bedbug

bedbug

bedbug, any of the small, blood-sucking bugs of the family Cimicidae, which includes about 30 species distributed throughout the world. Bedbugs are flat-bodied, oval, reddish brown, and about 1-4 in. (6 mm) long. They emit an unpleasant-smelling oily secretion from two glands on their undersurface. All are parasites of warm-blooded animals. The common human bedbug of temperate regions, Cimex lectularis, is largely nocturnal, spending the day in crevices in walls and furniture and in bedding. Its bite causes irritation in many individuals, but it is not known to transmit diseases. It will feed on other mammals and poultry when humans are not available and can live up to a year without feeding. Maturation from egg to adult takes about two months in warm conditions; there may be three or four generations a year. Control methods include steaming, heat treatment, spraying, fumigating, and sealing mattresses and box springs; the bedbug can be difficult to eradicate and has become resistant to some insecticides. Another parasite of humans, C. hemipterus, is common in the Old World tropics. A North American species, Haematosiphon inodora, parasitizing poultry, will also bite humans. Other species attack bats and various kinds of bird. Bedbugs are classified in the phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Hemiptera, family Cimicidae.

Bibliography

See publications of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture; B. Borel, Infested (2015) .

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Bedbug

 

(Cimex lectularius), a blood sucking insect of the order Heteroptera. The body is flat and oblong. The males measure 4.9-6.4 mm long, and the females, 4.8-8.4 mm. The adults are brownish red, and the larvae are pale yellow. The mouth pierces and sucks. Behind the third pair of legs are glandular openings, the secretions of which have a distinctive pungent odor. Bedbugs infest human dwellings, chicken coops, dovecotes, the nests of birds and bats, and the burrows of rodents. The females lay between 200 and 250 eggs (sometimes as many as 540) in their lifetime. At room temperature the larvae emerge after 17 to 20 days. There are five larval stages. The bedbug is an external parasite of humans and several other warm-blooded animals. It feeds solely on blood. At one feeding the female sucks as much as 7 mg of blood. Control measures include various methods of disinfestation.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

bedbug

[′bed‚bəg]

(invertebrate zoology)

The common name for a number of species of household pests in the insect family Cimicidae that infest bedding, and by biting humans obtain blood for nutrition.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

bedbug

any of several bloodsucking insects of the heteropterous genus Cimex, esp C. lectularius of temperate regions, having an oval flattened wingless body and infesting dirty houses: family Cimicidae

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005