Bed bugs: diversity of species and lifestyle

There is not just one bed bug in the world, but a whole palette of these insects. We need to know what type of bed bug lives near us. Their differences lie in the methods of exterminating bed bugs.

How many types of bed bugs are there?

There are two main types of bed bugs – Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus (common bedbug and tropical bedbug). There are other types of bedbugs of the genus Cimex that live on bats and birds.

Tsimex is not the only genus of bedbugs; in addition to it, there are about 13 more genera, some of which include more than one species. True, none of them feed on human blood.

All types of bed bugs are genetically related to each other, which determines their identity based on exterior characteristics. They are all parasites and feed on the blood of the host they are on. We will try to explain their differences and why we need to know this.

Bedbugs - description

Bedbugs (lat. Heteroptera) are a suborder of arthropod insects, which belongs to the subclass winged, infraclass neoptera, order hemiptera (lat. Hemiptera). The bug is found in all countries of the world. Due to the diversity of species, the body shape and size of bedbugs are very variable: some varieties of bedbugs are very small and have a length of less than 1 mm, representatives of the largest species grow up to 10-15 cm. Females are usually larger than males.

The largest bugs in the world are giant water bugs (lat. Belostomatidae), which live in the tropics and grow up to 15 cm in length. Giants are able to eat even small salamanders, but do not pose any danger to humans.

The body shape of most species of bedbugs is adapted to their habitat conditions and can be varied:

The flattest are parasitic types of bedbugs, acquiring a more rounded shape only after being saturated with blood.
Representatives of the family of earthen bugs (lat. Cydnidae), as well as desert species of bugs, have spherical bodies, which, in combination with digging limbs, makes life easier for insects in the thickness of the sand.
Certain species of bedbugs have a rod-shaped body, for example, the South American rod-shaped predator (lat. Ghilianella filiventris),
Some bugs resemble turtles and are called harmful turtles.

The bug is a hemiptera insect, which received its name due to the morphology of the fore wings, transformed into elytra, the main part of which is a hard chitinous shell with a membranous apical part.

The presence of front wings (elytra) and hind wings depends on the type of bug:

Some bugs have elytra and developed wings , with the help of which they are able to travel long distances through the air (for example, long-winged female pine bedbugs);
In other species, the elytra are shortened and the wings are absent , which is why the insects cannot fly (for example, these are the short-winged females of the pine bark bug);
Still others have developed elytra, but no wings (for example, male pine bedbugs);
The fourth ones elytra and wings , as, for example, in bed bugs, so they do not fly.

All bugs have 3 pairs of limbs, developed to varying degrees and used for movement, swimming and holding prey. In most bedbugs, on the metathorax, between the second and third pairs of limbs, there are open ducts of odorous glands that secrete a characteristic and unpleasant “bedbug” smell that scares off enemies and plays the role of pheromones during the mating season. Bedbugs that live in water, as well as predatory individuals, often do not have scent glands, or these glands are poorly developed.

The organs of touch are well-developed sensory antennae; some species have excellent vision.

The coloring of bedbugs comes in two types: protective or “combat”, frankly demonstrative. All parasites, as well as vulnerable species of bedbugs in which the odorous glands are reduced or poorly developed, have a protective protective coloration. Contrastingly colored bugs, with bright colors in combinations of red, black, blue, green and white, are usually herbivorous species with virtually no natural enemies.

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A common feature of bedbugs is the piercing-sucking type of mouthparts. It is represented by an elongated lower lip, forming a long proboscis, inside of which there is a deep groove with modified jaws, transformed into spiny, thin and long bristles. The proboscis is divided into 2 channels: the upper and wider one is used to absorb food, the lower one is used to secrete saliva. The top of the proboscis is covered with the upper lip. The specific structure of the mouth allows the bug to easily pierce the skin of humans and animals, as well as green parts of plants, sucking blood and cell sap. In herbivorous bugs, the proboscis is thin and long; in a calm state, it is tucked under the body and hidden in a groove located on the head and chest. Predatory bugs have a short, thick and strong proboscis, beak-shaped and curved in the form of an arc.

Parasitic insects

This species is dangerous to humans and animals. They are blood suckers and their diet consists exclusively of blood.

