Jim Kalisch, photographer and diagnostician, University, Nebraska-Lincoln
Bat bugs (Cimex adjunctus Barber) are mainly bloodsuckers of bats, but rarely, they’ll feed on human blood if their host blood is unavailable. Although bat bugs do not transmit any disease-causing pathogens to humans, their bites can cause insomnia, anxiety and panic to sensitive individuals. They are frequently confused for bed bugs, and eventually will feed in a similar fashion. Recently bat bug infestations seem to be on the rise. Thus, it is important to shed some light on the identification, biology and management of these pests. Since bat bugs treatments are different from bed bugs, correct identification is critical for success. Bat bugs and bed bugs (C. lectularius L.) look nearly identical to the naked eye. However, under a stereoscope (magnification between 20x and 50x), one distinguishing feature is that the fringe hairs on the pronotum (the upper covering of the thorax) of the bat bug are as long or longer than the width of the eye, but are shorter in the bed bug.
Bed bugs and bat bugs have different habits. The primary hosts of bat bugs are a variety of bat species, especially the big and little brown bats, which roost in colonies, but they can feed on warm-blooded creatures, including humans in the absence of bats. Bat bugs are often encountered inside a structure when bats are established in attics, wall voids, unused chimneys, or any uninhabited places of the building. Typically, bat bugs are found in cracks and crevices in bat roosting areas. But, if the primary hosts (bats) leave the nesting area, die or are eliminated, bat bugs start moving inside a structure within one to four weeks to feed on alternative hosts. Although uncommon, these include birds, rodents and humans. Once in living places and having found a host on which to live, bat bugs will become established the same way as bed bugs. They will hide in mattresses and box springs, bed frames and furniture. Additionally, they will spread the same way as bed bugs.
To eliminate bat bugs, bats must be excluded from access into buildings. Once bats are removed, thorough crack, crevice and spot treatments of residual insecticides (dust formulations are preferred in voids where they will not drift to non-target areas) to all bat harborage/roosting places (usually attics) are needed. Pay particular attention to areas around objects leading indoors, such as light fixtures, vents, plumbing chases and chimneys. These treatments are critical to kill bat bugs moving to living places after losing their host. After that, thoughtfully treat around light fixtures and ceiling moldings.
If you see oval-shaped, brown bugs about the size on an apple seed crawling down a chimney or from an attic, especially in a location with no bed bug signs or history, immediately identify and confirm the species. Then, schedule treatment as soon as possible before it’s too late. Bat bugs can lay many eggs and thrive in a short period of time. Consequently, the cost and time for treatments will be considerably increased over time if left unmanaged. Finally, make sure to set up treatment expectations with your customers. It is not unusual to see bat bugs showing up in living places for several weeks after treatment before they are gone for good.
The author is technical and training director at Adam’s Pest Control, Medina, Minn.
Hitting the Books
Bed Bug Control - Bed Bug Control
A study from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences says bringing bed bugs to the classroom makes everyone smarter.
Through a curriculum appropriately titled “Bed Bugs and Book Bags,” students worldwide are learning how to identify bed bugs, where they hide and much more. The program teaches students how to prevent the insects, and a new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences study shows the hands-on learning experience works.
The project started in 2012 in Duval (Fla.) County Public Schools and teaches the public how to know if an insect is indeed a bed bug and then how to deal with it. As measured by students’ increased knowledge of bed bugs, the curriculum has succeeded in the United States, Canada, Israel and Saudi Arabia, the study shows.
“Within the past few years, bed bug infestations have dramatically increased and have created major concern for society and for pest management professionals,” said Roberto Pereira, a UF/IFAS associate research scientist in entomology and a lead author of the study. “They are thought to be the most difficult and expensive insect pests to control in the United States. By being aware of signs of infestation in our daily activities, we all can play our part to prevent spreading these pests.”
Because bed bugs are not easily detected, they can travel from infested homes to school in a child’s belongings, such as a book bag, and eventually affect other children, teachers and staff. Then schools sometimes compound the problem by spraying insecticides, which is only part of the solution. Thus, among many concepts, the course materials show how to identify bed bugs so that a few do not turn into an infestation.
The cover of the 110-page University of Florida “Bed Bugs and Book Bags” curriculum document.After Duval County school district administrators received calls from schools in 2011 asking how to deal with bed bugs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked Duval County to form a task force to educate public schools about bed bugs, according to the study. The panel hoped that by teaching a new curriculum in schools, students would take the information home to their parents, friends and neighbors and tell them how to cope with the insects.
