aking anak,” said returning OFW Marites Coronado. The journey, however, wasn’t simple. 

Take the case of another former OFW, Alma Palafox. She recounted: “Hindi po ako sini-suwerte sa napupuntahan na bansa. Laging may masamang nangyayari po sa akin. At minsan na rin muntik na akong hindi nakabalik ng Pinas ng buhay. Kaya hindi ko po natatapos kontrata ko.”

Gerlie Austria shares a similar experience but remains grateful despite the hardships she endured abroad. “Hindi man po ako naging maswerte sa ibang bansa, pero nagpapasalamat po ako sa Panginoong Diyos at ako po ay nakauwi nang buhay.”

Myrna Peñosa Corporal recalled the gloom she felt when she decided to go back to her family. “Noong nagsabi ako sa amo ko na ibalik na ako sa agency, dinala po nila ako sa Labor. Ang unang pumasok sa isip ko at naiyak ako, ‘Paano na ang pamilya ko? Uuwi ako na walang pera at naipon’,” said Corporal. 

Coronado, Palafox, Austria, and Corporal are among the OFWs who had to return home even if they haven’t achieved yet the financial goals they set for themselves. 

The Balikabayanihan campaign, a program supported by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), seeks to help these OFWs whose dreams were interrupted for various reasons.

Spearheaded by NEDA-Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency and Atikha — a non-government organization working with OFWs and their families to maximize the gains of working abroad — Balikabayanihan calls on the spirit of volunteerism of Filipinos to help returning OFWs. 

It is a call for partnership by the Overseas Filipino organizations with government agencies, local government units, and the private sector to help OFWs by providing the needed resources — manpower and funds or mobilizing their volunteer network to serve as mentors to the OFWs. 

Melanie Labera, a returning OFW whose plan to resume her work abroad was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, benefitted from the program. “Nang umuwi ako ng Pilipinas, nagkataon naman na pandemic. Gusto ko sana bumalik [abroad], pero di na ako makabalik. Kaya malaki ang pasasalamat ko sa programang ito, pati sa BPI. May konting puhunan naman ako sa aking tindahan, pero konti lang. Kaya nagpapasalamat ako na nadagdagan dahil sa inyo.”

For her part, Austria, also a program beneficiary, said, “Nang makabalik po ako sa Pilipinas, isa po ako sa maswerteng napili ng Atikha na mabigyan ng tulong upang ako’y makapagsimula ulit sa aking buhay. Naging masaya po ako at nagkaroon ng pag-asa sa buhay. Ngayon po ay natupad ang isa kong pangarap na makabili ng makina.”  

Financial empowerment 

As one of the program supporters, BPI aims to empower repatriated OFWs by helping them manage their finances through learning webinars and by mobilizing volunteers and sponsors. BPI implements their programs through its business units BPI Foundation, BPI-Philam, and Remittance and Fund Transfers. 

“This pandemic has been hard on everyone, but repatriated OFWs and their families have been particularly affected. OFWs have done so much to uplift our entire nation’s economy over the decades. It’s only right that we stand by them now and help them get back on their feet and establish a financially secure life for themselves and their families,” said Reggie Cariaso, BPI Head of Corporate Banking Strategy, Products, and Support.

“Napakaganda po ng aking karanasan dahil nagkaroon po ako ng pag-asa sa buhay at talagang ipinangako ko po sa aking sarili na pagbubutihin ko po itong tulong na ibinigay sa akin ng Atikha at BPI Pamana Padala. At ang nagustuhan ko po dito ay ang mga taong kasapi dito na maaayos ang pakikitungo at napakamapagkumbaba at napakababait upang matulungan kaming lahat,” said Coronado. 

BPI Foundation holds mentoring sessions for OFWs with BPI Unibankers as volunteer mentors. For its part, BPI Philam provides free COVID-19 insurance coverage worth P200,000. BPI’s Remittance and Fund Transfers offers financial grants and monthly mentoring sessions for chosen OFWs  and instills the value of saving using their BPI Pamana Padala account.

With opportunities such as the Balikabayanihan, returning OFWs are more empowered than ever to try their luck in their home country. 

Palafox said, “Dito nalang po ako sa Pinas. Kahit mahirap po basta’t sama-sama kami ng mga anak ko. Kaya nagpapasalamat kami sa Balikabayanihan at sa BPI. Ang tanging hinahangad ko po sa aking sarili ay mapaunlad ko ang munting negosyo at magkaroon pa ng maraming kaalaman.”

Corporal shared another insight: “Natutunan ko po sa Balikabayanihan na kailangan po tayong magtulungan para makabangon ulit sa hamon ng buhay.” 

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