Category Archives: Bed Bugs New Foundland & Labrador

The bed bug may be just as dangerous as its sinister cousin, the triatomine, or kissing bug. A new study from Penn Medicine researchers in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics demonstrated that bed bugs, like the triatomines, can transmit Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease, one of the most prevalent and deadly diseases in the Americas.

The role of the bloodsucking triatomine bugs as vectors of Chagas diseasewhich affects 6 to 8 million worldwide, mostly in Latin America, and kills about 50,000 a yearhas long been recognized. The insects infect people not through their bite but feces, which they deposit on their sleeping host, often around the face, after feeding. Bed bugs, on the other hand, are usually considered disease-free nuisances whose victims are left with only itchy welts from bites and sleepless nights.

In a study published online in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, senior author Michael Z. Levy, PhD, assistant professor in the department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine, and researchers at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru conducted a series of laboratory experiments that demonstrated bi-directional transmission of T. cruzi between mice and bed bugs.

In the first experiment run at the Zoonotic Disease Research Center in Arequipa, Peru, the researchers exposed 10 mice infected with the parasite to 20 uninfected bed bugs every three days for a month. Of about 2,000 bed bugs used in the experiment, the majority acquired T. cruzi after feeding on the mice. In a separate experiment to test transmission from bug to mouse, they found that 9 out of 12 (75 percent) uninfected mice acquired the parasite after each one lived for 30 days with 20 infected bed bugs.

In a third experiment, investigators succeeded in infecting mice by placing feces of infected bed bugs on the animals skin that had either been inflamed by bed bug bites, or scraped with a needle. Four out of 10 mice (40 percent) acquired the parasite by this manner; 1 out of 5 (20 percent) were infected when the skin was broken by the insects bites only. A final experiment performed at the Penn bed bug lab in Philadelphia demonstrated that bed bugs, like triatomines, defecate when they feed.

Weve shown that the bed bug can acquire and transmit the parasite. Our next step is to determine whether they are, or will become, an important player in the epidemiology of Chagas disease, Levy said. There are some reasons to worrybed bugs have more frequent contact with people than kissing bugs, and there are more of them in infested houses, giving them ample opportunity to transmit the parasite. But perhaps there is something important we dont yet understand about them that mitigates the threat.

T. cruzi is also especially at home in the guts of bed bugs. Ive never seen so many parasites in an insect, said Renzo Salazar, a biologist at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and co-author on the study. I expected a scenario with very low infection, but we found many parasitesthey really replicate well in the gut of the bed bugs.

Wicked Cousins

Bed bugs and kissing bugs are distant cousins but share many striking similarities. Both insects hide in household cracks and crevices waiting for nightfall and the opportunity to feed on sleeping hosts. They are from the same order of insects (Hemiptera) and both only feed on blood. (One main difference is their size: kissing bugs are five times as big as a bed bug). With so much in common, it seemed logical to the authors that the kissing bugs most infamous trait, the transmission of T. cruzi, is also shared by the bed bug.

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Study Shows Bed Bugs Transmit Parasite That Causes Deadly ...

(BPT) - One of the most feared household pests of the past decade has been the bed bug. What may be the most unnerving part about these tiny pests is how they hide in mattresses, couches and even dressers waiting for their next blood meal.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of bed bug infestations across the country. About 99 percent of pest professionals have treated for bed bugs in the past year, according to a survey by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA).

Bed bugs have several qualities that specifically help them survive and spread, says Missy Henriksen, vice president of public affairs for the NPMA. The best ways to stop the spread of bed bugs are through education and taking precautions. Consumers should be aware of their surroundings when traveling and be vigilant about searching for signs of an infestation.

Understanding bed bugs

Bed bugs are often mistaken for being nocturnal. The truth is they are attracted to the carbon dioxide emitted by their hosts. For this reason, they tend to feed at night while a person is sleeping and emitting a steady stream of carbon dioxide. However, they will also consume a blood meal during the day - especially in heavily infested areas. Although bed bugs prefer to feed on humans, they will feed on other warm-blooded hosts, too.

Bed bugs hide very easily thanks to their small size and flat, seed-like shape, allowing them to squeeze into tiny cracks and crevices. They can also spread very quickly. One female bed bug can lay one-to-five eggs per day, several hundred in a lifetime. If left untreated, bed bugs can quickly become a much bigger problem for homeowners.

