What Are Bed Bugs?
Bedbugs are any of up to 75 species of bed bugs and other insects, included under Cimicidae, the Bed bug family in the true bug order, Heteroptera, which feed on the blood of humans, including the other warm-blooded animals. The reddish-brown adult is broad and flat and 4 - 5 mm (below 0.2 inches) long. The greatly atrophied scalelike vestigial wings are non-functioning and inconspicuous. The distinctive oily odour of the bedbugs results from a secretion of the scent, or glands, stink. Every female lays an average of 200 or even more eggs during the single reproductive period, and either three or more generations can be produced in a year. The bed bug scientific name is Cimex lectularius.
About Bedbugs
Bedbugs are among the human parasites' most cosmopolitan. They may be found in a variety of habitats, hiding during the day and feeding at night. After completing feeding, they retreat to their hiding place to digest the meal that may need many days. Adult specimens have lived for at least one year without food. However, the bedbug has an irritating bite, which is not known to transmit diseases to humans.
The below figure is a bedbug (Cimex lectularius) magnified 5×.
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A bed bug on human skin shown in the image above
Diversity among the heteropterans: (starting from left to right) shown in image below. 1. lace bug, 2. coreid bug, 3. a bat bug, 4. stinkbug, 5. the termite bug, 6. the back-swimmer, 7. the bedbug, 8. water scorpion, 9. the water strider, 10. toad bug, and 11. the plant bug.
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Cimex lectularius found in temperate regions, and C. hemipterus, which is common in the tropics, are attached to humans. The species C. pilosellus lives on the bats and, although called a bat bug, will bite humans and is at times found living in human dwellings. Oeciacus species feed on martins and swallows; Cimexopsis nyctalis members feed on chimney swifts, and Haematosiphon inodora members feed on poultry. Pigs and humans have both been reported to be eaten by bedbugs of the latter species.
Cause of Bedbugs
Bed bugs bites are primarily caused by the two species (types of bed bugs) of Bed bugs and other insects: the Cimex hemipterus and Cimex lectularius (the common bed bug), found majorly in the tropics. They range in size from 1 to 7 mm. They spread by crawling from one area to another or by being transported in personal objects. Infestation is rarely because of a lack of hygiene, but it is more common in high-density areas. Diagnosis involves both finding the bugs and taking the place of compatible symptoms. Bed bugs spend most of their time in dark, hidden locations like cracks in a wall, mattress seams.
The treatment is directed towards the symptoms. Often, eliminating the bed bugs from home is difficult, partly because the bed bugs may survive up to 70 days with no feeding. The repeated treatments of a home can be needed. These treatments may be given as heating the room to 50 °C (122 °F) for above 90 minutes, washing clothing at high temperatures, frequent vacuuming, and the use of multiple pesticides.
Bed bugs take place in all global regions. Infestations are relatively common by following an increase since the 1990s. The exact causes of this increase are still unclear; theories including the increased human travel, more frequent exchange of second-hand furnishings, which is a greater focus on the control of other pests, and the increasing resistance to pesticides. Human parasites have known about bed bugs for thousands of years.
Signs and Symptoms
Skin
The most common skin findings which are associated with the bed bugs are maculopapular, pruritic, erythematous lesions. Each lesion is up to 2–5 mm but can be as large as 2 cm in diameter and either there may or may not be the presence of a central punctum. Usually, the bites are present on the areas of exposed skin, especially the exposed areas not covered blankets or sheets, such as legs, arms, face, feet, or neck.
Individual responses to the bites differ, ranging from no visible effect (in up to 20–70%) to small flat (the macular) spots, to the formation of prominent blisters (bullae and wheals) along with intense itching that may last many days. Nodules and vesicles may also form. The lesions due to bites may secondarily become infected because of the scratching, but systemic effects from bed bug bites are much rare. A central spot of bleeding may also take place because of the release of blood-thinning substances in the saliva of bugs.
The below figure shows the Bedbug bites.
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Psychological Symptoms
Chronic attacks and serious infestations may cause stress, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. As a person develops an excessive preoccupation with bed bugs, refractory delusional parasitosis is a distinct possibility.
Description
Primarily, the bed bug insect infestations are the result of two species of insects from the Cimex hemipterus (the tropical bed bug) and genus Cimex: Cimex lectularius (the common bed bug). These insects exclusively feed on blood and, at any development stage, may survive around 70 days without feeding. Adult Cimex is light brown to reddish-brown, oval, flat, and has no hind wings. The front wings are vestigial and will reduce to pad-like structures. Adults grow to 4 to 5 mm (0.16 to 0.20 in) long and 1.5 to 3 mm (0.059 to 0.118 in) wide. The female common bed bugs may lay 1 to 10 eggs per one day and 200 to 500 eggs in their lifetime, female tropical bed bugs, on the other hand, can deposit up to 50 eggs in their lives.
Bed bugs hold five immature nymph life stages and a final sexually mature adult stage. Bed bugs need at least one blood meal in order to advance to the next development stage. They shed their skins through the ecdysis at each stage by discarding their outer exoskeleton. The newly hatched nymphs are translucent, lighter in colour, and become browner as they moult and reach maturity level. Bed bugs may be mistaken for the other insects, such as small cockroaches, booklice, or carpet beetles; however, when active and warm, their movements are more ant-like, and like most of the other true bugs, when crushed, they emit a characteristic disagreeable odour.
