Bed bugs are small, brownish, flattened insects that feed solely on the blood of animals. The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is the species most adapted to living with humans. It has done so since ancient times.
Bed bugs are increasingly being encountered in homes, apartments, hotels, motels, dormitories, shelters and modes of transport. International travel has undoubtedly contributed to the resurgence of bed bugs in this country. Changes in modern pest control practice - and less effective bed bug pesticides - are other factors suspected for the recurrence.
Adult bed bugs are about 1/4 inch long and reddish brown, with oval, flattened bodies. The immature bed bugs (nymphs) resemble the adults, but are smaller and somewhat lighter in color. Bed bugs do not fly, but can move quickly over floors, walls, ceilings and other surfaces. Female bed bugs lay their eggs in secluded areas, depositing up to five a day and 500 during a lifetime. The eggs are tiny, whitish and hard to see without magnification (individual eggs are about the size of a dust spec). When first laid, the eggs are sticky, causing them to adhere to substrates. Newly hatched nymphs are no bigger than a pinhead. As they grow, they molt (shed their skin) five times before reaching maturity. A blood meal is needed between each successive molt. Under favorable conditions (70 - 90° F.), the bugs can complete development in as little as a month, producing three or more generations per year. Cool temperatures or limited access to a blood meal extends the development time. Bed bugs are very resilient. Nymphs can survive months without feeding and the adults for more than a year. Infestations therefore are unlikely to diminish by leaving premises unoccupied. Although bed bugs prefer feeding on humans, they will also bite other warm-blooded animals, including pets.
Bed bugs are active mainly at night. During the daytime, they prefer to hide close to where people sleep. Their flattened bodies enable them to fit into tiny crevices - especially those associated with mattresses, box springs, bed frames and headboards. Bedbugs do not have nests like ants or bees, but do tend to congregate in habitual hiding places.
Characteristically, these areas are marked by dark spotting and staining, which is the dried excrement of the bugs. Also present will be eggs and eggshells, molted skins of maturing nymphs and the bugs themselves.
Another likely sign of bed bugs is rusty or reddish spots of blood on bed sheets or mattresses. Heavy infestations are sometimes accompanied by a “buggy” or sweetish odor, although such smells are not always apparent.
Bed
bugs prefer to hide close to where they feed. However if necessary,
they will crawl more than 100 feet to obtain a blood meal. Initial infestations
tend to be around beds, but the bugs eventually may become scattered
throughout a room, occupying any crevice or protected location. They also
can spread to adjacent rooms or apartments.
Bed
bugs usually bite people at night while they are sleeping. They feed
by piercing the skin with an elongated beak through which they withdraw blood.
Feeding takes about three to 10 minutes, yet the person seldom knows they are
being bitten. Some people develop an itchy welt or localized swelling, while others
have little or no reaction. Unlike fleabites that occur mainly around the ankles,
bed bugs feed on any bare skin exposed while sleeping (face, neck, shoulders,
arms, hands, etc.). The welts and itching are often attributed to other causes
such as mosquitoes. For these reasons, infestations may go a long time unnoticed
and can become quite large before being detected.
Bed
bugs are often carried in on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture, etc.
Outbreaks can often be traced to international travel from countries where the
bugs are common, such as Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean or Central/South
America. This is a particular problem for hotels, motels and apartments, where
turnover of occupants is constant. Bed bugs are small, cryptic and agile, escaping
detection after crawling into suitcases, boxes and belongings. The eggs are almost
impossible to see when laid on most surfaces. Purchase or rental of secondhand
mattresses, box springs, and furniture is another way that the bugs are transported
into previously non-infested dwellings.
Once
bed bugs are introduced, they often spread room to room throughout a building.
Unlike cockroaches that feed on filth, the level of cleanliness has little to
do with most bed bug infestations. Pristine homes, hotels and apartments have
plenty of hiding places and an abundance of warm-blooded hosts. Thus, they are
almost as vulnerable to infestation as are places of squalor.
Bed
bugs are challenging pests to control. They hide in many tiny places,
so inspections and treatments must be thorough. In most cases, it will be prudent
to enlist the services of a professional pest control firm. Experienced
companies know where to look for bed bugs and have an assortment of management
tools at their disposal. Owners and occupants will need to assist the professional
in important ways. Affording access for inspection and treatment is essential
and excess clutter should be removed. In some cases, infested mattresses
and box springs will need to be discarded. Since bed bugs can disperse
throughout a building, it also may be necessary to inspect adjoining rooms
and apartments.
