Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius)
Daniel K. Onion, MD, MPH
Mt. Vernon/Vienna Health Officer
293-2076
3/25/15
My daughter’s family accompanied her on a work trip to western New York State last spring. She always shops hard for good deals and found a cozy local country inn and had a pleasant weekend. She and her 3-year-old noticed mosquito-like bites when they got home; her husband had none. Because New York has been reporting bedbug infestations recently, she suspected that was the problem. Online she discovered that previous guests at that inn had had similar experiences. With a lot of effort (see below), she and her family avoided home infestation. But her experience is increasingly common, even here in Maine, and certainly for those who travel out-of-state now.
Bed bugs rarely transmit human blood-borne diseases but certainly can be a nuisance. They are small insects that feed on human blood and are active at night when people are sleeping. Unlike head lice, bed bugs do not live on a person. However, they can hitchhike from one place to another in backpacks, clothing, luggage, books and other items.
Adult bed bugs have flat, rusty-red-colored oval bodies. As bed bugs feed, their bodies swell and become brighter red. About the size of an apple seed, they are big enough to be easily seen, but often hide very successfully in cracks in mattress and box springs rim beading and other bedding, furniture, floors, or walls. Where you find one, you almost always find more; often they cluster together, probably to prevent the young bugs from drying out. They can live for months without feeding if they must, but prefer to feed nightly. They inject anticoagulants and anesthetics when they bite, so the victim rarely ever sees the bug and usually feels nothing while the bugs sip dinner for 10-15 minutes.
Their bites usually cause small, itchy red skin “mosquito bites”, often in a line, and most often on the face, neck, hands and arms, within a day or two, but can be delayed as long as a week. The bites result from both the small injury to the skin, but much more from allergic reactions in that injured skin to the bugs’ saliva and/or feces. Some people (30%), like my son-in-law, don’t react and hence get no visible bites. The bites, though itchy, should be scratched as little as possible and kept soap-and-water clean to prevent secondary skin infections.
Infestations are very difficult and expensive to control. The best strategy is to prevent exposure. First, beware garage sales, especially of bedding!! When traveling, check on-line bed bug reports (http://www.bedbugregistry.com/) when picking a place to stay; and when you get there, put your bags temporarily in the tub bath while you tear the bed apart a little to look for the buggers along the mattress beads and other tight corners. No hotel, no matter how fancy, can be guaranteed forever bed bug-free. If you find them, go somewhere else and report both to the hotel and the state Center for Disease Control. The big hotel chains do have generally better surveillance and prevention policies.
If you do bring them home, first try environmental measures such as laundering and drying bed linens at maximal temperature settings, vacuuming rooms, and cleaning as well as encasing mattresses and box springs in tight plastic covers. Because of their toxicity to humans and pets, insecticides should be applied by a professional exterminator if they are needed.
For more information, the Maine CDC has a good website (http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/infectious-disease/epi/bedbugs/)
adult bed bug
Recent reported cases of hotel/inn/bed-and-breakfast bed bugs from bedbugregistry.com.