When the bed bug courses were first taught in 2012, almost everyone who took it learned more about bed bugs through the lesson plans, according to the study. In the schools, teachers taught the curriculum to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. The study found that fifth-graders learned the most — one-third more knowledge — of any set of students.
Teachers and others also taught the course to adults in the community. Almost everyone who took the course learned more about Integrated Pest Management, the study reported. In fact, every group that was tested after taking the course knew more about bed bug biology and the medical significance of bed bugs than they had before taking the course, the study showed.
Bed bugs often congregate along seams, folds and edges of beds and upholstered furniture. (Photo: M.F. Potter)
Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted with permission from Techletter, a biweekly training letter for professional pest control technicians from Pinto & Associates.
The only way that you can declare that there is an active infestation of bed bugs is to find live bed bugs or viable (able to hatch) eggs. There are many other signs of a bed bug infestation such as shed skins, blood spots or fecal spots, but these by themselves only show that there was a bed bug infestation at some time. That infestation could still be active, or it could have been eliminated or it could have died out on its own. The following are signs of a bed bug infestation:
1) Live Bed Bugs. You must find one or more live bed bugs (or healthy, unhatched eggs) before you can say there is a bed bug problem at the site today. Anyone can find live bed bugs in a heavy infestation, but live bugs are difficult to find in the earlier stages of an infestation or when there is only a small population of bed bugs. In addition to your visual inspection, there are detection tools available such as bed bug monitors and traps, and canine scent detection (bed bug-sniffing dogs). All of these detection tools can find live bed bugs when used properly, but all have limitations and significant error rates.
2) Shed Skins and Dead Bed Bugs. In order to grow, a bed bug nymph will molt, or shed its skin, five times. The old exoskeleton that is left behind is tough and long-lasting. The empty, shed skins are the same general size and shape of the bugs that shed them except they are empty and translucent. Be careful that you don’t confuse shed bed bug skins with those of cockroach nymphs or dermestid beetles. Good bed bug hiding places will often have a large accumulation of these shed skins.
Finding bed bug shed skins confirms that there were bed bugs at the location at one time. Inspect for live bed bugs immediately around the area where you found the skins since it is now a known bed bug harborage site. Look at the skins closely because small bed bug nymphs sometimes hide inside the shed skins of larger nymphs and adult females sometimes deposit their eggs in shed skins.
As with shed skins, finding dead bed bugs only confirms that bed bugs were at the location at some time in the past. The carcass of a bed bug remains intact for a long time, for many months or perhaps even years.
3) Bloodstains. Bloodstains are not the same as bed bug fecal spots (see later in article). Brown or red-rusty blood spots found on sheets, pillowcases and clothing are from both bed bugs and their victim. Blood often drips out of the anus of a bed bug just before it completes feeding on its host. Then, as the bug pulls out its “beak,” the person’s bite wound typically bleeds a little.
But, bloodstains on bedding are not, by themselves, indicative of a bed bug infestation, either past or present. Other spilled liquids leave brown or rusty stains and not all bloodstains in a bed are caused by bed bugs. Bloodstains do not easily wash out of fabric so you can’t estimate their age. You also may find blood smears on the wall, usually located next to the bed. These are from residents smashing recently fed bed bugs.
4) Fecal Spots. The digested blood in the gut of a bed bug is deposited as semi-liquid, black feces. As the feces dry, it leaves behind a black, slightly raised spot. Bed bug fecal spots look somewhat like those left by the German cockroach, but they feel smooth rather than rough-textured. If you wet a bed bug fecal spot, it will smear, while the fecal spot of a cockroach will not.
You often will find large numbers of fecal spots in bed bug harborage sites such as along seams of mattresses. Fecal spots are useful for pinpointing bed bug activity areas and potential treatment sites. But as with bloodstains, fecal spots are long-lasting and may be from a previous infestation of bed bugs.
5) Bed Bug Eggs. Bed bug eggs are small, translucent white and difficult to see, especially when they are inside cracks, crevices, or holes or laid on light-colored surfaces. A female bed bug lays 1 to 3 eggs each day that will hatch in 7 to 10 days at room temperature. The eggs are covered with a sticky substance that attaches them to rough surfaces. Eggs are often found in clumps in harborage sites, but since females often wander, isolated eggs can be found far from the bed. These isolated eggs are very hard to find, hidden inside a screw slot, fabric seam or under the edge of a chip of paint.