Bed
bugs can live in almost any crevice or protected location. The most common
place to find them is the bed. Bed bugs often hide within seams, tufts and crevices
of the mattress, box spring, bed frame and headboard.
Bed
bugs infest only a small proportion of residences, but they should be suspected
if residents complain of bites that occurred while sleeping. The bedroom and other
sleeping areas should be carefully examined for bed bugs and signs of bed bug
activity. Folds and creases in the bed linens and seams and tufts of mattresses
and box springs, in particular, may harbor bed bugs or their eggs. They may also
be found within pleats of curtains, beneath loose areas of wallpaper near the
bed, in corners of desks and dressers, within spaces of wicker furniture, behind
cove molding and in laundry or other items on the floor or around the room. Sometimes,
characteristic dark brown or reddish fecal spots of bed bugs are apparent on the
bed linens, mattress or walls near the bed. A peculiar coriander-like odor may
be detected in some heavily infested residences. Adhesive-based traps used for
sampling insects or rodents are not particularly effective for trapping bed bugs.
A
thorough inspection requires dismantling the bed and standing the components on
edge. Things to look for are the bugs themselves, and the light-brown, molted
skins of the nymphs. Dark spots of dried bed bug excrement are often present along
mattress seams or wherever the bugs have resided. Oftentimes, the gauze fabric
underlying the box spring must be removed to gain access for inspection and possible
treatment. Successful treatment of mattresses and box springs is difficult, however,
and infested components may need to be discarded. Cracks and crevices of bed frames
should be examined, especially if the frame is wood. (Bed bugs have an affinity
for wood and fabric more so than metal or plastic). Headboards secured to walls
should also be removed and inspected. In hotels and motels, the area behind
the headboard is often the first place that the bugs become established.
Bed bugs also hide among items stored under beds.
Many
areas besides beds, however, can harbor bed bugs. Nightstands and dressers
should be emptied and examined inside and out, then tipped over to inspect the
woodwork underneath. Oftentimes the bugs will be hiding in cracks, corners, and
recesses. Upholstered chairs and sofas should be checked, especially seams, tufts,
skirts and crevices beneath cushions. Sofas can be major bed bug hotspots when
used for sleeping.
Other common places to find bed bugs include: along and under the edge of wall-to-wall carpeting (especially behind beds and furniture); cracks in wood molding; ceiling-wall junctures; behind wall-mounts, picture frames, switch plates and outlets; under loose wallpaper; amongst clothing stored in closets; and inside clocks, phones, televisions and smoke detectors
The
challenge is to find and treat ALL the places where bugs and eggs may be present.
Bed bugs tend to congregate in certain areas, but it is common to find an individual
or some eggs scattered here and there. Persistence and a bright flashlight are
requisites for success. Inspectors sometimes also inject a pyrethrum-based, “flushing
agent” into crevices to help reveal where bugs may be hiding. A
thorough treatment of a home, hotel or apartment may take up to several hours.
Bed bugs were treated years ago by wholesale spraying of beds, floors, walls, furniture, etc. with DDT. This practice is no longer permitted. Thoroughness is still important, but treatments today are generally more targeted and judicious.
Infested
bedding and garments will need to be bagged and laundered (120°F minimum)
or discarded since these items cannot be treated with insecticides. Smaller items
that cannot be laundered can sometimes be de-infested by heating. Individual items,
for example, can be wrapped in plastic and placed in a hot, sunny location for
at least a few days (the 120°F minimum target temperature should be monitored
in the centermost location with a thermometer). Bedbugs also succumb to cold temperatures
below 32° F, but the chilling period must be maintained for at least two weeks.
Attempts to rid an entire home or apartment of bed bugs by raising or lowering
the thermostat will be entirely unsuccessful. Vacuuming can be very useful for
removing bugs and eggs from mattresses, carpet, walls and other surfaces. Pay
particular attention to seams, tufts and edges of mattresses and box springs and
the perimeter edge of wall-to-wall carpets. Afterward, dispose of the vacuum contents
in a sealed trash bag. Steam cleaning of carpets is also helpful for killing bugs
and eggs that vacuuming may have missed.
While
the former measures are helpful, insecticides are important for bed bug elimination.
