BED BUGS

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Bed Bugs

The bed bug (Cimex lectularius) has been a parasite of humans throughout written history. The bed bug's adaptation to humans is so complete that its bite is rarely felt until well after the bug leaves its victim. Prior to the widespread use of synthetic insecticides, this small, brown bug was perhaps the most pervasive and unwanted pest in America. Because of their insidious blood-sucking nature, bed bugs were loathed even more than cockroaches. Although the bug’s impact was greatly reduced by insecticides during the 1940s and 1950s, it remains an occasional invader with infestations arising in homes and swank hotels as well as apartment buildings and homeless shelters.

Bed bugs (Cimex spp.) feed on the blood of animals including people and pets. Some species feed on bats, others on birds such as chickens, pigeons and swallows. These species sometimes wander in search of a new host if their primary host leaves or if the host’s roost or nest is disturbed. In structures, they typically appear below attics and chimneys. Though they will bite humans, they cannot sustain themselves in the absence of their bat or bird hosts.

Bed bugs can survive for up to 18 months without feeding. This ability enables them to wait for transient hosts that periodically inhabit camp cabins, apartments and temporary housing. It also helps them survive transportation. Today, bed bugs may be transported more readily than ever via public transportation and traveler’s luggage, and in secondhand furniture, mattresses, bedding and clothing.

Most people have never seen a bed bug. They are wingless, only about ¼-inch long, and flat to fit in cracks and crevices where they hide by day. Their eggs are laid in these hiding places.

At night, bed bugs seek warm bodies, leaving their hiding places in mattresses, box springs, bed frames, nightstands, curtains, couches and wall voids, and behind baseboards, carpet edges, door and window frames, picture frames, peeling paint and wallpaper. The bug’s beak-like mouthparts painlessly pierce its victim, inject saliva and suck up the host’s blood. During the three to five minutes it takes to complete feeding, the bug elongates and becomes reddish brown. It then retreats to its hiding place for a few days to digest the meal.

Reactions to bed bug bites vary among individuals. Those who are bitten usually don’t realize it until the body reacts with inflammation and swelling around the bite, along with intense itching. While pathogens have been isolated from bed bugs, they apparently do not transmit diseases to humans.

MANAGING BED BUGS

When bed bugs are suspected, a thorough inspection should commence in areas where people sleep or rest. Check all possible hiding places, mindful that bed bugs can fit into tiny cracks or crevices. Don’t overlook similar areas around pets, and where bats or birds have entered structures. If bats or birds are the source of infestation, they should be excluded from the premises. Note that bats and most bird species are protected by law and should not be killed. Contact state wildlife authorities for guidelines on bat/bird exclusion and removal.

Spots of blood left on bed sheets indicate bed bug biting. Brownish black specks (feces) and bed bug “shells” (old exoskeletons) indicate a bed bug harborage. Heavy infestations can be detected by the peculiar musty raspberry odor of bed bug secretions.

Once bed bug hideouts are discovered, a non-toxic solution is to simply vacuum them and dispose of the bag in a sealed garbage bag or trash container.

Pesticides, including wettable powder, microencapsulate and dust formulations, can be applied directly into cracks and crevices harboring bed bugs, though hiring a pest management professional may be preferable to doing it yourself. Do not apply pesticides to mattresses, bedding or furniture where they will contact people. Note also that space treatments (“fogging” and “bug bombs”) are ineffective against well-hidden bed bugs.

NOTE: When pesticides are used, it is the applicator’s legal responsibility to read and follow directions on the product label. Not following label directions, even if they conflict with information provided herein, is a violation of federal law.

For more information, contact the Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health, 525 W. Jefferson St., Springfield, IL 62761, 217-782-5830, TTY (hearing-impaired use only) 800-547-0466.




Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

For a bug that is so well entrenched in our language in the United States, for many decades it was a rare occurrence indeed for anyone to actually see a Bedbug. Things have changed. For one reason or another, or perhaps a combination of reasons, we are seeing a distinct resurgence of this blood-sucking parasite throughout the U.S., and the professional pest management industry is now getting frequent calls to eliminate them from homes. Bedbugs are not choosy about who they feed on, and while we still associate them with poorer living conditions it is common for bedbugs to infest upscale homes and happily feed on the sleeping occupants of these residences.

Earlier in the recent history of the United States, perhaps in the first few decades of the 1900's, bedbugs were so common in our homes that we all knew the little rhyme of "Sleep Tight, Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite". Then, perhaps because of the advent of highly effective modern insecticides, bedbugs became almost an endangered species as homes were routinely treated for these and other pests that are capable of causing us problems. For many years it was so unusual for pest control companies to receive calls for bedbugs that new technicians might not even recognize them, and training on how to control them was curtailed for more important teachings. If a pest control company received one call in 10 years for bedbugs they seemed to be about average.

Yes, things have changed. Now, companies may get a dozen calls each month, and the reasons are not entirely understood. Bedbugs continued to be a serious problem in many other parts of the world, even as the United States was enjoying its half century of relief from them, and one conclusion is that worldwide travel, often to more rural and undeveloped circumstances, has allowed us to bring back bedbugs in our luggage. Heavy immigration to the United States might have resulted in great numbers of bedbugs coming along too. Since these critters feed only at night, and hide in daylight, it would be normal to expect many of them to crawl into nearby suitcases after feeding on a sleeping person. Hotels seem to be infested more often than homes, so there could be some credence to this hitchhiker theory.

But, whatever the cause, bedbugs are back. We also need to recognize that there are several different kinds of "bedbugs", and some of them are more commonly associated with wild animals than with people. Within the group of insects we call bed bugs we find species more likely to be found feeding on various kinds of birds and on bats or rodents. These may be called "bat bugs" or "swallow bugs", but they gladly feed on humans too if their preferred diet is no longer available. Swallows often create their mud nests under the eaves of buildings, and this is a wonderful means for getting their parasites into the building itself. A study of swallow nests was performed some years ago, and it was found that every single nest inspected had swallow bugs in it.

Even our "common bed bug", the one that normally feeds on people, will suck the blood from birds and rodents if they are available. In fact, it is believed that the original diet for bedbugs was actually bats, way back before humans existed. As humanity evolved and people moved into caves to live under shelter it is thought that the bat bugs then began feeding on the humans, and over the many centuries we took the bugs with us as we created structures to live in, as we sailed across oceans to new continents, and continued to provide the bugs with the food and harborage they sought.

Bed Bugs are Back!
From cave man to modern many}an old blood-sucking scourge is back again
Jan 1, 2002
By: Dr. Hanif Gulmahamad
Pest Control

Bed bugs of the family Cimicidae (Hemiptera) have long been pests of humans and domestic animals, as well as wild birds and bats. The reappearance of bed bugs as a pest of modern society is testimony to the evolutionary adaptability of this species.

Technicians must first understand that the bed bug strategy, at least from a customer's point of view, is not management, but eradication. Because this insect sucks blood and because some people are allergic to its saliva, customers have zero tolerance for this pest. The presence of a single bed bug, whether dead or alive, will elicit despair, distress, alarm and concern by customers and, thus, generate callbacks.

Treatment Strategies
The fundamental goal of any bed bug eradication program is to ensure that a thorough inspection is performed before any work is done to assess the extent of the infestation. Before an inspection begins, interview the customer to gather pertinent information. In hotels, talk with housekeepers, as they often have more knowledge about the infestation than the manager of the facility does.

Take the time to educate the customer about bed bugs and what is involved in eradicating them. The more customers know about what's involved, the more they will understand their role in helping to eliminate the infestation.

A well-entrenched bed bug infestation will likely take more than one service call to eradicate. Anticipate the need for extra services and build these costs into your original price.