The most common are:

Bed

This species has more than 100 subspecies of bedbugs, and they live all over the world. They tolerate any climatic conditions well, so there is no need to be afraid of heat or cold. They choose people's houses and apartments as their homes. But a cave where bats live is also perfect for them. They have a round body without any colors or patterns. This parasite has no wings. Since they do not have any special external differences, they can easily be confused with a tick or lice. Their diet consists of blood, both human and animal. In the event that the parasite has a choice of whether to bite an adult or a child, rest assured, it will choose children. They are dangerous for people, since after a bite severe itching, inflammation, malaise appears and allergic reactions appear.

Triatomine

This species is the most dangerous to humans. Considered the most dangerous of all types of bedbugs, their bite can be fatal. We don’t need to worry, because they don’t live in our country. This killer bug lives in South America and prefers to live in bird nests or burrows, where rodents often live. But in search of food, they can move from the natural environment closer to living quarters. Compared to other species, they can be called giant beetles, since the length of an adult bug is 2 cm. They have a cone-shaped head and an elongated proboscis. If we talk about the danger that these bloodsuckers pose, it lies in the fact that when they are bitten by a parasite, they carry a fatal infection. This is Chagas disease, which can only be treated at the initial stage of development, otherwise it can be fatal.

Chicken

As you can guess from the name, this species chooses chicken blood as its diet. They can live both in the chicken coop itself and on the body of the bird. They pose a great danger, as they carry infections and cause various diseases. They live in the southern regions because they love warmth and cannot stand the cold. The shape of the bug's body is elongated and linear; in order to inflict a bite, they use the proboscis, which is located on the head of the parasite. Regarding the color of the parasites, adults are light brown in color, while young animals are dark in color. This species does not disdain the blood of domestic animals; sheep, goats and dogs can suffer from it. But if there are no birds in their habitat, and there is a choice between people and animals, then they are more likely to choose a person.

Types of bedbugs

The modern classification includes over 50 families of bedbugs, consisting of 40 thousand species. More than 2 thousand bedbugs live in the CIS countries.

Bed bugs (lat. Cimicidae)

A family of bedbugs consisting of approximately 100 species, representatives of which are distributed throughout the globe and feed exclusively on the blood of humans and animals. Particularly well known is the bedbug (lat. Cimex lectularius) , which is also called house or furniture bug, since it is closely related to the human home. The bedbug has a flattened, reddish-brown body and its wings have been completely lost, a result of parasitism. The size of a bedbug directly depends on the insect's saturation with blood and ranges from 4.5 to 6.5 mm in length and 1.5-3 mm in width. The body of a well-fed bug takes on a rounded shape and a scarlet or almost black color, which makes it easy to determine when the insect last fed. Bed bugs live primarily in human homes, but are also found in caves, bird nests and bat nests. These typical nocturnal parasites sit out during the day in secluded places: behind baseboards, under wallpaper, in folds of clothing, in furniture, books, and around 3-8 am they crawl out to hunt.

Triatomine bugs (lat. Triatominae)

They are also called kissing bugs because they prefer to bite a person in the lip area or near the eyes. Despite the romantic name, the “kiss” of this bug very often turns out to be fatal. Triatomine bugs are carriers of a dangerous disease - Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis - a tropical parasitic infection that can only be treated if detected at an early stage. The incubation period of the disease ranges from 5 to 14 days, the acute stage lasts from 1 to 3 months, inflammatory-dystrophic processes affect the digestive tract, lymphatic system, brain and spinal cord, and skeletal muscles. Acute heart failure leads to death. The body length of the triatomine bug is only 2 mm. The insect's head is distinguished by a cone-shaped shape and a more developed oral apparatus, compared to other species. The kissing bug is also distinguished by its elongated limbs and black body color. Parasites hunt at night, feed on blood within 15 minutes, and a blister and irritation form at the site of the bedbug bite.

The soldier bug, also known as the wingless red bug or cossack bug (lat. Pyrrhocoris apterus)

A member of the red bug family, one of the most common pests found in Europe, Asia, North America and North Africa. These wingless insects grow up to 9-11 mm in length and are distinguished by their brightly colored shell. The red color of bedbugs scares away everyone who wants to feast on insects, and the black pattern miraculously imitates huge eyes, mouth and forehead, which is also a kind of defense mechanism. Wingless red bugs have virtually no enemies in nature, so rapidly growing colonies of insects can be very difficult to remove. Pests are the first to wake up in the spring, and the main targets of their attacks are young seedlings of garden plants. Soldier bugs feed on sap, young shoots and buds of any cultivated plants, ripe vegetables, fruits and berries, as well as the corpses of vertebrates and insects.