Viable eggs confirm active bed bugs, or at least the potential for active bed bugs once they hatch. You can only be sure that an egg is viable once it hatches, but there are indications of egg health. Viable eggs are white and plump, not dried up or shriveled. Two or three days before hatching, two bright red eye spots will appear inside near the cap end of a viable egg. A bed bug egg that has already hatched will have the top cap end opened, no embryo inside and may be crumpled-looking.
The owners are well-known industry consultants and co-owners of Pinto & Associates.
Study: Bites Can Induce Potentially Deadly Systemic Reactions
Bed Bug Control - Bed Bug Control
A report out of Australia demonstrates for the first time that bed bugs can induce a potentially dangerous (and possibly even deadly) systemic reaction in individuals repeatedly exposed to them.
Editor’s note: This article is based on an Oct. 26, 2016, paper in Austral Entomology (Australian Entomological Society) titled “Systemic and erythrodermic reactions following repeated exposure to bites from the Common bed bug Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae).” The paper can be found here. The following information is reprinted in PCT with permission of Stephen Doggett, Department of Medical Entomology, Pathology West — Westmead Hospital, Westmead, Australia.
As always, pest management professionals should never offer medical advice to their clients. This article is provided for informational purposes only.
Bed bugs (Cimex spp.) readily bite humans, producing a range of cutaneous reactions. This article documents systemic reactions in two patients following repeated bites from the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius. Both patients had previously fed bed bugs on themselves without any serious complication, however, upon feeding a new batch of the insects, they subsequently developed systemic urticarial reactions. Both were admitted to an emergency department for treatment and subsequently made a full recovery.
Patient 1 fed 40 to 50 bed bugs on himself and after eight minutes, he developed itch, swelling of the face, lethargy, profuse sweating and widespread wheals on the torso and limbs. The reaction disappeared in five hours after treatment with systemic prednisone and antihistamines. Patient 2 developed a similar reaction after feeding five to six bed bugs on himself. In this case, the patient also developed chest tightness and breathing difficulties. Following a similar treatment, symptoms disappeared in four hours.
In light of the increasing exposure of this insect to the general public, systemic reactions in patients may present more commonly to the medical practitioner. This report demonstrates how bed bugs can be a serious threat to the health of the community. If people are constantly exposed to bed bug bites (especially in low-income housing), then the effects can be extremely harmful to the individual.
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DISCUSSION. There are a limited number of published cases of systemic reactions to bed bugs and symptomology has been ill defined. Consequently, these reactions can create a diagnostic dilemma for health-care professionals. A diverse number of dermatological differential diagnoses exist. Multiple bed bug bites are typically characterized by a cluster or linear distribution of erythematous macular lesions and can progress to wheals and widespread urticarial (Doggett & Russell 2009).
Although rare, systemic reactions can involve widespread pruritis, asthma, anaphylaxis and fever (Doggett et al. 2012). There is increasing evidence to support sensitization after initial exposure to bed bugs with the latency period between bed bug bite and cutaneous reaction decreasing substantially between subsequent bites (Reinhardt et al. 2009).
In the case of the 28-year-old male, he had been exposed to bed bug bites since November 2012 and has developed progressively more severe cutaneous reactions from each subsequent bite.
CONCLUSION. Physical impacts of bed bug bites are of growing concern, and there has been a surge of legal disputes throughout the western world recently. State and local governments have been overwhelmed with complaints by residents in regards to bed bug infestations, which are at times resistant to pest control measures (Aultman 2013). Bed bug infestations have become a particular problem among the socially disadvantaged, where infestations often go untreated, leading to massive bed bug populations and ongoing bites. Therefore, patients with systemic reactions may increasingly present to medical practitioners.
REFERENCES Aultman JM. 2013. Don’t let the bedbugs bite: the Cimicidae debacle and the denial of healthcare and social justice. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 16, 417–427.
Bernardeschi C, Le Cleach L, Delaunay P & Chosidow O. 2013. Bed bug infestation. British Medical Journal 346, f1044.
Dang K, Lilly DG, Bu W & Doggett SL. 2015. Simple, rapid and cost-effective technique for the detection of pyrethroid resistance in bed bugs, Cimex spp. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae). Austral Entomology 54, 191–196.
Deshazo RD, Feldlaufer MF, Mihm MC & Goddard J. 2012. Bullous reactions to bedbug bites reflect cutaneous vasculitis. American Journal of Medicine 125, 688–694.
Doggett SL & Russell RC. 2008. The resurgence of bed bugs, Cimex spp. (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) in Australia. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Urban Pests, Budapest, Hungary, 13–16 July 2008 (eds WH Robinson & D Bajomi), pp. 407–425. OOK-Press, Budapest, Hungary.