Keeping your home bed bug free

Bed bugs are very good hitchhikers. They can latch onto luggage, clothing or linens and easily move from place to place or room to room. The best defense against bed bugs is awareness and prevention, especially when traveling or on vacation.

If staying in hotels, even five-star accommodations, pull back the sheets on any beds and check for bed bugs themselves or the telltale signs theyve been there. Look for shed body casings, and dark red or brown spots on the mattress or along its seams. Consider packing a flashlight to use in these visual inspections. When checking an area for bed bugs, be sure any bags are placed off the floor on a hard surface. This reduces the likelihood of a bed bug latching onto it for a ride home. And once home, throw clothes in the dryer on high heat, vacuum the suitcase interior and exterior, and dispose of the vacuum receptacle contents immediately.

Treating an infestation

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Public awareness needed to prevent bed bugs - Star Beacon ...

The common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) has long been a pest feeding on blood, causing itchy bites and generally irritating their human hosts. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) all consider bed bugs a public health pest. However, unlike most public health pests, bed bugs are not known to transmit or spread disease.

They can, however, cause other public health problems, so its important to pay close attention to preventing and controlling bed bugs.

Experts believe the recent increase in bed bugs in the United States may be due to more travel, lack of knowledge about preventing infestations, increased resistance of bed bugs to pesticides, and ineffective pest control practices.

The good news is that there are ways to control bed bugs. Getting good, solid information is the first step in both prevention and control. While there is no chemical quick fix, there are effective strategies to control bed bugs involving both non-chemical and chemical methods.

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Bites on the skin are a poor indicator of a bed bug infestation. Bed bug bites can be misidentified, which gives the bed bugs time to spread to other areas of the house. Bed bug bites can look like bites from other insects (such as mosquitoes or spiders), rashes (such as eczema or fungal infections), or even hives. Some people do not react to bed bug bites at all.

A far more accurate way to identify a possible infestation is to look for physical signs of bed bugs. For example, spots on bedding, as described below, are one of the earliest and most accurate methods.

When cleaning, changing bedding, or staying away from home, look for:

If the room is heavily infested, you may find bed bugs in the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains, in drawer joints, in electrical receptacles and appliances, under loose wall paper and wall hangings -- even in the head of a screw. Since bed bugs are only about the width of a credit card, they can squeeze into really small hiding spots. If a crack will hold a credit card, it could hide a bed bug.

Canvas strap of old box spring covering that is housing adults, skin castings, feces, and eggs. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Louis Sorkin)

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Bed Bugs | Pesticides | US EPA

updated 7/8/2013

This means you make sure bed bugs are not harboring in the bed frame, headboard, etc., and that you encase mattresses and box springs in high quality bed bug-proof encasements.

You have to work with the protocols of your pest management professional. Most pest professionals were aware of do recommend encasements. A carefully-encased mattress (with encasement sealed and kept free of tears) may help many people to eliminate bed bugs sooner, avoid bed bug bites, and save or protect an expensive mattress. Read our encasements FAQ for some of the pros and cons, and expert recommendations.

Bedbugs can crawl onto the bed and bite you, but you are taking steps to ensure they do not live there. If they cross poison on the way to you, any meal will hopefully be their last. You may use a Packtite Passive Monitor/BBAlert Passive Monitor, which encourages bed bugs to harbor inside so they can be detected easily. Alternatively, you may use pitfall/interceptor monitors like Climbup Interceptors or Blackout Bed Bug Detectors to catch any bed bugs climbing onto or off of the bed (read more about Climbup Interceptors and Blackout Bed Bug Detectors here). These two approaches (passives vs. interceptor/pitfall monitors) are quite different, and mixing them is not usually the best idea.

Here, you are trying to get bedbugs out of your bed, and keep them out, so they cannot bite at night.

Isolating the bed is controversial, and though it may help people who are being bitten very badly or who have serious allergic reactions or who are in great distress may to try and avoid getting bed bug bites while in bed, it also may actually mean you are fighting bedbugs longer. This is so because bed bugs may spread further around your home (and remember: they will still bite you outside of the bed).

