LIFE AMONG THE BEDBUGS

The bedbug (Cimex lectularius) has been known to man for a long time, and has probably, as Herrick remarks, “been man’s bedfellow as long as man has slept in beds,” if not longer. The ancient Romans were intimately acquainted with this insect, and Pliny recommends a mixture of macerated bedbugs in water as a cure for snake bites. It is common in all parts of the civilized world, and doubtless came to America with our sturdy fathers—even the Mayflower probably carried a full cargo of bedbugs. Like its relative the stink bug, Cimex has a peculiar odor which is quite noticeable in small rooms where the insects are unusually abundant. The full-grown bedbug is a flat-bodied, mahogany-colored creature, with mouthparts admirably adapted to blood-sucking. It lives in beds, window casings, cracks in floors, etc., or in any article of furniture which affords a crevice large enough to contain it. What we know about the insect’s life history is mainly due to Marlatt, who did his work in 1896, and to Girault, who carried out some further investigations some ten years later. The eggs are very small, white and oval, and are, according to Herrick, “laid in batches of varying numbers in cracks and crevices in the bedsteads or other places where the bedbugs happen to be. The number of eggs deposited by a single female is not known. Southall, Riley, and others have made the common statement, probably not based on actual observation, that each female lays about four batches of fifty each during the season. Girault actually succeeded in obtaining 111 eggs from one well-fed female between June 17 and August 19. How many she had deposited previous to confinement for the experiment he was, of course, unable to say. Girault’s experience with this one bug indicates that the females may continue to lay eggs at different periods throughout the breeding season and that there is only one generation a year.”

The eggs hatch in about ten days, and the young bugs appear very much like their parents—bedbugs do not pass through larva and pupa stages like flies and mosquitoes. Bedbugs probably eat nothing but blood, and a young individual, if properly supplied with this food, reaches maturity in about six weeks, shedding their skins at least five times during the period of growth. It is said that the bug feeds but once between moults; if this is true the occupant of the bed must suffer at least five bites in order to rear a single bedbug to maturity. Bugs very much like Cimex are found upon swallows, chimney swifts, pigeons and martins, and many people believe that genuine bedbugs are distributed by these birds, but this is probably not the case. True bedbugs have never been found upon them, and although the “bird bedbugs” are occasionally found in houses they do not seem to enter beds and bite human beings. Bedbugs have, however, been found in chicken houses, where they presumably bite chickens, so that there is nothing inherently unreasonable in the view that they may be distributed by birds.

The bedbug almost invariably lies hidden during the day, or as long as there is a bright light in the room. As soon as the light is turned off they sally forth to attack an exposed portion of the sleeper’s body. It seems that they are particularly likely to be secreted about the pillow, and as soon as the room is dark hit upon the neck as the most desirable and accessible part of the victim’s anatomy. Only one who has had personal experience in these matters can appreciate the vigor of the onslaught, and the astounding rapidity with which the enemy whisks out of sight the moment the light is flashed on. The bedbug’s bite is not poisonous, and the pain is probably due only to the puncture, but this is sufficient to cause considerable irritation and swelling.

Elie Metschnikoff, the author of that fascinating book entitled The Nature of Man, was the first to call attention to the bedbug’s possibilities as a carrier of disease germs. Bedbugs have been made, under laboratory conditions, to transmit typhoid and other fevers, and a tropical disease called kala-azar, but it has never been demonstrated that the bugs actually do, under ordinary conditions, play any part in the diffusion of these diseases. “Many writers and experimenters,” writes Herrick, “have labored hard to prove this insect guilty of graver offenses than that of simply stealing blood from human hosts. The most they have been able to do so far, however, is to show that in one case, at least, the bite of the bedbug formed a starting point for a case of bubonic plague. As a matter of fact, this is really a stronger indictment against the bedbug than, at first thought, might appear. The sores resulting from bedbug bites offer ideal points of entrance for disease-producing organisms and are a source of real danger. Actual and definite proof that the bedbug transmits disease is very difficult to obtain, but suspicion points strongly in that direction.... It is extremely desirable to avoid the bites of this insect if possible, especially in hotels where beds are occupied by so many different people; but this is very hard to do, in fact, almost impossible if one travels much.”

Luckily the bedbug is wingless, and therefore much easier to control than winged pests like the fly and mosquito. If Cimex were able to fly there would be no keeping him out, as the newly hatched young could pass through practically any sort of screen. The use of metal bedsteads puts the bugs at a disadvantage because they afford fewer cracks and crevices than those built of wood. Boiling water poured into the crevices kills both eggs and bugs, but a more convenient method is to use an oil can or squirt-gun filled with gasoline, kerosene, turpentine or alcohol. The easiest way to rid a room completely of insects is to fumigate with hydrocyanic acid gas, made by pouring dilute sulphuric acid on potassium cyanide. This gas kills every living creature in the room, but it is dangerous in the hands of careless or thoughtless persons.