By Dr. Mohammed El Damir
Adam’s Pest Control, Inc

Although it has never been proven that bed bugs can transmit infectious pathogens, their bites can impact people’s quality of life, especially in sensitive people and people who have had bad experiences with them in the past. These individuals usually feel overwhelmed, violated, and anxious. Subsequently, they develop sleeplessness, anxiety, delusions, panic or even depression. This usually leads to social consequences, such as isolation and loneliness as they are afraid of being spreading bed bugs all over the places, especially to the beloved ones.

In order to solve this issue, let’s first understand how bed bugs spread and then explain how to avoid transporting bed bugs from one place to another.

Active dispersal: Bed bugs (especially the females) travel from one room to another or from one apartment to another via common walls and ceilings, pipes, telephone, cable wires, doorways, etc. A research study has shown that 53% of apartments adjacent to infested apartments also may be infested (Wang et.al., 2010).

Passive dispersal: As you may know, bed bugs are skilled hitchhikers. They can easily spread via infested mattress, box springs, furniture, guests, family members or people luggage, suitcases or clothes. They also can be set loose in a hallway after dropping off an item being discarded.

Bed bugs don’t jump or fly, but they can crawl very fast and may hide easily in loose garments, shoes, etc. Therefore, people living with a bed bug infestation history are urged to practice caution prior to traveling or visiting to avoid transporting bed bugs from one place to another. In order to do so, here are some suggestions:

1. Carefully inspect your suitcase using a flashlight, magnifying glass and business card or nail file in cracks, crevices and seams. If in doubt, place it in commercial hot dryer at temperature of =120°F for 1-2 hours or place in a freezer for two to three weeks prior to use, as applicable. Read the item’s label before treatment as heat may damage it. Another solution is to buy a new suitcase. Immediately after heat treatment or purchase, place your suitcase in double plastic bags and seal tightly until needed.

2. Repeat above instructions for your clothing and personal belonging, including, clothing, jackets, socks and shoes. Similar to above, these items can be heat treated (in dryer), placed in large plastic bags, tightly sealed and then placed in the heat-treated/new or thoroughly inspected suitcase.

3. If you are worried that you have bed bugs in your vehicle, contact your pest management professional to perform a thorough inspection. In addition, bed bugs can be easily detected using a certified K-9 bed bug detection dog that can detect live bed bugs and viable eggs. If bed bugs are found, your vehicle can be treated with chemical or heat.

4. Keep bed bug “prevention kit” in your vehicle to be used as needed. This includes disposable plastic bags that can be sealed for transporting clothing and other items, spray bottle containing a 70% -90% solution of isopropyl alcohol, wet wipes, flashlight, change of heat-treated clothes/new and shoes that have been stored in sealed bag. These items should be carefully stored inside a clear, airtight plastic tote box.

5. Before leaving your home, wear simple, light colored heat treated/new clothing, socks and shoes (it makes it easy to see bed bugs).

6. Take only those items that are necessary for the visit into the home.

7. Store personal items securely in your vehicle.

8. Immediately before entering someone’s home, perform a self-inspection for any bed bug life stages, including eggs. Pay attention to inside and outside of shoes, lace holes, socks, pant legs, leg area and around hands and arms. If live bed bugs are observed, spray isopropyl alcohol directly on the bed bugs and use a “wet wipe” to capture/remove the bug. Solution of isopropyl alcohol will kill bed bugs (Harrison and Lawrence, 2009) and sanitize the area, but there is no residue, so efficacy is based on thoroughness of application. Be extremely careful, rubbing alcohol, and alcohol based hand sanitizers are flammable and a fire risk.

9. Enjoy the peace of mind of knowing you’re fully bed bug free as you travel.

When you are ready, consider hiring pest management professional to eliminate your bed bug infestation, call Adam’s today for a FREE estimate, for inspection, K-9 inspection, chemical treatment, and/or heat treatment, which can eliminate hard infestations in a day.

By Dr. Mohammed El Damir

Technical and Training Director

ADAM’S Pest Control, Inc.

The common human bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L.) are bloodsucking insects of the family Cimicidae. This family includes the common human bed bugs (C. lectularius), tropical bed bugs (C. hemipterus (F.)), bat bugs (C. adjunctus Barber), swallow bugs (Oeciacus vicarious), Mexican chicken bug (Haematosiphon inodorus), andother insects with no reported common names (Usinger, 1966). Henry and Froeschner (1988) have reported that there are 92 species of Cimicidae in the world and about 16 species in the continental U.S. and Canada.

Due to the sudden, overwhelming and obnoxious resurgence of the common bed bugs in all kinds of residences, schools, medical centers, theaters, and retail stores, a great attention has been given to these troublesome pests in literature and media. Anyhow, little is known about bed bug relatives, because they are less frequently encountered in buildings. Additionally, they have never been proven that they can transmit any infectious pathogenic organisms to humans and pets. But, a few bed bug related species might also be exceedingly encountered in or around buildings; thus, inexperienced individuals may mistake them for the bed bugs. This will eventually lead to a treatment failure.