Doggett SL & Russell RC. 2009. Bed bugs. What the GP needs to know. Australian Family Physician 38, 880–884.
Doggett SL, Orton CJ, Lilly DG & Russell RC. 2011. Bed bugs: the Australian response. Insects 2, 96–111.
Doggett SL,Dwyer DE, Penas PF&Russell RC. 2012.Bed bugs: clinical relevance and control options. ClinicalMicrobiology Reviews 25, 164–192.
Goddard J & De Shazo R. 2009a. Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) and clinical consequences of their bites. Journal of the American Medical Association 301, 1358–1366.
Goddard J & De Shazo R. 2009b. Multiple feeding by the common bed bug, Cimex lectularis, without sensitization.Midsouth Entomologist 2, 90–92.
Goddard J, Hasenkampf N, Edwards KT, De Shazo R & Embers ME. 2013. Bed bug saliva causes release of monocytic inflammatory mediators: plausible cause of cutaneous bite reactions. International Archives of Allergy and Immunology 161, 127–130.
LeverkusM, Jochim RC, Schäd S et al. 2006. Bullous allergic hypersensitivity to bed bug bitesmediated by IgE against salivary nitrophorin. Journal of Investigative Dermatology 126, 91–96.
Lilly DG, ZaluckiMP, Orton CJ, Russell RC,Webb CE&Doggett SL. 2015. Confirmation of insecticide resistance in Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) in Australia. Austral Entomology 54, 96–99.
Phan C, Brunet-Possenti F, Marinho E & Petit A. 2016. Systemic reactions caused by bed bug bites. Clinical Infectious Diseases 63, 284–285.
Potter MF, Haynes KF & Fredericks J. 2015. Bed bugs across America. Pestworld November/December, 4–14.
Price JB, Divjan A, MontfortWR, Stansfield KH, Freyer GA & Perzanowski MS. 2012. IgE against bedbug (Cimex lectularius) allergens are common among adults bitten by bed bugs. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 129, 863–865.
Reinhardt K, Kempke D, Naylor RA & Siva-Jothy MT. 2009. Sensitivity to bites by the bedbug, Cimex lectularius. Medical and Veterinary Entomology 23, 163–166.
Stucki A & Ludwig R. 2008. Images in clinical medicine. Bedbug bites. New England Journal of Medicine 359, 1047.
Introducing the Tom Brady cockroach. That’s right, visitors to Zoo Atlanta can now visit a roach named after the quarterback whose most recent accomplishment was leading the New England Patriots to a SuperBowl victory over the Atlanta Falcons in February.
Zoo Atlanta had a bet with Rhode Island’s Roger Williams Park Zoo that called for the loser to name a baby animal after the winning team’s star quarterback. Here’s what Zoo Atlanta posted on its Facebook page:
“Well … the New England Patriots won #SuperBowlLI, so that means we lost our bet with Roger Williams Park Zoo & Carousel Village. Before the game, our two zoos decided the losing side would name one of their baby animals after the winning team’s star quarterback, and figuring the losing side would be pretty bitter about it, we came to the agreement that baby animal … would be a Madagascar hissing cockroach.”
The PCT staff has just one question: Who will be around longer? Tom Brady or cockroaches?
Pet Squirrel Stops Burglar
Police in southwest Idaho say an indoor pet, a squirrel named Joey, thwarted a burglary attempt, KXAN reported.
The Meridian Police Department said a juvenile entered a home and told police after later being arrested that a squirrel attacked him when he tried to break into a gun safe.
Meridian Police Officer Ashley Turner said the juvenile received scratch marks on his arm but no bites. The teen is believed to have entered three or four unlocked homes in the area. The juvenile’s name hasn’t been released.
Joey’s owner, Adam Pearl, says no one can believe he has a squirrel that guards his house.
Lawsuit Alleges Rodents Dining On Soy-Based Car Wiring
A Kansas couple that owns two Honda Accords alleges rodents damaged wiring in the vehicles because of a defect, the Northern California Record reported.
James R. McKown and Margaret J. McKown filed a complaint on behalf of all others similarly situated on Jan. 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against American Honda Motor Co., alleging violation of the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act and other accounts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that they purchased two Honda vehicles that had their wiring systems damaged by rodents and pests. The plaintiffs hold American Honda Motor Co. responsible because the defendant allegedly used soy-based materials for its vehicle wiring systems that they claim attracts rodents causing damages to the vehicle.