Harmful turtle (lat. Eurygaster integriceps)

A species of bugs from the family of bugs (lat. Scutelleridae), one of the most dangerous agricultural pests. It lives in steppes and forest-steppes in Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia and North Africa. Externally, the insect really resembles a miniature turtle with a dense, flat shell of a grayish, yellow or brown color, strewn with light spots. The size of an adult bug is from 1 to 1.3 cm, the pronotum of the insect is 1.5 times longer than the head. The entire life cycle of the bug takes place in fields with grain crops, where wheat, oats, corn or barley grow. Here bedbugs are born, feed, and reproduce. Many overwinter under dry grass; most of the colony migrates to winter in warmer, mountainous areas with dense forests. The greatest damage to plants is caused by bedbug larvae, for which active feeding is very important.

Cruciferous bugs, eurydemas or variegated stink bugs (lat. Eurydema)

A genus of bedbugs, including 18 species and distributed in Europe, Asia, North Africa and throughout Russia. These insects are also called cabbage bugs. The most famous are the northern eurydema (lat. Eurydema dominulus) , the rapeseed bug (lat. Eurydema oleracea) , the mustard bug (lat. Eurydema ornata) , and the cabbage bug (lat. Eurydema ventralis) . Adult cruciferous bugs grow in length from 5.5 to 9-10 mm and are distinguished by a variety of body colors, forming a variable pattern of various combinations of spots of blue-black, black-green, red, yellow and white. The main food of bedbugs is wild as well as cultivated cruciferous plants: cabbage, rutabaga, turnips, radishes. The pests pierce leaves and flower stalks with their proboscis and suck out the juice, lay eggs on the underside of cabbage leaves, and overwinter in large colonies under plant debris.

Green arboreal shieldweed (lat. Palomena prasina)

A representative of the family of true shield insects. These bugs live throughout the temperate zone of the planet. The wood stink bug acquired its popular name “stink bug” due to the particularly intense odor released by the secretion of the odorous glands. These bugs have a fairly large oval-angular body, growing up to 1.1-1.6 cm in length and equipped with disproportionately small wings. The insect's body is protected by a strong chitinous shield of bright green color, and even bedbug eggs have a light green tint. Only by autumn do brown dots appear on the shell, and by winter the bug becomes completely brown. The green bug leads a quiet, inconspicuous life on the foliage of trees, on herbaceous plants and berry bushes, the juices of which it feeds on, especially preferring raspberries.

Lined shieldweed, also known as striped graphosoma (lat. Graphosoma lineatum)

A species of bugs from the family of true stink bugs, which are also called “Italian bugs” due to the similarity of the color of the insects with the uniform of the Vatican guards. The Italian bug grows up to 1.1 cm in length, and its dense chitinous cover is distinguished by war paint: 6 longitudinal stripes of black color clearly stand out against the main red background, and the lower part of the body is covered with many chaotically scattered black spots. Due to its bright, contrasting coloration, this bug is often called the tiger bug or striped bug. Italian bedbugs feed on the sap of wild and cultivated umbrella plants: honeydew, dill, parsley, carrots. Insects give particular preference to plant seeds. Damaged umbrellas fall off and the seeds become non-viable. Lined bugs are quite thermophilic, so they live only in the middle zone, in the south of Europe and in Central Asia. They do not cause significant damage, and if colonies grow, they are easily collected from plants by hand.

Berry bug, also known as berry bug (lat. Dolycoris baccarum)

A large representative of the family of true shield bugs, growing up to 1-1.2 cm in length, the structure is very reminiscent of the Italian bug. The flat body of the adult is colored grey, dirty yellow or red-brown; the body of the larvae is covered with fine hairs. A distinctive feature of the color of the berry shield is yellow transverse stripes on the sides and antennae, painted with yellow and black rings. The main habitat and food preference of the berry bug are raspberries, currants and gooseberries, and the presence of the pest is easily determined by brownish spots on the leaves and dried berries. However, berry bugs often settle on fruit, grain, umbrella, oilseed and ornamental crops, as well as on weeds, feeding on the juices of young shoots and flowers, which leads to discoloration and drying of the plant. Berry bugs are widespread throughout the temperate climate zone, but due to the small population size they do not cause serious harm.

Large-headed (lat. Phymatidae, Phymatinae)

A family of bedbugs that is sometimes considered a subfamily of predators, and its representatives are true predators, capable of attacking prey that is significantly larger than themselves. Large-headed bugs grow up to 8-12 mm and have thick and wide thighs of the forelimbs, 2 times the length of the saber-shaped legs. The habitat of bedbugs is the countries of Africa, East Asia, and the USA.

