About Bed Bugs

Having been a major concern for centuries, during the second half of the 20th century bed bugs were not identified as a problem in the First World. This was supposedly due to the successful use of pesticides (specifically the now widely banned DDT) to control them. In fact they became so rare that US, Canadian and European college entomology lecturers reportedly couldn't find bed bug specimens to show their students. In addition, many pest management professionals had never even come across an active bed bug infestation. They didn't know what they were looking for.

But all this has changed, and bed bugs are making their presence felt across the world, from the USA and Canada, to Europe and the Middle East, down south to Australia, and in various parts of Africa. While the World Health Organization warns that they are particularly prevalent in poorer countries, as well as in both tropical and sub-tropical regions, they have become very common in developed countries too, and pandemics have been reported in recent years.

So what are bed bugs and how do they reproduce?

What are bed bugs?

The common bed bug, Cimex lecturalariusis and its cousin, the tropical bed bug, Cimex hemipterus are blood-sucking insects without wings, described by entomologists as "obligate hematophagous ectoparasites".

There are, however, a total of six sub-families in the Cimicidae family, and a whole lot of genera (23) and different species – at least 91 of which have been described in scientific literature. Some species bite bats (which are of course mammals) and some bite birds. Generally when people talk about the "human bed bug" they are referring to Cimex lecturalariusis.

What do bed bugs look like?

Adult bed bugs are oval-shaped, rather flattish insects, parts of which (specifically the sides of the pronotum, which is the first segment of the thorax) are covered with short, stiff hairs. Females are larger than male bed bugs. They may be anything from 6 mm to 9.5 mm long, and before feeding are usually brown. Having sucked their life-giving blood from us humans, they swell and turn a darker reddish mahogany brown.

Drawings in the British Natural History Museum show them with little heads and two knob-like cylindrical eyes. They have antennae between the eyes that have four segments, and they have very thin legs.

The life cycle of bed bugs

The only thing a bed bug eats is blood! This means that they have to get enough blood to live, develop and then reproduce.

Female adult bed bugs produce about 12 eggs every day, and a total of about 200 during their life. They usually lay their eggs on rough surfaces, for instance crevices alongside window panes or cracks in walls or around the ceiling where they are extremely difficult to spot. However researchers have taken photographs of eggs in old upholstered furniture, behind wood paneling, under carpets and in mattresses. R. Usinger, whose Monograph of Cimicidae (initially published in 1966, but republished by the USA's ESA as recently as August 2010) is still considered the international authority on bed bugs. He describes the habitat that these nasty little creatures choose for reproduction as "harborages".

Once the females have laid each batch of eggs, they release a transparent material that coats the eggs and keeps them stuck to the surface on which they have been laid.

It takes between 6 and 17 days for the tiny, virtually colorless bed bug nymphs to emerge from the eggs. They grow for the next 10 weeks or so, molting five times until they reach maturity. And then they start to bite...