An adult bed bug about 4 to 5 mm long is shown below.
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Spread
Infestation is very rarely caused by a lack of hygiene. Usually, the transfer to the new places is in the personal items of the human that they feed upon. Dwellings can become infested with bed bugs in a wide number of ways, such as:
The proximity of infested items or dwellings, if easy routes are available for travel, for example, through false ceilings or ducts;
Eggs and Bugs inadvertently brought in from other infested dwellings on visiting clothing or luggage of the persons;
People visiting an infested area (for example, dwelling, means of transport, entertainment venue, lodging) and carrying the bugs to the other area on their clothing, bodies, or luggage. Also, bedbugs are increasingly found in air travel.
Though bed bugs will feed on the pets opportunistically, they do not travel or live on the skin of their hosts, and pets are not believed to be the factor in their spread.
Diagnosis and Detection
Diagnosis
A definitive diagnosis of the health effects because of the bed bugs needs a search for and finding of the insect in the sleeping environment as the symptoms are not particular sufficiently. It is not easy to distinguish the bed bug insect bites from any other arthropod bites and the linear pattern of bites (which are known colloquially as "breakfast, lunch, dinner" bites) is not particular for bed insects or bugs. If the number in a house is large, then a pungent sweet odour may be defined. Especially there are trained dogs that may detect this smell.
Detection
Bed bugs might exist singly, but once established, they tend to congregate. Although they are strictly parasitic, they spend only a tiny fraction of their lives physically attached to the hosts. Once the bed bug completed feeding, it follows the chemical trail to return to a nearby harborage, commonly either in or near beds or couches, where they live in clusters of juveniles, adults and eggs.
These places may include vehicles interiors, luggage, furniture, bedside clutter - even inside the laptop computers or electrical sockets. Also, the bed insects may lodge near animals, which have nested within a dwelling, such as birds, bats, or rodents. And, they are capable of surviving on domestic dogs and cats, though humans are preferred as the host of C. lectularius. Bed insects can be detected with the help of their characteristic smell of rotting raspberries. Bed bug detection dogs are trained to some pinpoint infestations, with a possible accuracy rate between 11% - 83%.
Some homemade detectors have been developed. Often, the Bedbug detectors are referred to as "traps" or "monitors," use attractant-based methods such as carbon dioxide or lactic acid (associated with the human body presence) or pheromones to trap bugs in a container. Bedbug detectors may confirm a bedbug infestation, but they are not considered to be effective for eradication.
FAQs on Bedbug
1. Give Some Symptoms of Bedbugs?
Answer: Numerous symptoms may occur from either the bite of the bed bugs or from exposure. Serious allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis from the serum injection and the other nonspecific proteins, have been documented rarely. Due to every bite taking a tiny amount of blood, either severe or chronic infestation may lead to anaemia. Bacterial skin infection may take place because of the skin break down from scratching. Systemic poisoning may take place if the bites are numerous.
Exposure to bed bugs can trigger an asthma attack with the effects of airborne allergens, although evidence of this association is very limited. Also, there is no evidence that bed bugs transmit infectious diseases even though they appear physically capable of carrying the pathogens and this has been investigated possibility. The bite itself can be painful hence resulting in poor sleep and worse work performance.
Same as humans, bed bugs can feed on other warm-blooded animals such as pets. The signs left by the bites are similar as in the case of people and cause identical symptoms (such as scratching, skin irritation and more). Bed bugs may infest poultry sheds, cause anaemia and a decrease in egg production in hens.
2. How Can We Prevent Us From Bed Bugs?
Answer: To prevent bringing home bed bugs, travellers are much advised to take necessary precautions after visiting an infested site: in general, these include checking shoes on leaving the site, changing the clothes outside the house prior to entering, and keeping the used clothes in a clothes dryer outside the house. When visiting any new lodging, it is also advised to check the bed before taking any items such as luggage into the sleeping area and keeping them on a raised stand to make bedbugs less likely to crawl in.
An extreme measure would be keeping the suitcase in the tub. Clothes should be either hung up or left in the suitcase, but they should never be left on the floor. Additional preventative measures include sealing crevices and cracks (which are often the sites of bed bug harborages), inspecting the furniture, and for exposed travellers to decontaminate luggage and clothes upon returning home. It is also advised people never sit down on public transport; check plane seats, office chairs, including hotel mattresses; and monitor and vacuum the home beds once a month.
3. Where Do Bedbugs Occur?
Answer: Bed bugs take place around the world. Before the 1950s, up to 30% of houses in the US had bedbugs. This fall is believed to be as partly because of the use of DDT to kill cockroaches. The invention of vacuum cleaners and simplification of furniture design can have also played a role in the decrease. Some others believe that it might simply be the cyclical nature of the organism.
The infestation rise has been hard to track because bed bugs identification is not an easy problem and is one that people prefer not to discuss. Most reports are collected from local authorities, pest-control companies and hotel chains. Thus, the problem can be very severe than is currently believed.
