C. L. Marlatt

“ Like its allies, the bedbug undergoes what is known as an incomplete metamorphosis. In other words, the insect from its larval to its adult stage is active and similar in form, structure, and habit, contrasting with flies and moths in their very diverse life stages of larva, chrysalis, or pupa, and winged adult.
The eggs (fig. 3, d) are white oval objects having a little projecting rim around one edge and may be found in batches of from 6 to 50 in cracks and crevices where the parent bugs go for concealment. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A period of about 11 weeks was formerly supposed to be necessary for the complete maturity of the insect, but breeding experiments with this insect, conducted in this department in 1896, indicated that the life cycle is subject to great variation, being entirely dependent on warmth and food supply. Under favorable conditions of temperature and food it was found that there was an average period of about eight days between moltings and between the laying of eggs and their hatching, giving about seven weeks as the period under these conditions from egg to adult insect. ”

“ As a messmate of human beings in dwelling houses, the bedbug is normally protected from extreme cold, and is known to be an abundant and serious pest far north. In fact, it is often more troublesome in north temperate latitudes than farther south. This may be accounted for partly by the fact that the bedbug is very sensitive to high temperatures, and a temperature of 96° to 100° F. or more, accompanied with a fairly high degree of humidity, results in the death of large numbers of the bugs. ”

“ Most of these are undoubtedly exaggerations, but the inherited experience of many centuries of companionship with man, during which the bedbug has always found its host an active enemy, has resulted in a knowledge of the habits of the human animal and a facility of concealment, particularly as evidenced by its abandoning beds and often going to distant quarters for protection and hiding during daylight, which indicate considerable apparent intelligence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It thrives particularly in filthy apartments and in old houses which are full of cracks and crevices, in which it can conceal itself beyond easy reach. As just noted the old-fashioned, heavy, wooden-slatted bedsteads afford especially favorable situations for the concealment and multiplication of this insect, and the general use in later years of iron and brass bedsteads has very greatly facilitated its eradication. Such beds, however, do not insure safety, as the insects are able to find places of concealment even about such beds, or get to them readily from their other hiding places. ”

“ Temperature control.—The possibility of temperature control is indicated in the discussion elsewhere of the effect of temperature on this insect. A temperature maintained below freezing for 10 or 15 days destroys the eggs, and this temperature continued for 15 days to a month will destroy the newly hatched young. It may be, therefore, that if infested houses in cold climates should be opened up and allowed to remain at a temperature well below freezing for a considerable period, all eggs and the young, and possibly most if not all of the adults, would be exterminated. ”

“ 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, [3] 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, [4] 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Unfavorable conditions of temperature and food will necessarily result in great variation in the number of generations annually and in the rate of multiplication, but allowing for reasonable checks on development, there may be at least four successive broods in a year in houses kept well heated in winter.
FOOD AND LONGEVITY.
Under normal conditions the food of the common bedbug is obtained from human beings only, and no other unforced feeding habit has been reported. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The fumes of burning sulphur are also a very efficient means of control where the conditions are such that this method can be used, readily destroying the insect in all stages, including the egg. The treatment is inexpensive compared with the use of hydrocyanic-acid gas and offers much less risk of danger to human beings. There is, however, a considerable risk of injury to household fabrics, furnishings, and wall papers from the strong bleaching quality of sulphur fumes. ”

“ Longevity is naturally affected more or less by temperatures. In other words, temperatures sufficient to check the activity of the insect and produce hibernation or semihibernation are apt to increase longevity. ”

“ Additional meals between molts may be taken under favoring circumstances, however, and particularly when the insect has been disturbed and has not become fully engorged at its first meal after a molting or other period. The bedbug takes from 5 to 10 minutes to become bloated with blood, and then retires to its place of concealment for 6 to 10 days for the quiet digestion of its enormous meal, and for subsequent molting, or reproduction if in the adult stage. ”

“ Tincture of iodine either at ordinary or double strength is also a good counter-irritant for use in cases of flea, mosquito, bedbug, and other insect bites, but should be used with caution on the tender skin of small children and on those who are affected with or disposed to eczemic disorders. ”

“ That the temperatures ranged much higher than was necessary is indicated by the temperature experiments referred to elsewhere, which indicated that the eggs as well as larvæ are destroyed within a few minutes at a temperature of 113° F. The latter temperature was also sufficient to destroy quickly the adults of fleas, cockroaches, and other insects. It would seem, therefore, that superheating of houses in midsummer to a temperature of 120° to 130° F. may prove to be one of the simplest and most effective means of eradication of this and perhaps other household pests. ”

“ The great desideratum, however, in a case of this kind, is a daily inspection of beds and bedding, particularly the seams and tufting of mattresses, and of all crevices and locations about the premises where these vermin may have gone for concealment. A vigorous campaign should, in the course of a week or so at the outside, result in the extermination of this very obnoxious and embarrassing pest. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Cimex lectularius L.; order Hemiptera, suborder Heteroptera, family Cimicidae.
CONTENTS. ITS PRESENCE EXPLAINED.
T 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. ”

“ There are many records indicating the ability of the bedbug to survive for long periods without food, and specimens have been kept for a year in a sealed vial with absolutely no means of sustenance whatever. ”

“ The inflammation experienced by sensitive persons seems to result chiefly from the puncture of the skin by the sharp piercing setæ which constitute the puncturing element of the mouth parts, as there seems to be no secretion of poison other than the natural fluids of the mouth. ”

“ Furthermore, the fact that the bedbug attacks its host at comparatively long intervals of from a week to several weeks or months acts as a bar to its transmission of certain insect-borne diseases, the biology of which requires a definite and comparatively short period of development in the alternate insect host. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In confinement eggs may be deposited almost daily over a period of two months or more and commonly at the rate of from one to live eggs per day, but sometimes much larger batches are laid. As many as 190 eggs have been thus obtained from a single captured female. ”

“ Bedbugs and other household insects, however, are not of the sort which it is convenient or profitable to turn over to their natural enemies in the hope that eradication by this means will follow, and the fact that they are preyed upon by other insects furnishes no excuse to the housekeeper for not instituting prompt remedial measures. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 [ 4 ] 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. ”

“ With others, however, who are less sensitive, the presence of the bugs may not be recognized at all, and, except for the occasional staining of the linen by a crushed individual, their presence might be entirely overlooked. ”

“ It usually leaves its victim as soon as it has become engorged with blood and retires to its normal place of concealment, either in cracks in the bedstead, especially if the latter be one of the wooden variety, or behind wainscoting, or under loose wall paper, and in these and similar places it manifests its gregarious habit by collecting in masses. ”

“ They will, however, be often of much service in the case of slight or recent infestations, or where the employment of more poisonous and troublesome gases is objected to or is impracticable. Of these simple methods of control perhaps the most efficient is in very liberal applications of benzine or kerosene, or any other of the lighter petroleum oils, introduced with small brushes or feathers, or by injecting with syringes into all crevices of beds, furniture, or walls where the insects may have concealed themselves. ”

“ Such feeding and reproduction may, under favorable conditions of temperature, continue throughout the year, and in one instance the progeny of a captured female adult was carried through three continuous generations. ”

“ Usually one application, if thoroughly made, put a period to the complaints, about eight or ten ounces being required in an average sleeping-room. The odor remains some little time in a room, but is not disagreeable to the average person. ”