Pest control professionals treat using a variety of low-odor sprays, dusts and
aerosols. (Baits designed to control ants and cockroaches are ineffective). Application
entails treating all cracks and crevices where the bugs are discovered or tend
to hide.
Eliminating
bed bugs from mattresses and box springs is challenging. If there are
holes or tears in the fabric, the bugs and eggs may be inside, as well as outside.
There also are restrictions on how beds can be treated with pesticides. For these
reasons, pest control firms often recommend that infested beds be discarded.
If disposal isn’t an option, encasing the mattress and box spring will be
helpful if bugs are still present. (Allergy supply companies sell zippered bed
encasements for dust mite prevention). Some pest control firms treat seams, tufts
and crevices of bed components, but they will not spray the mattress surface,
bed sheets, blankets or clothing. Vacuuming will further help to remove bugs and
eggs from mattresses and box springs that cannot be discarded. Some pest control
firms also treat beds with portable steam machines. The technique is useful, but
does not kill bugs or eggs that are hidden inside the box spring or mattress.
Fumigation is another way to de-infest beds and hard-to-treat items, but the procedure
is not always available. In extreme cases, entire buildings have been fumigated
for bed bugs. The procedure is costly though, and involves covering the building
in a tarp and injecting a lethal gas.
Mattresses
may be treated with Steri-Fab®,
which is one of the few products registered for treating mattresses.
It has no residual properties so, when used, you must be sure you treat every
seam and tuft thoroughly. Otherwise, any bed bugs you do not contact will survive
the treatment. Generally, it is easier and better to get rid of the infested mattress,
without spreading the bed bugs. However, since Steri-Fab is non-residual, it must
be sprayed directly onto the bugs to be effective. Even then, bed bugs have increasingly
become unaffected by such products. It is believed that no safe insecticide, however,
will kill the eggs.
The
cryptic, mobile nature of bed bugs limits their prevention. Avoidance is especially
challenging in hotels, motels and apartments because occupants and their belongings
are constantly changing. This affords many opportunities for the bugs to be introduced.
Householders should be wary of acquiring secondhand beds, bedding and furniture.
At a minimum, such items should be examined closely before being brought into
the home. When traveling in countries where bed bugs are prevalent, it might be
prudent to examine the bed and headboard area for signs of the bugs and elevate
luggage off the floor. Although incidence of bed bugs in the United States is
increasing, they remain rare in comparison to most other pests. Familiarity may
help to avoid infestation, or at least prompt earlier intervention by a professional.
Some
states have seen a 40% increase in bed bug infestation since 2010 because they
are becoming resistant to common insecticides. Because of this resistance,
interception devices are now often used - placing furniture and bed legs into
these devices to trap the bed bugs trying to climb up the furniture legs. Pesticides
have no effect on the bed bug eggs. Ultra high and ultra low temperatures
are increasingly used by professional pest control operators. Steam at
at least 180 degrees is also often used to kill both the bugs and the eggs.
Most of this information was obtained from the University of Kentucky Department of Entomology.
Steri-Fab® kills bed bugs. However, some bed bugs have become resistant to all insecticides including Steri-Fab.
Non-Chemical Methods (from the EPA):
- Put bedding and clothing in the dryer at high temperatures for 30 minutes to kill bed bugs (just washing will generally not kill bed bugs).
- Heat infested articles (e.g., furniture, luggage, other items that can't go
in a clothes dryer) and/or areas (i.e., a room in a house or apartment, or a whole
house) to at least 120 ºF (approximately 49 ºC) for 90 minutes to ensure
that eggs are killed.
- The higher the temperature, the shorter the time needed to kill bed bugs at all life stages.
- This is often done using a heat-generating device or in a specially constructed heating unit, some of which are portable.
- Cold treatments (below 0 ºF for at least 4 days) can eliminate some infestations.
- The cooler the temperature, the less time needed to kill bed bugs.
- Home freezers may not cold be enough to reliably kill bed bugs. Always use a thermometer to measure the temperature.
- Read more at EPA’s Using
Freezing Conditions to Kill Bed Bugs
- Use mattress, box spring, and pillow encasements to trap bed bugs and help detect infestations.
- Use monitoring devices to ensure that the bed bugs have been truly eradicated.
- See EPA’s “do-it-yourself” steps for more details on methods to reduce and control bed bug populations.
Do not spray insecticides around children.
NOTE: Many states require that a contractor applying a pest control product be licensed. Please contact your state EPA office for further information.
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