Water striders (lat. Gerridae)

A family of bugs, including about 700 species of insects that live on the surface of the water. Externally, water strider bugs resemble miniature boats, deftly gliding across the surface of the water, and the structure of the bugs is fully consistent with this way of life. The narrow, elongated body of the water strider grows from 1 to 3 cm in length and has a characteristic protective color from brown and brown to almost black, making the insects almost invisible to birds. The water strider bug has 3 pairs of legs covered with fine, waterproof hairs. Locomotor activity, acceleration and braking are provided by the shorter front pair of legs, the remaining 2 long pairs of legs serve only as support for the insect. During movement, the water strider bug spreads its middle and hind pair of legs wide apart, and also uses short motor limbs to hold prey. If an obstacle appears on the way, the water strider overcomes it with strong leaps. The bedbug's abdomen is also covered with fine, short hairs containing a waxy substance that prevents them from getting wet.

Water scorpions (lat. Nepidae)

A family of bugs that live in water. Thanks to their developed and forward-directed forelimbs, capable of folding like a false claw, these insects actually somewhat resemble scorpions. The other 2 pairs of legs of water bugs are covered with poorly developed bristles and help the insects move and swim. Adults grow from 2 to 3.5 cm in length and have an oval or leaf-shaped flattened body with a faded brown or gray color, so they look like a fallen leaf in the water. Water scorpion bugs lead an extremely sedentary lifestyle, clinging to aquatic vegetation near the surface of the water in anticipation of prey. They are omnivores and eat any food they can handle. The diet of water scorpions includes swimming beetles, mosquito larvae, juveniles of small fish species, tadpoles, and crustaceans. The family of water scorpions includes about 230 species, which are distributed in water bodies of the tropical and temperate climatic zones of the Northern Hemisphere.

Water bugs from the Belostomatidae family (lat. Belostomatidae).

These giants chose freshwater bodies of water in the countries of South and North America, as well as East and Southeast Asia as their habitat. Water bugs often reach 15 cm in length. The front pair of limbs is slightly shorter and has small hooks at the ends, which allows the insects to firmly hold the caught prey. The back legs of bedbugs are ideally suited for swimming. The respiratory organs of a water bug are a pair of tubes located on the abdomen. Bedbugs are not able to breathe underwater, so they often float to the water surface to take another breath of air. The world's largest water bugs are natural predators. They hunt for young fish and tadpoles, and eat salamanders, snails, frogs and small fish with appetite. Having waited for its prey and clasped its limbs, the water bug neutralizes it with an injection of its proboscis, injecting saliva into the caught prey with a paralyzing and liquefying effect. Then the predator bug simply sucks out the nutrient cocktail.

The spread of parasites in the apartment

Experts warn that one adult female is enough to colonize a home with synanthropic blood-sucking parasites. Without information about how bedbugs reproduce, it is not clear that if one parasite appears, how will it produce offspring? Female bedbugs are able to retain sperm throughout their lives, using it in parts to fertilize eggs. After one copulation, they give rise to an entire population without partners.

To actively reproduce, the parasite needs regular blood feeding. A bedbug attacks a person every 2-5 days. Feeding lasts up to 15 minutes, while the female drinks up to 7 ml of blood. She comes out of hiding at night or early in the morning at 3-5 o'clock. The instinct of self-preservation tells parasites when the victim is sleeping and does not pose a threat. After saturation, the insect doubles in size. Having received a high-protein diet, the bug goes into a crevice in the bed or other furniture, where it lays its first eggs. From now on this process will be continuous. Read about the harmfulness of insects in the article “Bed bugs: appearance of blood-sucking bugs, and what harm can they cause to health?”

In the apartment, blood-sucking heat-loving parasites find ideal conditions for life and reproduction. They take root in any room, even with perfect cleanliness. Insects require several conditions:

favorable temperature in the range of 20-30°;
the presence of people as a source of food;
secluded places where arthropods hide during the daytime and place their clutches;
certain air humidity.

From the first eggs laid, sexually mature females will appear in 1-1.5 months, ready for procreation.

Where to look for adult bedbugs and offspring

Parasites make a kind of nest near the feeding site. You can find it by smell; bedbugs have odorous glands, from which an oily liquid with a sharp, unpleasant aroma is released. In the process of communication, insects send signals to each other by secretions from the glands. Their composition is close to the chemical formula of pheromones. The presence of a colony is also indicated by black dots left on the surface of furniture or walls. These are insect excrement; the more there are, the more numerous the group of parasites.

