Bed Bug
Order/family: Heteroptera/Cimicidae
Scientific Name: Cimex Lectularius (Cimex Sps)
The adult Bed Bug is 3/16 inch long, oval, flat and rusty-red T or mahogany in colour. It is flat and thin when unfed but becomes more elongate, plump and red when it is full of blood. Four segmented antennae are attached to the head between the prominent compound eyes. The three segmented beaks, or proboscis, is located beneath the head and passes back between the front legs. This insect cannot fly as its wings are reduced to short wing pads.
Biology:
The female bed bug lays eggs, i.e., one to five per day and 200 to 500 within a lifetime. A clear substance gets attached to cracks and rough surfaces. Under ideal conditions, eggs hatch in about seven days and the nymphs molt five times, taking a blood meal between each molt. Development time from egg to adult is three weeks/21 days. Adults can live for almost a year.
Habitat and Economic Importance:
The Bed Bug hides in cracks and crevices during the day, preferring to rest on wood and paper surfaces instead of stone and plaster. It leaves these harborage areas at night to feed on its host, which includes humans, birds, and family pets. The blood meal requires three to ten minutes and usually goes unnoticed by the victim. After feeding, the bite site may become inflamed and itch severely in sensitive people. Although it has been associated with over 25 diseases, transmission has not been conclusively proven. Over time, the harborage areas become filled with the molted skins, feces and old eggshells of the resident bed bugs. These areas have a characteristic smell caused by a secretion emitted by the Bed Bug.
Common Site of Occurrence:
Bats being a nocturnal mammal during the day time they rest on trees, rock crevices, caves, building shafts, building high rise structures. They do fly to a steam, pond or lake in the vicinity to dip their lower jaw into water and drink water. In buildings and household locations they use wall attic spaces for their resting and roosting place
Management:
A thorough inspection is necessary to detect harborage sites. The odour and little spots of excreted blood assist in pinpointing these areas. Sanitation is helpful in control because it assists in increasing awareness of some harborage areas.
Bed bugs can be controlled with thorough applications of residual insecticides applied to cracks and crevices and into other known or suspected harborage areas. Furniture, especially mattresses, should also be lightly sprayed. However, the bedding of infants and sick/aged individuals should not be treated rather replaced. Vacuuming provides a major support in Bedbug management as they suck the eggs and young bed bugs hiding in cracks and crevices where the chemicals may not reach. Most situations one time application of pesticides may not yield the desired results in comparison to a two applications method with a gap of 15-20 days wherein the probability of the young ones hiding in cracks and crevices crawling out will again be susceptible to the chemical application.
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