Bed bug

Bedbug
Scientific classification
Kingdom Information
Domain	Eukaryota
Kingdom	Animalia
Subkingdom	Bilateria
Branch	Protostomia
Phylum Information
Superphylum	Panarthropoda
Phylum	Arthropoda
Sub-phylum	Mandibulata
Infraphylum	Atelocerata
Class Information
Superclass	Panhexapoda
Class	Insecta
Sub-class	Dicondylia
Infra-class	Pterygota
Order Information
Superorder	Condylognatha
Order	Hemiptera
Sub-order	Heteroptera
Infraorder	Cimicomorpha
Family Information
Superfamily	Cimicoidea
Family	Cimicidae
Genus Information
Genus	Cimex
Species Information
Species	C. lectularius
Population statistics

Bedbug refers to approximately 75 species of small parasitical insect of the family Cimicidae, and most especially to the common bedbug (Cimex lectularius) of the temperate areas of the northern hemisphere. Bedbugs are an ectoparasite, characterized by the nocturnal feeding of blood from man or other warm-blooded animals.

Description

Bedbugs are approximately 4-5 centimeters long. They are broad and flat in shape, brown in color, and glisten from a distinctive, smelly oil secreted from scent glands. The wings are scale-like and vestigial. Females lay about 200 or more eggs during reproductive periods, and can lay around a thousand during several such periods within a year.

Bedbugs feed only at night; in the wild they feed on the blood of birds and small mammals, and within human-inhabited areas they feed upon domesticated animals as well as man. They retreat to their hiding places during the daytime, using up to several days in which to digest their food Most bedbugs live full time within eight feet of where humans sleep.When hiding they are generally found in bedding and mattresses (hence the name), nearby furniture, carpeting, within dressers and clothes, curtains, and cushions.

History

Bedbugs have been plaguing humans since ancient times. They are mentioned in medieval European texts and in classical Greek writings back to the time of Aristotle. Use of the pesticide DDT in the 1950s resulted in bedbugs virtually disappearing in the United States. Some state laws once required that the furniture be tagged as fumigated before it could be resold. But an increase in immigration, population density and clutter, increased travel, resistance to insecticides, and changing pest control products and methods,, has resulted in Bedbugs making a comeback.

The University of Kentucky, which has provided much research on bedbugs, reported that 95% of 521 U.S. pest management companies reported encountering a bedbug infestation in the past year. . Canada reported similar numbers (98%), as well as Europe (92%), and Africa/Middle East (90%). In contrast, prior to the year 2000 only 25% of U.S. survey respondents reported bedbug infestations. Inb the United States, state and local government officials say they are being overwhelmed with complaints of bedbug infestations.

Health issues

Although bedbugs are not known to transmit disease to humans, except for possible associations with hepatitis B and Chagas disease. However, their bites often do leave red itchy welts on human skin due to an allergic reaction.

An addition issue is the stress caused by bedbugs. Respondents of one survey reported that 99% of clients who have had bedbugs were “upset and concerned” while76 percent of surveyed respondents also reported that bedbugs are the most difficult pest to treat, more so than cockroaches, ants and termites.

Life and behavior

Bedbugs begin as eggs, with the mother, who is hypodermically impregnated by the male, able to birth thousands, 1, 2 or more eggs and up to twelve eggs per day. The eggs are sticky, and able to adhere to most anything, and are milky white, and approximately 1 millimeter in length, a little larger than a speck of dust, and are covered with a protective layer, so that immersion in water does not kill them as would adult bedbugs. Once born, the bedbug will go through five growth (molting) stages ---- each one requiring a blood meal and each time shedding its skin ---- before it becomes an adult, and able to reproduce. After hatching the bedbug is called a nymph, and is straw-colored and no bigger than a pinhead and which begin to feed immediately. As a second stage nymph, about the size of apple seed, fills itself with blood then its color goes from white to bright red as it In ideal temperatures (about 70-90 F), the bug go from birth to adulthood in a month to six weeks. Adults are approximately 3/16-inch long and reddish-brown, with oval, flattened bodies. Cooler temperatures and less blood meals will slow its development down, but will not kill it , as adult bedbugs can survive without feeding for over a year in temperatures around 50°F, and the nymphs can survive for many months. It is thus that immediate and comprehensive action is critical for elimination of bedbugs.