The most likely areas where insects can be found:

mattress seams;
upholstery of upholstered furniture (sofa, armchair);
behind baseboards, picture frames;
in the cracks of the walls;
on the back wall of the cabinets.

The appearance of parasites in an apartment is always unexpected. The first sign of their vital activity is bite marks on people’s bodies. Particular attention should be paid to rashes and wounds in the form of paths in children. Bed bugs often enter homes with old furniture purchased from individuals or in a store. They are brought in in the seams of bags or the folds of clothes from their trips. They can even move into the house through ventilation ducts. At the first signs of infestation in the room, begin fighting parasites. It is better to prevent their reproduction than to fight a large colony.

Bedbug lifestyle

The bug leads a parasitic nocturnal lifestyle; both females and males with larvae feed on blood. The main time for an attack on a sleeping person or pet is 3-8 am. During the day, these insects hide in the mattress, under the wallpaper, behind the baseboards, in books, in clothes and beds. During the day they come out into the light extremely rarely, only in case of severe hunger. They are able to move from one room to another through ventilation systems, as well as along walls both inside and outside the apartment. The speed at which an adult bedbug travels one meter is 1 minute. Bedbugs have a well-developed sense of smell, which helps them find victims and places of shelter. For example, they can smell the clothes you wear most often, such as a dressing gown, and hide in it. An adult can drink up to 7 mg of blood at a time, and a larva can drink less than 1 mg. Parasites feed approximately once a week. If a person is not nearby, they can bite cats, dogs, rodents and even birds.

Pests of agricultural plants

Bedbugs can cause significant damage to agricultural plants. They live in fields, vegetable gardens and orchards. Some types of parasites affect indoor flowers and plants. Here are some common types of bedbugs that are pests of agricultural crops:

Bugs bugs
Shield insects
Rapeseed bugs
Cabbage bugs.

The species of bugs got their name from the turtle because of their appearance. The brown chitinous shell really resembles a miniature turtle. Insects are pests of grain crops, feeding on stems, leaves and seeds. The reproduction cycle of parasites is 10-11 months. During the season, females lay eggs three times, each clutch contains 14-15 eggs. The larvae are ready to reproduce after 35 days. Turtles overwinter in the adult stage, hiding under fallen leaves. With the onset of warmth, they go to fields with crops and are able to travel up to 50 kilometers in search of food. Even 3-5% of charged seeds render all grain stocks in warehouses unusable.

Green shield bugs feed on raspberries and gooseberries. If you drive them away from the bush, they release a foul-smelling liquid that spoils the aroma of the berries and makes them unfit for consumption. There are shield bugs and other varieties that attack indoor and garden flowers. The color of the cabbage bug is bright, the carapace is red with black stripes. The color scares away birds, which is why bedbugs have almost no natural enemies. A rapeseed pest of a hay-green hue, it is capable of destroying vast fields of rapeseed and harming the seed if it is not destroyed in time.

What do bedbugs eat?

The diet of bedbugs depends on their species and lifestyle. So, for bed bugs it is exclusively human blood. They need it not only as a food product, but also for development and reproduction. Sucking of blood from a person occurs mainly during sleep, when the human body does not move. The bug finds its victim by the smell of carbon dioxide released during exhalation, as well as by the sweat glands. In this case, preference is given to women and children.

Having bitten through the skin, the bug injects a special painkiller, and the victim does not feel anything for ten minutes. During this time, the parasite manages to calmly drink blood and crawl away to a secluded place. In one go, a bug can drink twice its weight in blood. It is believed that its female is capable of drinking up to 10 ml at a time.

Other bugs can feed on plant juices and small insects, like soldier bugs or forest bugs. The order of bugs also includes water striders, which, in addition to small insects, can feed on fish fry. Firebugs also help cleanse nature of carrion. The bug, called the pest bug, feeds on the juices of winter wheat inputs. It can cause significant damage to grain crops.

Agricultural pests

If you decided that only types of bedbugs that feed on blood can ruin a person’s life, then we have to disappoint you.

For example, the cabbage bug destroys crops of cabbage, beets, rapeseed and other crops. These insects feed on plant sap, injecting into the stem and inflorescences; their larvae also feed in the same way. The result of their vital activity is a sharp decrease in yield; when large colonies are attacked, the complete destruction of crops is possible.

bug turtle

Another interesting representative of this group is the bug bug, which specializes in grain crops; it is also called the harmful bug. Externally, the insect, due to its chitinous shell, looks like a miniature copy of a real turtle.

But in fact, they are not slow at all and fly perfectly. Before wintering or vice versa, at the beginning of the breeding season, turtles can cover a distance of 50 km in search of a suitable place. Some species that live near mountain ranges can travel a distance of about 200 km.

The life cycle of this pest is 10-11 months, during which time a larva emerges from the egg, which after about 35 days becomes an adult. With the onset of autumn, young adults find a place to winter in the fallen leaves and wait for the arrival of spring. With the first warmth of spring, bugs head towards the crops, first attacking winter crops, and then it’s the turn of spring crops.

The most dangerous are adult larvae and adults of the bug; they feed directly on grain seeds. If the grind contains more than 3-5% of contaminated grains, then the flour is considered unsuitable for further use.

Stink bug

Now look at another type of bug in the photo: in childhood we called it “stinker.”

This is a light green shield whose favorite delicacy is raspberries and gooseberries. If you try to drive it away from the bush, the berries will be spoiled by a nasty, pungent smell: this is the insect’s defensive reaction. By the way, the release of pungent odors is typical for most bedbugs, regardless of their variety. This is one of the characteristic features of this suborder.

Reproduction and development of bedbugs

Mating of bedbugs occurs through traumatic insemination: the male pierces the female’s abdomen with his genitals and injects seminal fluid there. After a couple of weeks, the female begins to lay eggs, up to 5 eggs per day. Over the course of her life, a female can lay 250 to 500 eggs. The development of an insect from an egg to the adult stage takes 30-40 days, and under difficult conditions up to 100 days. The larvae immediately begin to look for food, they need to drink a whole portion of blood in order to move to the next stage of development and undergo molting.

Main breeding sites

Most often, bedbugs lay eggs in dark, hard-to-reach places close to a food source (a person’s sleeping place). Main breeding sites for bedbugs:

mattress;
bed frame;
interior space or back wall of sofas, armchairs;
internal surfaces of drawers and shelves;
space behind the baseboard;
the reverse side of paintings, mirrors hanging on the wall;
sockets and switches;
the back wall or interior of a household appliance.

In the mattress

Bedbugs often make nests behind peeling wallpaper or under loose floor coverings.

How do bedbugs appear in homes?

The appearance of bedbugs in a home does not indicate the unsanitary condition of the premises. Bloodsuckers settle in close proximity to humans. Waste and garbage, unlike cockroaches or Prussians, are not of interest to them. Therefore, bedbugs can appear even in a new apartment where the cleanest housewife lives.

The main ways bedbugs appear in an apartment:

Passed on from neighbors. Especially if they have started pest control, but not effectively enough;
When buying books, clothes, paintings and other used items. Also, when purchasing furniture secondhand, you can often find bedbugs in a mattress or sofa.

Ways to appear at your home

The features of the appearance of these parasites in the house are quite varied. Here are some of them:

Neighbors - bedbugs migrate between adjacent rooms. If you live with your neighbors or they started poisoning you, expect guests.
Bedbugs are travelers - they have returned with you from vacation or business trip. They travel thousands of kilometers in bags and on things.
Purchased furniture is equally dangerous, both new and used. Furniture warehouses and “grandmother’s” sofa can equally become a breeding ground for insects.
Appliances here, like furniture, are dangerous, whether new or used.
Pet hair - there have been such cases.
In rural areas - migration from poultry houses, rabbit farms, etc.

Linen bug bites

The bites of these pests do not go unnoticed. As a rule, in the morning a whole chain of marks appears on a person’s body, since in one night a bug is capable of sucking as much blood as it weighs.

Main signs of bites:

the appearance of red spots in the form of pimples, mainly on accessible areas of the body;
characteristic itching;
bites appear in the form of a chain;
At the peak of the bite there is a puncture point in the skin.

These parasites are not distinguished by their selectivity. Both children and adults of any gender can come under attack. But due to their thin skin and special smell, children and women are more likely to become victims.

In an infected room, up to three hundred bites can appear on the torso of an adult per night.

Bite areas may itch and hurt. Many people initially confuse bites with a normal allergic reaction, however, antihistamines do not alleviate the symptoms.