The key to effective bed bug eradication is locating and treating all active and potential harborages. Crack and crevice treatments using residual products can be useful. Careful applications using nonresidual flushing agents help pinpoint and identify harborages, as well as quickly reduce a population by bringing about direct contact mortality. The use of insecticide dusts in voids, as necessary, complements other pesticide treatment strategies.

Entrenched bed bug infestations within structures such as homeless shelters have alarmed customers to the extent that they request drastic eradication methods, such as structural fumigation. It is a costly management strategy, but some customers are willing to incur the cost.

After the fumigation or other treatment has been rendered, place insect monitoring traps in strategic locations to monitor the treatment's effectiveness. Inform customers ahead of time that fumigants leave no residues and the property can be reinfested shortly after fumigation if proper precautions are not taken.

WHY ON THE RISE?

Theories on why bed bugs are suddenly abundant usually involve increased speed in transportation and the transient habits of humans in the world today. I think we need something a little more interesting.

How about a link to the decline in German cockroaches? It was long thought that German cockroaches ate bed bugs. There were stories of cockroaches being welcomed onto sailing ships because they would eat the bed bugs that were abundant there. There were stories into the 1920s about cockroaches eating bed bugs in buildings. Could it be that when we cleaned out the German cockroaches and made a dent in the American and Oriental cockroach populations, we were helping the bed bugs survive? Sadly, there is some conclusive work to show that cockroaches really don't eat bed bugs well, maybe a nymph or two, but this would hardly control an infestation.

Other arthropods linked to humans, such as scabies, mites and head lice, experience periodic increases and decreases in populations. Head lice may have a 15-year cycle. These cycles may be linked to fluctuating levels of susceptibility. Or it could be that typical liquid treatments for fleas, cockroaches and ants helped to keep bed bugs in check. Now that growth regulators, on-animal treatments and baits (and fewer liquid sprays) are providing control of those indoor pests, bed bugs are more successful.

So get back to training on crack-and-crevice application, careful inspections with a flashlight and a flushing agent, treating adjacent rooms and apartments, and maybe even baseboard spraying. What was old is new again

Reference Cole, M.M., G.C. LaBrecque, and G.S. Burden. 1959. “Effects of gamma radiation on some insects affecting man.” J. Econ. Entomol. 52: 448-450.

Some Information obtained from the Illinois Department of Public Health

UK's Mike Potter Gives Tips on Spotting Bed Bugs

Michael Potter from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture extension service was featured in an article in the Duluth News Tribune, giving tips on how to spot a bed bug. His suggestions included:

• Typically, bedbugs like to stay as close as possible to their human hosts. So look for dark fecal spots — digested human blood — or even the bugs themselves on bedsheets, in the seams of a mattress, between the mattress and boxspring, in the crevices of a boxspring, and in the corners of the mattress by the headboard.

• To thoroughly inspect your bedding, Potter recommends dismantling the bed and standing all of the components on edge so that upper and lower surfaces can be examined.

• Check areas near the bed, including upholstered chairs and sofas, including seams, tufts, skirts and crevices.

• Nightstands and dressers should be emptied and examined inside and out, then tipped over to inspect the woodwork beneath. Often, the bugs will be hiding in cracks, corners and recesses, Potter said.

• If you're staying in a hotel that has a headboard, lift it up and inspect the area between the wall and the headboard. Potter said hotel managers won't like that, "but if an exterminator were to go in, that would be one of the first places they would look."

• Potter said heavy infestations may have a musty or "buggy" smell, but the odor often isn't apparent and shouldn't be relied on for detection.

• Also be sure to look in the crevices of a couch and on carpet edges. When staying in a hotel, Potter recommends not putting your luggage on the floor, where bedbugs can easily crawl inside.

Colleen Cannon, an entomologist with Plunkett's Pest Control in Minneapolis, said as bedbugs grow they molt their skin, which is light brown and also can be found in the same crevices of bedding, couches and carpet. Cannon was featured in several article in the Minneapolis area, which has seen an increase in bed bugs recently.