Bed Bugs Treatment Guide

Archive for the ‘About Them’ Category

The bedbug epidemic is growing exponentially, and is catching the attention of various government bodies. Media reports detail the on-going plague, and remind us that stress or a chronic lack of sleep in and of themselves may contribute to serious health problems and even to the onset of disease.

Off the Reuters newswire of 04/15/09:  Arrow Exterminating Expects Public to Get Hit Hard Post-Spring Break LYNBROOK, N.Y., April 15 /PRNewswire/ — Mike Deutsch can’t believe the places he and the other technicians at Arrow Exterminating are finding bedbugs these days: inside lamp bases, clock radios, TVs, computer keyboards, between the pages of books, inside electric switches, behind ceiling moldings and in one case, inside a cell phone. “We’ve never seen anything like this,” says Deutsch, the Arrow staff entomologist. “We certainly know that bedbugs are not restricted to beds and upholstered furniture, but now we’re finding them in places even we never thought possible.”

The national population of bedbugs doubles every year — or so it’s been since the late 90′s. Municipalities and private homes have the pest management business working overtime.

The bedbug plague prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to convene the first National bedbug Summit in April of 2009, which brought together the Center for Disease Control, the Pentagon, federal and state housing officials, entomologists, and representatives of the “pest management industry” — otherwise known as exterminators.

The World Health Organization emphasized the public health significance of bedbugs when they put the pernicious pest on the cover of their 2008 report entitled, “The Public Health Significance of Urban Pests”.

The WHO wrote in this report:

“Besides the effects of direct bites, airborne common bedbug allergens that are always released during infestations may produce bronchial asthma. Within a group of 54 asthmatic Egyptian patients, 37.1% reacted positively to a common bedbug head and thorax extract, and 50.1% reacted positively to an abdominal common bedbug extract (Abou Gamra et al., 1991). Numerous routine bedbug bites can contribute to anemia and may even make a person more susceptible to common diseases (Usinger, 1966; Snetsinger, 1997). Some people can develop a general malaise from numerous bedbug bites; that, along with the loss of sleep and extreme itching of bug bites, can lower a person’s vitality and make individuals listless and almost constantly uncomfortable (2008: 138-139).”

WHO recommended the following:   “Research should be encouraged and carried out to determine whether or not bedbugs can successfully transmit human pathogens, especially those that cause new or emerging diseases. (2008: 149).”

…

” Research should be encouraged and carried out to further characterize the nature and effective treatment of the effects on people of unusual, extreme or very persistent bedbug bites (2008: 149).”

There have been reports of advances in anti-bedbug fungi — but commercial use is years away.

Let’s keep hoping the entomologists can get ahead of the pesticide-resistant cimex lectularius.

The common bedbug — aka “Cimex Lectularius” — grows to a quarter inch long, is burnt orange and brown in color, oval and flattened in shape. They feast solely on the warm blood of mammals or birds.

Their offspring are almost translucent, and grow into a brownish coloration with 5 stages (feedings) leading to maturity, normally taking 4-5 weeks. Bedbugs at all ages are incredibly
resilient. Baby bedbugs can go months without feeding, while an adult bedbug can survive in a dormant state for over a year without dinner.

Well-fed bedbugs live 6 – 9 months. A female bedbug can lay up to 500 eggs in its lifetime, and as many as five a day. Bedbugs mate with “traumatic insemination” in which the male
tears the female open in the sweet spot and ejaculates into the body cavity.

Wingless, bedbugs can crawl up to 100 feet a day in search of food (you). They are primarily attracted to the CO2 from a human’s nocturnal exhalations. Bedbugs cannot fly, but they have been known to crawl onto ceilings and drop down upon the source of CO2 they are equipped to detect.

As their name implies, bedbugs find natural habitat in the mattresses and box springs of their human hosts. Any dark crevice within 10 – 15 feet of the bed is potential sanctuary and breeding ground for the horrific little beast. Mostly nocturnal, bedbugs typically launch their attacks an hour or two before dawn. The bedbug is armed with a double-barreled beak — two hollow tubes inserted into the host skin. One tube pumps anti-coagulants and anesthetics into the host skin, while the other tube sucks out the blood. Your blood. Once the anesthetics wear off — a matter of a few hours, usually — the bitten area will itch, and your sense of disgust will twitch.

Cimex Lectularius has been around for several millennia, having originated in Middle Eastern caves. They became adept hitch-hikers and have long been associated with heavily traveled locales, especially hotels favored by international travelers. Bedbugs were mostly unknown in the United States until the past decade, with infestations popping up from coast to coast.  Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and New York have experienced the most severe infestations, due in part to their international popularity.