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Bed Bug Facts

Bed Bug Facts: Q & A with Bed Bug Expert

For bed bug facts, read the article below at MSNBC

Interview with Dr. Harold Harlan
April 20, 2008

Important Bed Bug Facts:

Harold Harlan, who was a career bug expert for the military, is a prominent authority on bed bugs. Below, he answered a few frequently asked questions:

Bed Bug Facts: Question 1

Are bed bug attacks a sign of dirty living conditions or living in older homes/building, or is anybody at risk?

Infestations of common bed bugs, Cimex lectularius L., are not directly related to sanitation levels. The cleanest living area can have a very large infestation, and improving sanitation alone will not eliminate an established bed bug population. Cluttered conditions can offer the bugs a lot of excellent harborages very near their human blood-meal hosts. Almost anyone is at risk of having an infestation if bed bugs are brought into their home.

Bed Bug Facts: Question 2

Can you get anything serious from a bed bug bite? Are there physical/physiological effects if you are living with bed bugs?

According to scientists, naturally occurring populations (infestations) of common bed bugs have been documented to have at least 28 different kinds of human pathogens in their bodies. However, very careful and detailed studies by both entomologists and medical doctors have never shown that those bed bugs could transmit (infect) even one of those pathogens to humans or lab animals. They simply have not been shown to transmit any human disease known so far.

When a bed bug feeds, it injects saliva into its blood-meal host, and that saliva contains several proteins which can routinely cause an allergic response from most hosts. The severity and timing of those reactions depends on the bitten person’s immune response to the salivary allergens, and they can vary greatly from one individual to another.Typical reactions to bed bug bites usually include some level of local reddening, minor swelling, inflammation and itching (which can be very intense, and can sometimes recur without another bed bug bite) at each bite site. A person being repeatedly bitten by bed bugs can be very uncomfortable, develop lots of reddish, itchy welts (at bite sites) and often have difficulty sleeping. The more bugs present, the more bites they inflict, and the worse the problems usually become (tending to be progressive as the bug numbers increase – usually rapidly). Also, some people can be significantly affected by the social stigma of having a bed bug infestation in their home.

Bed Bug Facts: Question 3

Why are the bugs hard to kill?

Common bed bugs are small, thin, and can hide deep in very narrow cracks. They are mainly active at night. They will routinely travel as far as a 20-foot radius from their hiding places (and back) in one night to take a blood meal. Bed bugs are very adaptable. They move much quicker, and can pass through much smaller openings or cracks, than most people expect. Even Ph.D. entomologists who work with live bed bugs for the first time are often surprised. Bed bugs can detect (and often avoid) chemical deposits such as some cleaning agents. Adult bed bugs can live longer than a whole year without feeding and most currently labeled insecticides used against them in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia, do not last more than one to three months when applied by a well-trained and competent PMP. In addition, there are reports in older literature that state that certain populations of bed bugs have developed physiological resistance to specific chemical insecticides in past, making these products ineffective. Although such true resistance has not been documented or reported against any currently labeled and commonly used insecticides, it could be developing in field populations and it should be screened for by professional diagnostic labs. Such testing (screening) in North America and Europe has only recently begun and has been very limited, so far.