What’s bugging us? The unfortunate answer to that question is almost impossible to see . . . and equally impossible to ignore. Our not-for-the-squeamish Cover Story now from Martha Teichner:
“The adult females are the ones you really have to look out for,” says Jody Gangloff-Kaufman, who helpfully adds, “They’re visible,”
She’s talking about bedbugs, in case you accidentally bring one home with you. Females are likely to be loaded with eggs, just waiting to hatch.
“In the worst cases of bedbugs that have gone unchecked, there are probably hundreds of thousands in a home,” said Gangloff-Kaufman.
Jody Gangloff-Kaufman, an entomologist with Cornell University (and bedbug expert) is the bearer of this bad news.
“The little vampires consume what’s known as a blood meal,” she said. “They anesthetize you when they bite, so you don’t even feel it, ’til you wake up.”
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Know the Enemy
Bedbugs are small, flat, wingless insects with six legs that, like mosquitoes, feed on blood from animals or people. They range in color from almost white to brown, but they turn rusty red after feeding. The common bedbug doesn’t grow much longer than 0.2 inches (0.5 centimeters) and can be seen by the naked eye to the astute observer. Bedbugs get their name because they like to hide in bedding and mattresses.
Am I at Risk for Infestation?
Bedbugs are most often found in hotels, hostels, shelters, and apartment complexes where lots of people come and go. Because bedbugs hide in small crevices, they can hitch a ride into your home on luggage, pets, furniture, clothing, boxes, and other objects. Bedbugs are found worldwide, but are most common in developing countries. Once rare in North America, they may be on the rise due, in part, to increases in international travel.
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Bed Bugs: Facts, Bed Bugs Identification
Bed Bugs Latin Name:
Cimex lectularius L.
Bed Bugs Appearance:
Bed bugs are flat, reddish-brown, oval insects about 3/16-inch long or the size of an apple seed. Swollen and reddish after a blood meal.
Bed Bugs Habit:
Cracks and crevices including mattress seams, sheets, furniture, behind baseboards, electrical outlet plates and picture frames. Often found in hotels, where they can travel from room to room and in visitors’ luggage.
Bed Bugs Diet:
Feed on blood.
Bed Bugs Reproduction:
Females can deposit one to five eggs a day, and may lay 200 to 500 eggs in a lifetime. Under normal room temperatures and with an adequate food supply, they can live over 300 days.
Bed Bugs Facts:
Bed bugs (often misspelled as bedbugs) are small, nocturnal, wingless insects that belong to the family of Cimicidae. They feed on human blood and other warm-blooded hosts. They are oval in shape and grow up to 4-5mm long when fully grown. Their skin color is rust brown to a deeper red brown. Bed bugs are also known as “mahogany flats”, “red coats” and “chinches.” The adult bed bug does not have any wings and has a flattened body.
Bed Bugs Petri Dish
Not only are they dorsoventrally flattened, but they are also thin which creates a great advantage for them. They can hide in unusual places such as behind baseboards, floor cracks, and under carpets or behind loose wallpaper, which makes them difficult to detect.
Not only are they undetectable, but bed bugs also tend to stay close together and have a distinctively sweet, yet unpleasant smell. Blood spotting on mattresses and nearby furnishings are also signs of a bed bug infestation.
Bed bugs have existed since the ancient times and are found in temperate climates throughout the world. There are different types of bed bugs, but the common bed bug with a scientific name of Cimex lectularius, is adaptable to human environments.
In tropical regions, including Florida, other visible kind of species called Cimex hemipterus, are also known to swarm among poultry and bats. Other places, such as West Africa and South America, are home to the Leptocimex boueti species that infests bats and humans. On the other hand, the species that are found among bats are called Cimex pilosellus and C. pipistrella, and are lurking all over in North America, primarily in poultry farms.
Since they can survive in birds’ nests, they can be seen in houses and buildings that have several bird nests, particularly on rooftops. They are also known to feed on bats or household pets, but their typical source of nutrition is human blood.
Bed bugs have a great worldwide distribution due to human travelers who transport luggage, clothing, bedding, and furniture. Though they may reside in unusual places, they are also likely to be found in small cracks near a bed or in comforters and bed sheets.
Bedbugs have feasted on sleeping humans for thousands of years. After World War II, they were eradicated from most developed nations with the use of DDT. This pesticide has since been banned because it’s so toxic to the environment.
Spurred perhaps by increases in international travel, bedbugs are becoming a problem once again. The risk of encountering bedbugs increases if you spend time in places with high turnovers of night-time guests — such as hotels, hospitals or homeless shelters.
Bedbugs are reddish brown, oval and flat, about the size of an apple seed. During the day, they hide in the cracks and crevices of beds, box springs, headboards and bed frames. It’s a daunting task to eliminate bedbugs from your home. Professional help is recommended.
Bedbugs Bite Their Way Across the Country
By Cynthia Bowers
Decades after bedbugs were eradicated they’re making a big comeback. Terminix – a nationwide exterminator – said Wednesday that New York and Philadelphia have the biggest infestations and four cities in Ohio are in the top 15.
There is something that can stop bedbugs but we can’t use it. Fighting the tiny bedbugs has become big business for Columbus, Ohio, exterminator Lonnie Alonso, who has no idea why his state is under siege.
“Eighty to 90 percent of the phone calls we get every single day are related to bedbugs,” says Alonso.
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