After some time, an allergic reaction may appear and the bite sites begin to swell and swell, while the initial unpleasant symptoms also do not go away. It is still not entirely clear whether bedbugs carry infections; it is believed that they do not, and they do not transmit diseases such as HIV, typhoid fever and hepatitis B.

What bed bugs look like: photos, what furniture they live in, how long they live, how to get rid of them in Moscow

The Moscow Sanitary and Epidemiological Station Department of Sanitary and Epidemiological Control gives a 1 year guarantee for the destruction of bedbugs in Moscow! The conclusion of an agreement is mandatory. Call by phone. Consultation is free.

Having discovered bites on their body in the morning, many attribute them to the presence of mosquitoes and are not at all aware that there are bed bugs in the room. More obvious traces of their presence can be observed only after their numbers increase, when bloody spots and remnants of their vital activity appear on the bed. Even the cleanest house is not a guarantee that any type of bedbug will not find a home in it. What kind of parasites are these, where do they come from, how to recognize their presence and what measures exist to combat them.

Signs of the presence of bedbugs

It is not always possible to see bedbugs due to their small size. Insects go hunting only in the morning, when their future victim is in the deepest sleep.

The following symptoms will help you understand that there are bed bugs:

waste products - the presence of black crumbs (excrement) resembling ground pepper, as well as dry chitinous covers shed during the molting process, indicate the presence of pests; they can often be found in the seams of the mattress;
if the mattress is saturated with a specific smell reminiscent of sour raspberries;
blood stains on the bed left after bed bug bites;
bites on open areas of the skin - they can appear in different places, pests especially often attack children's skin, since it is more delicate;
yellow spots on the sheet indicate that bedbugs have settled in the bed.

Let's recognize the enemy by sight

The bed bug has a round, flat body shape. Sizes from 5 - 8 mm in length and up to 4 mm in width. Here I’ll immediately make a reservation that color and shape depend on the insect’s saturation with blood. A hungry bug has a lighter color and a rounded shape, unlike a well-fed one. It becomes dark brown, almost brown, and significantly elongates in length.

In the process of evolution, nature has deprived these insects of wings, which makes them almost invulnerable to humans. Try to squash a hungry bed bug! It's not that easy! The parasite can press itself so tightly to the surface that you will need something very hard to deal with it. With well-fed bedbugs everything is much simpler. Having drunk blood, these vampires themselves often become victims of their nightly forays, leaving characteristic blood stains on the bed linen. Which indicates that there are bedbugs in the house.

Due to the fact that bed bugs do not have wings, they have clearly visible segments. Males and females are practically no different from each other, the only difference is the amount of blood consumed. Females drink more: a prerequisite for laying eggs is regular nutrition.

Bedbug eggs look like grains of rice and have a milky white hue. When the larva emerges from the egg, it resembles an adult bug, only smaller in size. It has an almost transparent body and only when it is full, a red spot appears in the middle of the abdomen - this is the larva’s stomach, filled with blood.

The maturation period from egg to adult bug takes about a month and a half. Becoming a mature individual, the larva goes through five stages of molting. After which the adult insect can reproduce itself.

Bedbugs have a number of external signs by which they can be distinguished from other insect pests:

The difference from cockroaches is primarily in the absence of wings and in size. Cockroaches are larger than bedbugs, have a more elongated body and have two outgrowths on the back.
It is very easy not to confuse bed bugs with ticks. The main difference between both is the number of legs. Bed bugs have 6, like all insects, and ticks have 8, like all arachnids.
Ants are primarily distinguished by their slender, elongated bodies, something that bedbugs cannot boast of. Also, ants have a constriction in the middle of the body, but the bug does not.

Fleas and lice are quite different from bedbugs and it is almost impossible to confuse them, unless it is a bedbug larva. In general, fleas and lice are much smaller in size. It also needs to be said here that the lifestyles of both are significantly different from each other. So lice and fleas settle on the hairy parts of the body and spend the majority of their time there, including reproduction. And bedbugs prefer quiet, secluded places, making forays only at night in search of food.

Read more about the lifestyle of bed bugs in the following article.

Ways to fight

If you find signs of bedbugs in your bed, you should immediately begin fighting them. The question of how to get rid of bedbugs in a mattress arises for everyone who has encountered such a problem. In this situation, you can use the services of a pest control service and order professional treatment of the apartment, or carry out the pestering yourself, using chemicals or folk remedies.

