The Bedbug [1934]

Part 1

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis denoted as Italics and =Bold=.

=THE BEDBUG=

C. L. MARLATT

Entomologist and Assistant Chief

FARMERS' BULLETIN 754

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

A strenuous struggle, a vigorous campaign, is before any housewife who is called upon to dispute the occupancy of her home with that persistent pest unfavorably known as the bedbug, who, gorged with the blood of his victim, lieth up in his lair from daylight to candlelight, only to swoop down upon his helpless sleeping prey during the midnight watches.

Even a flood of gas or electric light will not protect the human host, for the stress of hunger will cause the bedbug to emerge from its place of concealment in a well-lighted room at night, and even attack, voraciously, in broad daylight, if long without food.

Certain natural enemies of this pest are to be found in our homes, but they are almost as unwelcome to the housewife as the bedbug itself, and, besides, furnish little, if any, effective control.

There are remedies--many of the most effective of which are the old-fashioned household remedies, some are preparations recently put on the market by their manufacturers, while others are fumigants, requiring more than common care and more than ordinary intelligence in their use, as the gases are deadly poisons.

This bulletin tells all about them--but the main factor of success is eternal vigilance.

Washington, D. C.

Issued October 14, 1916 Revised January, 1918 Slightly revised August, 1934

=THE BEDBUG=

Cimex lectularius L.; order Hemiptera, suborder Heteroptera, family Cimicidae.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Its presence explained 3

Origin; common names; distribution 4

Varieties and related insects 5

General characteristics 5

The "buggy" odor 6

Habits and life history 6

Food and longevity 9

Influence of temperature 10

The bite of the bedbug 11

The bedbug and human diseases 11

Part 2

Natural enemies of the bedbug 12

Remedies 13

=ITS PRESENCE EXPLAINED.=

The presence of the bedbug (fig. 1) in a house is not necessarily an indication of neglect or carelessness; for, little as the idea may be relished, this insect may gain access in spite of the adoption of all reasonable precautions. It is very apt to get into the trunks and satchels of travelers, or into baskets of laundry, and may thus be introduced into homes. Unfortunately, also, it is quite capable of migrating from one house to another and will often continue to come from an adjoining house, sometimes for a period of several months, gaining entrance daily. Such migration is especially likely to take place if the human inhabitants of an infested house leave it. With the failure of their usual source of food, the migratory instinct of the bedbugs is developed, and, escaping through windows, they pass along walls, water pipes, or gutters, and thus gain entrance into adjoining houses. In these or other ways anyone's premises may be temporarily invaded.

Nevertheless, the presence of the bedbug in houses, both from the standpoint of personal comfort and the possible carriage of disease, is not to be lightly considered, and the failure on the part of anyone to institute immediate efforts of eradication will warrant the odium which is properly attached to "buggy" premises. The most important purpose of this bulletin is, in addition to giving a general account of this house pest, to indicate effective means by which it can be eradicated promptly.

=ORIGIN; COMMON NAMES; DISTRIBUTION.=

As with nearly all the insects associated with man, the bedbug has had the habits now characteristic of it as far back as the records run. It was undoubtedly of common occurrence in the dwellings of the ancient peoples of Asia. The Romans were well acquainted with it, giving it the name Cimex. It was supposed by Pliny--and this was doubtless the common belief among the Romans--to have medicinal properties, and it was recommended, among other things, as a specific for the bites of serpents. It is said to have been first introduced into England in 1503, but the references to it are of such a nature as to make it very probable that it had been there long before. Two hundred and fifty years later it was reported to be very abundant in the seaport towns, but was scarcely known inland.

One of the old English names was "wall-louse." It was afterward very well known as the "chinch," which continued to be the common appellation for it until within a century or two, and is still used in parts of this country. The origin of the name "bedbug" is not known, but it is such a descriptive one that it would seem to have been very naturally suggested. Almost everywhere there are local names for these parasites, as, for illustration, around Boston they are called "chintzes" and "chinches," and from Baltimore comes the name "mahogany flat," while in New York they are styled "red coats," and in the west "crimson ramblers."

The bedbug has accompanied man wherever he has gone. Ships are very apt to be infested with it and have been the chief means of its wide distribution. It probably came to this country with the earliest colonists; at least Kalm, writing in 1748-49, stated that it was plentiful in the English colonies and in Canada, though unknown among the Indians.

=VARIETIES AND RELATED INSECTS.=

What may eventually prove to be mere variations of the ordinary type of human bedbug have been described as distinct species in several instances. For example, the common bedbug of southern Asia is supposed to present some slight variations from the European type, chiefly in being somewhat more elongate. These slightly diverging forms of the bedbug in different parts of the world, which are not known to have any special bird or animal host other than human beings, may prove to be merely local races or varieties of the ordinary bedbug.

Birds, bats, and poultry are attacked in various parts of the world by a considerable number of parasitic bugs, closely related to the bedbug, which live on their hosts and in nests and about roosting places. One of these species, occurring abundantly in southwestern United States and Mexico, probably originally a parasitic messmate on birds and bats, has come to be an unmitigated poultry pest, and from the close association in these regions between poultry and human beings, is often a serious house pest--more so even than the true bedbug. Others of the species infesting birds and bats may also on occasion become house pests. For example, the nests of the common barn or eaves swallow of this country often swarm with the barn-swallow bug, and from such nests under the eaves of dwelling houses these bugs sometimes gain entrance to houses and beds and are the cause of much annoyance. Similarly a species, normally a parasite of birds and bats in the Old World, and also in Brazil and the West Indies, not infrequently becomes a human parasite.

(Cimex) Haematosiphon inodora Dugès.

(Cimex) Oeciacus hirundinis Jenyns.

Cimex hemipterus Fab. (synonym, rotundatus Sign.).

=GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.=

The bedbug belongs to the order Hemiptera, which includes the true bugs or piercing insects, characterized by possessing a piercing and sucking beak. The bedbug is to man what the chinch bug is to grains or the squash bug to cucurbs. Like nearly all the insects parasitic on animals, however, it is degraded structurally, its parasitic nature and the slight necessity for extensive locomotion having resulted, after many ages doubtless, in the loss of wings and the assumption of a comparatively simple structure. Before feeding, the adult (fig. 2) is much flattened, oval, and in color is rust red, with the abdomen more or less tinged with black. When engorged the body becomes much bloated and elongated and brightly colored from the ingested blood. The wings are represented by the merest rudiments, barely recognizable pads, and the simple eyes or ocelli of most other true bugs are lacking. The absence of wings is a most fortunate circumstance, since otherwise there would be no safety from it even for the most careful of housekeepers. Some slight variation in length of wing pads has been observed, but none with wings showing any considerable development has ever been found.

=THE "BUGGY" ODOR.=

The most characteristic feature of the bedbug is the very distinct and disagreeable odor which it exhales, an odor well known to all who have been familiar with it as the "buggy" odor. This odor is by no means limited to the bedbug, but is characteristic of most plant bugs also. The common chinch bug affecting small grains and the squash bugs all possess this odor, and it is quite as pungent with these plant-feeding forms as with the human parasite. The possession of this odor, disagreeable as it is, is very fortunate after all, as it is of considerable assistance in detecting the presence of these vermin. The odor comes from glands, situated in various parts of the body, which secrete a clear, oily, volatile liquid. With the plant-feeding forms this odor is certainly a means of protection against insectivorous birds, rendering these insects obnoxious or distasteful to their feathered enemies. With the bedbug, on the other hand, it is probably an illustration of a very common phenomenon among animals, i. e., the persistence of a characteristic which is no longer of any especial value to the possessor. The natural enemies of true bugs, against which this odor serves as a means of protection, in the conditions under which the bedbug lives, are kept away from it; and the roach, which sometimes feeds on bedbugs, is evidently not deterred by the odor, while the common house ant and the house centipede, which may also attack the bedbug, seem not to find this odor disagreeable.

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