Since a successful remediation plan always starts with a proper identification of the pest, I would like to shed some light on a few Cimicidae species, which may have a special importance to the pest management professional. First, there are common features that all Cimicidae have. All Cimicidae species cannot jump or fly, but they can move and spread by crawling or hitchhiking. They are temporary, obligatory hematophagous ectoparasites, meaning that they are external blood feeders and do not live on their hosts. Besides, they have piercingand sucking mouthparts that they use to obtain blood meals from warm-blooded creatures, such as humans, birds, bats, dogs, cats, etc. During feeding, they inject anesthetic and anticoagulant substances responsible for leaving the host unaware of their presence and preventing blood from clotting. When they are fully engorged with blood, they hide in cracks, crevices and folded places near hosts between meals.

As aforementioned, a correct identification of bed bugs and their related species is critical for finding the proper treatment option. In this article, I will be discussing identification features of common bed bugs and four other related species.

Common Bed Bugs

The common bed bugs are about 3/16-1/4 inch long, oval and reddish-brown in color. Nymphs are nearly colorless when hatched, becoming brownish as they mature. Females lay white, sticky, pear-shaped, approximately 1/32-inch long eggs in concealed areas, such as any crack, crevice or void in mattresses, box springs, furniture, wall, ceiling, behind baseboards, etc. With no trouble, they can get a ride on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture, or other items, and relocate to a new home. They are nocturnal, but still, they can feed and can be seen during the day, especially in heavily infested areas.

Bed bugs are resilient pests. They can hide in tough places around people’s sleeping areas and can easily spread from one area to another on clothing or through common walls, ceilings and entry doors. Additionally, they have developed a resistance to pyrethroid insecticides (a group of pesticides commonly used in the structural pest control industry). Therefore, eliminating of all bed bug life stages, including eggs (the most resilient stage) can sometimes be a challenge in certain places. They may require the implement of both non-chemical pest management tactics, such as heat treatment and the use of chemical control methods. If chemical control option is needed, all bed bug hiding places must be carefully identified by your Pest Management Professional (PMP) and treated. The use of various approved liquid treatments on surfaces and dusts in void areas should be thoroughly and carefully implemented.

Tropical Bed Bugs

Tropical bed bugs also are associated with humans in tropical regions. To the naked eye, common and tropical bed bugs may look nearly identical. But under magnification, the key feature to differentiate the two species is that the pronotum (the upper surface of the front segment of the thorax of an insect) of the common bed bug is more expanded laterally and the extreme margins are more flattened than that of the tropical bed bug. The width of pronotum is two times the length at midline.

Bat Bugs

Bat bugs and bed bugs look 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.  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 animals, 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 1-4 weeks to feed on alternative hosts. These include birds, rodents, and humans. Once in the structure and having found a host on which to live, bat bugs will become established the same way as bed bugs. Additionally, they will spread the same way as bed bugs.

To control bat bugs, bats must be excluded from access into the buildings and nests must be removed. Once the external source of bat and bird bugs has been removed, control inside the building is the same as for bed bugs.

However, the frequency of bat bug infestations in structures is very low as opposed to bed bug infestations.

Swallow Bugs

Swallow bugs feed primarily on cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonotaVieillot). These birds nest in colonies and their nests can be occupied year round by swallow bugs. They are about 1/8 inch long. The defining characteristics of swallow bugs include their middle coxae (singular coax; the first segment of the leg of an insect or other arthropod, joining the leg to the body), which are wildly spread, the beak does not reach the second coax, as well as the third and fourth antennal segments are equal in length. Like bat bugs, swallow bugs may feed on humans and their pets as suitable alternatives when they nest around buildings and the host birds migrate or the nesting site becomes overpopulated. They also can move to other nests while attached to a host. Similar to bed bugs, they do not lash on their host and will fall off during a long migration flight.

Treatment of swallow bugs is similar to that for bat bugs. 

Mexican Chicken Bug 

Mexican chicken bug, (sometimes called poultry bug) is a bloodsucking ectoparasite of a various species of birds, such as chickens, turkeys, golden eagles, red-tailed hawk, etc. The major characteristic to separate the Mexican chicken bug from other cimicidae species is that the middle coxae are nearly touching and the beak is reaching the second coax. Although this species is found in cracks and crevices in poultry houses, it is relatively uncommon inside homes where people live, unless occasionally in special situations when their primary hosts are removed or when humans get in touch with them as they try to protect the birds from these bugs.

Treatment of Mexican chicken bugs is similar to that for bat bugs.

In conclusion, before treatment, make sure that the bug is correctly identified. Manage to collect the bug specimen intact, and have a specialist correctly identify it. This will save time, effort and money. As we always say, it all starts with the bug. Be aware that bed bugs are resilient pests, for this reason, their management may require the utilization of both non-chemical (i.e., heat treatment) and chemical pest management tactics.

Usual Resources 

Henry TJ, Froeschner RC (eds.). 1988. Catalog of the Heteroptera, or True Bugs, of Canada and the Continental United States. E. J. Brill, New York. 958 p.

Usinger, R. L. 1966. Monograph of Cimicidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). College Park, Maryland: Entomological Society of America. i-xi, 1-585 p.