Males will mate with females much more often than the females require to stay fertile and as a result the females live about 25% less long than they would otherwise.

When bedbugs bite, like mosquitoes, they inject an anesthetic that prevents the host from feeling the bite, and an anticoagulant for blood flow. Bedbugs are normatively nocturnal, though they can bite during the day or with light, but they usually occur while people are sleeping. Feeding takes three to 10 minutes, depending on maturity, and immediately after feeding the bug crawls off to digest their meal in a safe place. Bite marks can be random or in a straight line. Anecdotal evidence suggests they wait until the host is in their deepest part of sleep, usually 3-5am.

Bedbugs do not have nests like ants or bees, but do tend to congregate in habitual hiding places. Bedbugs can travel over 100 feet in one night, but they tend to live within 8 feet of where people sleep. Bedbugs appear to have an affinity for wood and fabric more so than metal or plastic. They hide during the day in such places as mattresses seams, box springs, bed frames and headboards, dresser tables, cracks or crevices, baseboards, behind wallpaper, and under any clothes, clutter or objects around a bed. Their small flat bodies allow them to fit into the smallest of spaces and they can remain in place for long periods of time, even without a blood meal. Bedbugs are easily and usually transported from place to place by people as they travel, and nymphs are especially hard to detect.

In addition to bits, bedbugs are made evident by areas are marked by dark spotting and staining, which is the dried blood excrement of the bugs. Dark spots of dried bed bug excrement are often present along mattress seams or wherever the bugs have resided. Also present will be eggs and eggshells, the brownish molted skins of maturing nymphs and the bugs themselves. Less often one may see rusty or reddish blood smears on bed sheets or mattresses from crushing an engorged bed bug. Some companies are beginning to use canines for detecting infestations, which, if properly trained, have been very effective.

Control and eradication

Eradication of bedbugs often necessitates integrated pest management (IPM), which includes

• Vacuum the mattress, especially tucks and along seams. Kill any live bugs using a spray of 70 or higher percent isopropyl alcohol.
• Isolating the bed from walls and coating the bed legs for 3 to 5 inches with petroleum jelly, and or encasing the bed legs in a water filled container to stop bedbugs (who can jump, but not swim) from crawling up into the bed is typically recommended. Box spring encasements are also promoted.
• Sealing cracks and crevices which bedbugs can hide and lay eggs (which can be as small as the width of a credit card) around the area in which bits occur.
• Washing bedding and clothes in 140°F degree water and drying at high heat, especially the latter which can be used alone.
• Dusting with non-chemical pesticides such as diatomaceous earth
• Judiciously use of effective chemical pesticides.

Insecticides

Insecticides known to kill bedbugs include deltamethrin, a synthetic pyrethrin, one of many pyrethroids, . Other chemicals include benseneacatate, chlorfenapyr, chlorpyrifos, cyfluthrin, esfenvalerate, fencalerate, lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin, phenothrin, propoxur and resmethrin, not all of which are EPA approved. Isopropyl alcohol also works as a contact killer, as do certain insecticides while others also provide some degree of residual effectiveness.< Insecticides are classified according to their application method: Crease and Crevice, Indoor Surface, Indoor Space, and Fumigation.

Natural insecticides include cedar oil, Diatomaceous earth as well as slica and quartz. The latter three can slowly work to control or kill bedbugs by cutting them as they travel, resulting in their death by dehydration.

An additional insecticide is one which does not actually kill bedbugs, but instead it works to prevent reproduction by disrupting the development of immature bedbugs, resulting in being unable to reproduce. This process takes longer but it can ensure an eventual end of the infestation, if contact with all bedbugs is made, but usually this chemical is used in conjunction with other insecticides. Repeat treatments with any legal insecticide are advised and are almost always necessary. Spot treatment of bedbugs with chemical formulations can make matters worse by allowing them to disperse and or develop resistance to the insecticide used.

Studies indicate that resistance to many of the chemical pesticides currently used is increasing in some bedbug populations in many areas of North America. According to research at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, some of the latest “super bedbugs” can survive for up to 16 days after being directly sprayed with currently used pesticides designed to kill insects immediately. Bedbugs have a cuticle on the outside of their body that is almost impenetrable to many insecticides used today, therefore the bugs do not pick up dried residues very well. Bedbugs developed resistance to DDT in 1950s, and then to its successors such as organophosphates like diazinon and malathion which were being used to clear up remaining infestations. DDT resistance can lead to pyrethroid resistance, as both pesticide classes act on the same target site.

