Bed Bug (Cimex lectularius)


I am sure you will have heard the saying "Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite" but mention the bed bug today and most people will think you are talking about house dust mites, such has been the relative demise of the one and the ascendancy of the other both in reality and in the publicity attached to them. This is quite a remarkable turn about in knowledge and awareness when one considers that in the late nineteenth century more than 70% of Britain’s housing stock was infested by bed bugs.

Common bed bugs often come into a home via second hand articles, furniture or suitcases/luggage. As a consequence areas of cities that cater for budget international travellers appear to have rather more infestations than other areas. Almost certainly many of these have arisen because bed bugs have secreted themselves in the luggage of people sleeping in infested premises elsewhere and then crawled out and infested other premises.

Bed bugs are active only at night, usually just before dawn. During the day they hide in cracks and crevices in walls, floors, beds and furniture. When only a few bed bugs are present, they lie close to human sleeping areas; when numerous, they can be found in many rooms of the house. A characteristic “bed bug odour” is frequently present in a home infested with bed bugs.

Bed bugs are oval, chestnut brown and are flattened from top to bottom. Adult bed bugs measure about 4-7mm in length. The female will lay up to 200 plus eggs in small batches of about half a dozen a day attaching them to the surface as she moves along. The species requires a minimum temperature of at least 11degrees C to hatch successfully. Bed bugs show an incomplete life cycle; that is when the eggs hatch, a small nymphal form of the bed bug emerges. Bed bugs grow by moulting several times. Nymphs look very much like the adults except they are smaller and not sexually mature. There are five nymphal molts and each nymph must have a blood meal to be able to moult to the next size. Adults feed once a week on average, but feed many times during their four months or longer life span.