The insects, making a comeback around the globe, cannot fly and are really not interested in hanging out on your body--but they do occasionally bite during the day
By Megan Scudellari | May 27, 2011 | 12
Myth 1: Bedbugs can fly
Bedbugs lack wings, and therefore cannot fly. That is unless you put a blow dryer behind them, says Stephen Kells, a bedbug researcher at the University of Minnesota. Then they'll fly about 1.2 meters. On their own, bedbugs crawl about a meter a minute, he says.
Myth 2: Bedbugs reproduce quickly
Compared with other insects, bedbugs are slow to reproduce: Each adult female produces about one egg per day; a common housefly lays 500 eggs over three to four days. Each bedbug egg takes 10 days to hatch and another five to six weeks for the offspring to develop into an adult.
Myth 3: Bedbugs can typically live a year without a meal
Scientists debate this point, but evidence suggests that at normal room temperature, about 23 degrees Celsius, bedbugs can only survive two to three months without a blood meal. But because they are cold-blooded, their metabolism will slow down in chillier climates, and the insects may live up to a year without feeding.
Myth 4: Bedbugs bite only at night
Although bedbugs are generally nocturnal, they're like humans—if they're hungry, they'll get up and get something to eat. "If you go away to visit a friend for a week and you come back and sit down on the couch, even though it's daytime the bedbugs will come looking for you," Schal says. Keeping a light on, then, unfortunately does not keep these tiny vampires away.
Myth 5: Bedbugs live exclusively in mattresses
"'Bedbug' is such a misnomer," Kells says. "They should also be called pet bugs and suitcase bugs and train bugs and movie theater bugs." Bedbugs spread away from beds into living areas and can be seen on any surface, he says, including chairs, railings and ceilings.
Myth 6: Bedbugs prefer unsanitary, urban conditions
"Bedbugs are terribly nondiscriminatory," Schal says. Bedbugs can be found anywhere from ritzy high-rises to homeless shelters. The prevalence of the bugs in low-income housing is therefore not a result of the insect's preference, but of dense populations and the lack of money to pay for proper elimination strategies. "Any location is vulnerable," Kells says. "But some people are going to have a harder time getting control of them because it is such an expensive treatment."
Myth 7: Bedbugs travel on our bodies
Bedbugs do not like heat, Kells says. They therefore do not stick in hair or on skin, like lice or ticks, and prefer not to remain in our clothes close to our bodily heat. Bedbugs are more likely to travel on backpacks, luggage, shoes and other items farther removed from our bodies.
Myth 8: Bedbugs transmit disease
Bedbug bites can lead to anxiety, sleeplessness and even secondary infections, but there have been no reported cases of bedbugs transmitting disease to humans. They do, however, harbor human pathogens: At least 27 viruses, bacteria, protozoa and more have been found in bedbugs, although these microbes do not reproduce or multiply within the insects. Canadian researchers announced in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases that bedbugs isolated from three individuals in a Vancouver hospital carried methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, aka MRSA. Still, there have been no reported cases that the bugs actually transmit human disease.
Myth 9: We should bring back DDT
When the controversial pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, most bed bugs were already resistant to it, Schal says, and today's populations are even more widely resistant thanks to the use of a new class of pesticides. Pyrethroids, the main class of pesticides used against bedbugs today, targets sodium channels in bedbug cells, just like DDT. Consequently, as bedbugs develop resistance to pyrethroids, they also become cross-resistant to DDT.
Myth 10: You can spray bedbugs away
Thanks to pesticide resistance, those cans of spray at your local hardware store simply wont do, Schal says, adding: "Relying strictly on chemicals is generally not a good solution." The most effective solutions are fumigation and heat treatments, but these can cost a cool $2,000 to $3,000 apiece for a single-family home. Scientists are diligently pursuing other strategies, including freezing and bait similar to that used for cockroaches. In the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Economic Entomology Schal and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture published a technique that employs inexpensive infrared and vibration sensors to track bedbug movement, which could be applied to the development of automated traps that detect the pests.
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Bed Bug Colony Living in Mattress
A colony of bed bugs living along the bottom side of a mattress. Bed bugs are extremely adept at hiding in hard to reach and hard to see places. They hide during daylight hours and become most active between 12am and 4am.
By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
5:41 p.m. Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Atlanta homeless shelters have worked in recent months to rein in infestations of bed bugs before they spread. Katheryn Preston, executive director of the Georgia Coalition to End Homelessness, compared the efforts to stopping occasional elementary-school outbreaks of head lice before they become a wider problem.
"It is something you want to get right on top of. And it is not real easy to eradicate them," Preston said. Bed bugs have not been common in Atlanta homeless shelters, but the tiny, blood-sucking pests have invaded three downtown shelters in recent months, she said.
The Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness inspected the Salvation Army shelter on Luckie Street on Sept. 14 after a complaint by Chemeka Straughter, who was staying there with two children and is now staying with a friend. The county response noted the shelter was "very clean" and was being treated by a pest control company for bed bugs.
Preston declined to identify the other two affected shelters.
A spokesman for the Salvation Army said exterminators eliminated the bed bugs. But Fuquan Battle left a private family room at the shelter last Friday after complaining for nearly a month about bites he and his 7-year-old son suffered. The two came to the shelter in early September after Battle had been jobless for nearly a year.
"I noticed raised irritation on his skin," said Battle, who also experienced the itchy bites. "Then it went around to his chest and then on his back and both of his legs."
Information from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says bed bugs bites do not typically spread disease, but the parasites cause personal discomfort.
Major James Seiler, the Metro Atlanta Area Salvation Army commander, said the shelter had an outbreak in 2008 and another last May. Exterminators have inspected the shelter monthly since then and applied retreatment in September, he said.
Seiler said Battle's bedding and clothing were treated separately after his complaint.
Battle said the problem continued into October. He took his son to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding hospital on Sept. 19 and Oct. 9. Medical records show doctors treated him with topical treatments for bed bug bites. "I started to question not only the problem with the bed bugs, but the [shelter] management as well," Battle said.
An Oct. 13 letter from the organization says it was unable to meet Battle's needs and recommended that he find accommodations elsewhere by Oct. 28.
Battle said he thinks he was asked to leave for pressing the issues of bed bugs and poor management.
Seiler said Battle was not asked to leave because of his complaints.
Seiler, who said he had not talked to Battle, said he did not know of any further bed bug problems after September.
Bed bugs have reemerged as a U.S. problem in recent years because of immigration, international travel and bugs becoming resistant to pesticides, the CDC information said. The pencil-tip sized pests usually spread by hiding in clothing or personal items. A favorite haunt is seams of bedding or furniture, where they emerge at night to suck blood from unsuspecting sleepers.
