Whether you term them bed bugs or bedbugs, there are many facts about bedbugs everyone should know. Knowing these facts could be more imperative today than a few short years ago because bedbug infestations have increased over the last few years. Tips for identifying bedbugs are also crucial because you don't want to overlook these pests. Nor do you want to accidentally treat your home for what you thought were bedbugs.
Bedbugs are bloodsucking hemipteran insects. Hemipteran simply means they are true bugs thus classified because of their sucking beaklike mouthparts. Bedbugs are from the Cimicidae family. Common bedbugs or Cimex Lectularius are the ones most likely to invade human households because they are the most adapted to human surroundings. Bedbugs are also known as kissing bugs, bloodsuckers, conenoses, and simply bugs.
One aspect of bedbug identification is the fact that they have no wings. So, if something bites you or a family member and then flies away - it was not a bedbug. Bedbugs are wingless.
Despite not being able to fly, bedbugs get around pretty fast by crawling and they are excellent climbers. Chances of seeing them during the light of day are slim to none, however, because bedbugs hide in dark places during the day. Bedbug nocturnal behavior allows them to sneak into bed with humans and suckle human blood while humans are sleeping.
If you happen to be changing bedding, cleaning the closet, or moving a dresser and you come across insects identified to be flat and miniscule with oval brown bodies, however, you may have sought the little buggers out without even knowing it.
Tiny bedbug sizes and body shapes allow them to squeeze between small spaces. For this reason, bedbugs tend to make cracks, crevices, mattress folds, bed frame parts, molding inners and carpeting adjacent to walls their homes. In these areas, bedbugs can be identified by their small sizes and shapes as mentioned above, by their brown coloring, and by specks of feces they leave in their living quarters. In fact, an important tip in regard to identifying bedbugs, is seeing specks in mattress creases that can suggest bedbug presence.
Generally, bedbug bodies look an opaque reddish brown, however, bedbugs may look like they're translucent when they haven't eaten and in particular after shedding their skin (molting). It has been suggested that bedbugs give off an unpleasant odor. So if you smell something strange in any areas of a room you might want to investigate for bedbug nesting.
Bedbugs are parasites that have evolved to feed in warm-blooded animal nests. Aside from the human nest, some types of bedbugs reside in bird nests and some roost with bats. Bedbugs also feed on rodents and human pets.
When bedbugs are feeding, biting bedbugs release saliva that contains anesthetics and anticoagulants that prevent victims from feeling their bites and prevents blood clotting thus allowing the bugs to drink their fill. Adult bedbugs often sip blood for a good ten minutes before they have enough.
Brought into the United States during early colonial days back in the seventeenth century, bedbugs used to be pretty widespread in the U.S. Following the second world war, however factors including the use of insecticides like DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), care in purchasing and marketing used furniture, and more attentiveness to personal hygiene and household cleanliness are believed to have drastically reduced home occupation of bedbug occurrences.
Unfortunately, for mammals impacted by the bedbug dilemma, bedbugs have been on the rise across the United States as of the past few years. The arising is believed to be due to factors such as bedbug hitchhiking from other countries to the U.S. via suitcases and other travel items including furniture and clothing. When bedbugs are brought into airplanes, buses, trains, aboard ships and the like, it is easy for them to roam from one person's belongings to those of others.
Although pests such as roaches and ants may be eradicated using household bug sprays and traps, with the exception of sticky tapes, using traps has virtually no impact on eliminating bedbugs. Bedbugs have no interest in bait, often found in bug traps that lure ants and roaches, for instance. Bedbugs are thoroughly interested in drinking warm blood from warm bodies they smell sweating and giving off human odors during the night!
Bedbug development stages consist of eggs, nymphs, and adults. As babies, they are poppy seed sized and as adults, they can be as long as a quarter inch.
When bedbugs mate males pierce females with their hypodermic genitalia. This is because females have no place for males to insert their genitalia in what some may consider as the normal process. After piercing female bodies male bedbugs simply ejaculate sperm into the females. This process is appropriately termed traumatic insemination.
Female bedbugs lay as many as five eggs a day and as many as five hundred eggs throughout its lifetime. Although bed bugs are small, their milky white, one-millimeter eggs are visible to humans. Hatching within a week or two, baby bedbugs, called nymphs, start suckling blood as soon as their birth night falls. Following their molting five times - shedding skin - nymphs become mature and capable of reproducing more bedbugs.
Controversy seems to exist as to whether or not bedbugs spread diseases. There seems to be a consensus, however, that disease causing bacteria is often found in their saliva or at least on the mouthparts they insert when sucking blood. That said, there is a report at the Environmental Protection Agency released by Mrs. Susan Pearce suggesting bedbugs may have been the source of smallpox when that disease was rampant. This theory was conjectured over a century ago by Charles Campbell, M.D., of San Antonio, TX.
Bedbug hiding places mentioned herein are only a few places the little pests may choose to reside. So if you find or suspect bedbugs in your home, check everywhere-and bear in mind that as far as bedbugs are concerned, their only objective is to hide out in dark cozy places that are close to their blood hosts! Your main objective should be to get rid of bedbugs if you find any! There are some natural remedies available to help you do just that. You can also read about how to prevent bedbugs in the first place. This is particularly important if you like to travel.