Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are the common pests of man, his domestic animals and various warm blooded animals. It is notably blood sucking parasite. They are well adapted to humans and their bite is nearly painless.

Bionomics

Bed bugs are found on the bed clothes and possessions of infested individuals. They commonly occur in such places as seams of mattresses, inside mattress coils, cracks in bedsteads, besides furniture, dressers, wallboards, and wood paneling, door and window frames, behind pictures, under loose wall paper and in rooms near host sleeping areas. A heavily infested house has a distinctive odour. Some people are very sensitive to bed bug bites while others are hardly aware of it. Immediately after feeding, bed bugs defecate the semisolid, sticky remains of the last meal, a good clue to their presence. Humans are the preferred host, but bed bugs will feed readily on poultry, mice, caged birds and other animals.

Developmental Stages

Eggs: Bed bugs lay one to five eggs a day over a period of two to ten months, producing about 200 eggs. They deposit the1 mm white eggs intermittently each day in protected places near their hosts sleeping places, cemented to bedding or in cracks. The eggs hatch in one or two weeks, depending on temperature.

Nymphs: Tiny and colourless at first, Nymphs undergo five molts, each resembling the adult form and each requiring a blood meal. Each blood meal takes about 3 to 10 minutes, during which they inject saliva containing an anticoagulant. The nymphal period can last for several weeks depending on temperature and host availability.

Adults: They are about 5 mm reddish brown in colour. Their flattened oval bodies are well adapted for hiding in narrow crevices. They become greatly enlarged and blood red in colour during a blood meal but turns dirty brown subsequently.

Detection and control

Bed bugs have a very flat body shape and can hide in virtually any crack and crevice, preferring dark, isolated and protected areas. Bed bugs prefer wood, paper and fabric surfaces and so these materials should be given special attention in the inspection process.
The mattress should be the first site inspected, and generally, bed bugs are more likely to be present in the darker areas near the wall.

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