The theory behind isolating is that bed bugs will still try to get to you, but they should be trapped on the way, and you should be able to avoid bed bug bites while sleeping.

In a few cases, however, bed bugs are said to have dropped down from the ceiling to bite people in isolated beds. It seems to be a rare occurrence, but a possibility. More often, beds not thoroughly isolated have allowed people to continue to be bitten by bed bugs. If youre going to isolate, you must be meticulous and thorough.

And remember, if bedbugs cannot bite at night, they will bite during the daytime, as you sit in chairs or go about your day. For this reason, many would recommend instead that you simply protect the bed, but do not isolate it.

Many people prefer to protect rather than isolate the bed because having bed bugs biting you in bed, or finding evidence they were there (cast skins, blood spots, etc.) is a sure sign you still have a bed bug problem and require further treatment. If you isolate and dont react to bed bug bites you get during the day, it may be harder to verify bedbugs continued presence. Isolating may also mean they spread further around your home, since they may have trouble reaching you in bed, where they used to feed. Protecting the bed instead, and using pitfall/interceptor monitors like Climbup Interceptors or Blackout Bed Bug Detectors as a tool for catching bed bugs as the wander onto or off of the beds legs, or using Packtite Passive Monitors (aka BBAlert Passive Monitors) (which offer an easily inspected harborage for trapping and monitoring bed bugs) would be my preference.

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How do I stop bed bug bites in bed? Protect my bed from bed ...

How do bed bugs reproduce? A female bed bug only needs to mate once in her lifetime. She is then capable of laying up to 500 eggs, or about 5 per day. After the eggs are laid, it only takes 6 to 20 days for them to hatch. A single female bed bug can increase to over 5,000 bed bugs in just six months.

What does a bed bug look like? Adult bed bugs are almost 1/4" long (about the size of an apple seed), brownish and paper thin and have a flat oval shaped body enabling them to hide in literally any place that they can wedge their bodies into.

The nymphs are a miniature replica of the adult but straw-colored and all but microscopic. They are slightly larger than a pinhead.

The eggs are white and difficult to see on most surfaces without magnification. Individual eggs are about the size of a dust speck. When first laid they are sticky causing them to adhere to surfaces.

How do bed bugs survive? Bed bugs are extremely resilient and the adults can survive up to a year without feeding. This is one reason why infestations are unlikely to diminish by leaving the premises unoccupied. While mainly active at night, they bite people while they are sleeping. Attracted to their host by heat and carbon dioxide, they feed by piercing the skin with an elongated beak through which they draw blood. Engorgement takes about 3 to 10 minutes, yet the person seldom knows they are being bitten. Immediately after feeding they crawl off and reside elsewhere to digest their meal. In 3 to 5 days they will begin searching for another meal.

How do I know if I've been bitten? Symptoms after being bitten vary with the individual. Around 70% of people have no reaction to being bitten by a bed bug, while some people will have a severe, immediate reaction. Symptoms are extremely similar to that of a mosquito bite. Bites will increase as the bed bug population rises. Often multiple bites will appear in "rows" on exposed areas, such as the neck, face, arms and legs.

Where do bed bugs live? Bed bugs prefer to hide close to where they feed. However, if necessary, they will travel to obtain a blood meal. For a small insect, bed bugs can move rapidly over floors, walls, ceilings and other surfaces. Initial infestations tend to be in areas around beds, but the bugs eventually may become scattered throughout the environment, occupying any item that provides access. They can hide in extremely small cracks and crevices making it difficult to locate breeding sites. Bed bugs may also spread to adjacent rooms or apartments.

How do bed bugs spread or travel? It often seems that bed bugs arise from nowhere. The bugs are efficient hitchhikers and are usually transported on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture and other items. This is particularly a problem for hotels, dormitories and apartments where turnover of occupants is constant. Bed bugs can survive, and thrive, in any indoor environment that people occupy for any reason. Once introduced, they often spread throughout a building. The bugs travel from room to room or floor to floor either by crawling or via a person. The level of cleanliness has little to do with most bed bug infestations. Pristine homes and apartments have plenty of hiding places and an abundance of warm-blooded hosts.

How do you get rid of bed bugs? Exterminating an infestation requires persistence and the services of a professional.

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