If the mattress is heavily infested with bedbugs, it is better to get rid of it. Since baiting a mass accumulation of insects requires very high costs. To prevent parasites from spreading throughout the house, the mattress is wrapped in plastic and taken outside in this form.
If the mattress is slightly contaminated, the bed linen is removed, which must be washed and heat treated. Do the same with the mattress cover (if there is one).
Using a vacuum cleaner, eggs laid by bedbugs are removed from the mattress.
If the sofa or bed has armrests, it is better to unscrew them. This way it will be possible to more thoroughly treat the favorite habitats of bloodsuckers.
In the winter season, when it is frosty outside, the freezing method will help rid the mattress of bedbugs (the air temperature should not be higher than -17 degrees).
You can also treat a mattress against bedbugs using a steam generator (high temperature is also detrimental to insects).
Many people use kerosene to kill parasites. It is mixed with water in a ratio of 2:1, after which laundry soap is added to the resulting mixture and mixed thoroughly. It is better to treat surfaces and hard-to-reach places with the resulting solution using a spray bottle. After a week, the treatment process should be repeated.
You can also get rid of bloodsuckers using turpentine, phenol and salicylic acid. They are taken in a ratio of 40:20:3, respectively. Processing is carried out in a similar way.
If there is no result when using the methods described above, you should use effective chemicals to treat the bed and mattress. In this case, it is necessary to pay attention to the composition of the product, since bedbugs quickly develop immunity to many insecticides. The degree of contamination, presence of odor and level of toxicity should also be taken into account. The products that are most in demand among consumers are Get, Executioner, Fufanon or Cucaracha. They have a long residual period of action, which allows you to count even on the death of larvae that hatch after treatment.
After treatment with insecticidal preparations, the mattress is re-cleaned with a vacuum cleaner to remove dead insects.
If a crib is infested with pests, it is recommended to replace the mattress and wash the wooden parts with hot water. After this, the structure must be treated with an antiparasitic agent. It is important that it is as safe as possible for the child’s health and does not have a specific odor. An example of this is Pyrethrum powder. If the bed is treated with a highly toxic drug, the child will be isolated from the room for several days.

Anyone can find a bedbug in their bed. In such situations, it is important not to get lost and not leave the situation to chance, but to urgently take countermeasures. Only timely treatment will give quick and effective results and help get rid of bedbugs.

Factors preventing reproduction

The reproduction of bedbugs, like all their life activities, strongly depends on the conditions in which they exist. The population growth rate is slowed down by:

decrease in air temperature;
decreased air humidity;
lack of food.

Many owners use these factors to fight bedbugs without the use of aggressive chemicals.

Low humidity

The optimal relative humidity for the normal existence and rapid reproduction of insects is 40 - 60%. If the humidity level drops, the parasite eggs and they themselves dry out. Moreover, while larvae and adult bedbugs can replenish the lack of moisture by drinking blood, this method is not available for eggs.

Low temperature

A decrease in temperature significantly affects how long bedbugs and their eggs live. The larva that forms inside the egg is quite well protected, including from external influences. Therefore, a slight decrease in temperature will not affect the development of the embryo.

At a temperature of +15⁰С, parasites stop reproducing; at +10⁰С, the development of the embryo inside the egg stops. But research shows that even at sub-zero temperatures, the embryo inside the egg does not die immediately. So at -7⁰С its viability remains for more than a month.

Prolonged absence of food

With a long absence of food (more than 15 days), the parasite’s body gradually switches to an energy-saving mode. Bedbugs stop reproducing and move less. Gradually they fall into suspended animation, during which all vital processes slow down. In this state, insects can exist for up to 5 months.

Eternal problems from one bug

Even one particularly active male can cause not only a slowdown in the growth of the colony, but also its reduction. The fact is that insects do not know how to distinguish each other’s sex, so males sometimes try to mate with other males or nymphs who have not reached puberty. A puncture of the abdominal cavity can cause pathogenic microorganisms to enter the body, which is why the forcibly fertilized individual soon dies.

Pairing

Interesting Facts

The house bug can carry infections such as smallpox, typhoid fever and hepatitis. An adult bedbug is the size of a grain of rice, and its eggs pass through the eye of a needle.
The diet of a domestic bug contains only human or animal blood. A well-fed young bug can live without food for four days, and an adult for up to one and a half years.
A bug can smell human sweat ten meters away.
For a long time, in Europe and Russia, places where bedbugs accumulated were scalded with boiling water.
In Africa, North America and Thailand, the water bug "belostoma", called the "fish killer", can reach 10 cm in length. Among the Thais, it is considered an exquisite delicacy.