Bed bug – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bed bugs, bed-bugs, or bedbugs[2] are parasitic insects of the cimicid family that feed exclusively on blood. Cimex lectularius, the common bed bug, is the best known, as it prefers to feed on human blood. Other Cimex species specialize in other animals, e.g., bat bugs, such as Cimex pipistrelli (Europe), Cimex pilosellus (western US), and Cimex adjunctus (entire eastern US).[3]

The name "bed bug" derives from the preferred habitat of Cimex lectularius: warm houses and especially nearby or inside of beds and bedding or other sleep areas. Bed bugs are mainly active at night, but are not exclusively nocturnal. They usually feed on their hosts without being noticed.[4][5][5][6]

A number of adverse health effects may result from bed bug bites, including skin rashes, psychological effects, and allergic symptoms.[7] They are not known to transmit any pathogens as disease vectors. Certain signs and symptoms suggest the presence of bed bugs; finding the insects confirms the diagnosis.

Bed bugs have been known as human parasites for thousands of years.[8] At a point in the early 1940s, they were mostly eradicated in the developed world, but have increased in prevalence since 1995, likely due to pesticide resistance.[9][10] Because infestation of human habitats has been on the increase, bed bug bites and related conditions have been on the rise as well.[8][11]

Bed bugs can cause a number of health effects, including skin rashes, psychological effects, and allergic symptoms.[7] They can be infected by at least 28 human pathogens, but no study has clearly found that the insect can transmit the pathogen to a human being.[12] Bed bug bites or cimicosis may lead to a range of skin manifestations from no visible effects to prominent blisters.[13]

Diagnosis involves both finding bed bugs and the occurrence of compatible symptoms.[7] Treatment involves the elimination of the insect and measures to help with the symptoms until they resolve.[7] They have been found with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)[14] and with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), but the significance of this is still unknown.[15]

Investigations into potential transmission of HIV, MRSA, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and hepatitis E have not shown that bed bugs can cause this. However it might be possible that arboviruses are transmissible.[16]

Dwellings can become infested with bed bugs in a variety of ways, such as:

Bed bugs are elusive and usually nocturnal (peak activity usually occurs between 10:00p.m. - 6:00a.m.), which can make their detection difficult. They often lodge in dark crevices, and the tiny adhesive eggs can be nestled by the hundreds in fabric seams. Aside from bite symptoms, signs include fecal spots (small dark sand-like droppings that occur in patches around and especially beneath nests), blood smears on sheets (re-wetted fecal spots smear like fresh blood), and the presence of their empty moulted exoskeletons.

Bed bugs can exist singly, but tend to congregate once established. Though strictly parasitic, they spend only a tiny fraction of their life cycles physically attached to hosts. Once a bed bug finishes feeding, it relocates to a place close to a known host, commonly in or near beds or couches in clusters of adults, juveniles, and eggswhich entomologists call harborage areas or simply harborages to which the insect returns after future feedings by following chemical trails. These places can vary greatly in format, including luggage, inside of vehicles, within furniture, amongst bedside cluttereven inside electrical sockets and nearby laptop computers. Bed bugs may also nest near animals that have nested within a dwelling, such as bats, birds,[18] or rodents. They are also capable of surviving on domestic cats and dogs, though humans are the preferred host of Cimex lectularius.[21]

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Bed bug - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia