Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs and their relatives (bat bugs, swallow bugs and swift bugs) feed on the blood of humans, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, bats, poultry, birds and other warm blooded animals. These insects feed mostly at night when their host is asleep, causing small, hard, swollen, white welts on the skin that become inflamed and itch severely. An infestation can be recognized by blood stains and dark spots of excreta on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes and walls as well as a sweet, musty odor like the smell of fresh raspberries (bed bug odor).

IDENTIFICATION
Adult bed bugs are reddish- brown to mahogany, oval-shaped, flattened and about one-quarter to five eighths of an inch long. The upper body surface has a flimsy, crinkly appearance.

LIFE CYCLE AND HABITS
Each female bed bug can lay about 200 eggs under favorable conditions of 70 degrees F and with regular feeding on blood. Three or four eggs are laid per day over two months and are coated with a sticky substance. Often eggs and eggshells are seen singly or in clusters in crevices where bed bugs hide. Eggs hatch in 6 to 17 days or 28 days under lower temperatures. Newly hatched bed bugs feed, when possible, and molt five times before maturity. In one year, there may be three or more generations.

Adult bed bugs may go two to eight weeks without food, or even up to a year.

Initially bed bugs can be found about tufts, seams and folds of mattress and day bed covers, later spreading to window and door casings, pictures, posters, loosened wallpaper, cracks in plaster, baseboard, and partitions. They are spread in clothing and baggage, secondhand beds or furniture, bedding, laundry and furniture. They are found in old buildings, hotels, boarding houses, theaters and other dwellings.

Bed bugs and their relatives apparently do not transmit human disease, but can cause nervous and digestive disorders in some individuals.

CONTROL MEASURES
Bed bugs are usually discovered in unsuspected areas such as in floor cracks, under carpets, behind loose wallpaper, behind wallpaper, behind wall pictures, in old unused stoves, in stuffed chairs, in curtain seams and in bed springs. They are fast moving and usually found near the blood meal host. Look for dark spots of fecal material, bloody spots on sheets or pillowcases, cast skins, eggs, eggshells and an offensive odor. Sometimes control is difficult in homes with many cracks and crevices, loose wallpaper, etc.

PREVENTION
Practice sanitation by laundering bedding routinely, vacuuming the premises, repairing cracks in plaster, painting walls and ceiling, rearranging furniture, and carefully inspecting clothing and baggage of travelers, if practical. Inspect secondhand beds, bedding and furniture. Caulk cracks and crevices.

INSECTICIDES
Bed bugs in hotels, apartments and other multi-type dwelling places may spread quickly from one unit to another, requiring the services of a licensed professional pest control operator. Restricted use pesticides for licensed applicators include cyfluthrin (Tempo), deltamethrin (Suspend) and permethrin (Flee).