Possibly the most effective agent against bed begs, with long residual effect, is Propoxur (marketed under the registered trademark name Baygon) a carbamate pesticide with a somewhat murky regulatory history. In a test of its effectiveness against bedbugs, while some of today’s leading pesticides could not kill even half of the bugs, propoxur a well as chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate) killed them all in an hour. However, Propoxur is a neurotoxin, toxic to humans if ingested, and EPA research has found their nervous systems could be harmed, with infants and children being in the most danger. Serious overexposure can also cause death by cardiorespiratory depression. It is therefore, like chlorpyrifos, banned by the EPA for use in locations where children may be present (residential buildings and hotels) Recently, the EPA denied a request by the state of Ohio to allow its use therein by licensed exterminators.

Propoxur volatilizes in the air and be absorbed into the blood weeks after application. It is also thought to be a cardiovascular or blood toxicant, a possible human carcinogen, a reproductive toxicant, and, due to its cholinesterase inhibiting properties, a neurotoxicant, but it is not thought to be bioaccumulative.

Normally, it takes about ten years testing on rats and dogs for mutagenic effects and costs about $200 million for such a chemical to be approved by the EPA.

Bed bugs have not shown resistance to a relatively new material chlorfenapyr However, chlorfenapyr may require ten or more days kill the bugs, during which the bugs may still be active and females may wander and deposit viable eggs in other locations. Currently, microencapsulated materials such as contain esfenvalerate or lamba-cyhalothrin may offer the best rapid reduction of susceptible populations.

Laundering

Certain items cannot be safely treated with insecticide, including cloths, and thus heat is prescribed. In one study, 30 minutes in the “hot” cycle of a dryer killed all life stages, while prolonged washing in 140°F water killed all life stages. Almost nothing died if soaked for two hours, and while all adults and nymphs died when soaked for 24 hours, yet all eggs survived.

Freezing

A study on freezing bedbugs showed that 2 hours at 14°F killed all bedbugs and eggs when placed directly (not in clothes) in the freezer. But when a bag of laundry was placed in the freezer, it took about 8 hours for the temperature at the center of the bag to reach -17°C.

Volumetric heating

The most effective natural means of eliminating bedbugs involves pumping superheated air into an mildly pressurized (windows sealed) house, or heating individual room to around 140F> Temperature probes are used to ensure that internal temperatures are high enough to kill the bugs and their eggs.

One study concluded that it is important to achieve and maintain temperatures of above 118.4°F (48°C) for more than 20 min to effectively kill all life stages of bedbugs, considering the clutter in treated spaces and the fact that bedbugs move to cooler temperatures, treatment times must be much longer to penetrate cracks and crevices, At 60-min exposure to 113°F , approximately 50% of adult bedbugs exposed survived, while 20% survived after 4 hours. Complete mortality was obtained at temperatures 118.4°F, 122°F, and 131°F for all exposure times except 10- min at 118.4°F. Even if some nymphs emerged, they did not develop at temperatures higher than 118.4°F. No differences in mortality were shown between fed and unfed bedbugs.

90% higher temperatures than previously reported were required to kill bedbugs when the temperature rose slowly — possibly because of the way previous heat tests have been conducted — but it is not known what enables bedbugs to resist gradual heat stress.

Environmentalism

Environmentalists like to spread despair about bedbugs, hinting that evolution always makes them impervious to each new insecticide which people use to put down outbreaks. A typical examples is "They Crawl, They Bite, They Baffle Scientists" in the August 30, 2010 New York Times. The article lists half a dozen chemicals which don't kill bedbugs, while (carefully?) omitting any mention of effective chemicals.

The EPA will also soon be offering $550,000 in grants to state and tribal agencies for pilot projects relating to outreach and education.

Additional research suggests that pyrethroid resistant bed bugs developed faster but produced fewer eggs than the susceptible strain bed bugs. Additional evaluations also indicate that field strain bed bugs may not survive the long periods of starvation previously suggested.

External links

• Explanation of various Bed Bug Insecticides