Urban critters: The bed bug
Nicholas Read, Vancouver SunPublished: Saturday, October 25, 2008
What it's called: The bed bug, or in Latin, Cimex lectularius.
What it looks like: A small wingless oval-shaped insect, no more than half a centimetre long, that looks like something out of the Cretaceous period. Its light tan to deep brown flat body is formed by six distinct horizontal plates that give it the appearance of armour, while its head is vaguely reminiscent of a triceratops.
Where to find it: All over the world. It became scarce in developed nations in the latter part of the 20th Century, but has since made a big comeback, to the consternation and disgust of hotel patrons everywhere. It's particularly fond of small crevices, which is why it likes mattresses and bed frames so much. It also will stow away in luggage, furniture and even pillows. Definitely time to say "yech!" It travels from apartment to apartment or hotel suite to hotel suite through cracks in walls or tiny holes made for wires or pipes.
What it eats: The blood of warm-blooded animals, including bats, birds, dogs, cats and humans. That is why it's such a menace to us. It also is primarily nocturnal so it does its hunting and blood-sucking at night.
What eats it: Other kinds of bugs and arthropods including house centipedes, masked hunter bugs and fire ants.
In the American Southwest, the traditional cure for bed bugs is to throw your mattress on a nest of fire ants. Though then there is the problem of how to get rid of the ants.
How it reproduces: Through something called traumatic insemination.
Instead of inserting his genitalia into the female's reproductive tract in the way of most copulating partners, the male has to pierce the female almost in the way of a hypodermic needle and then ejaculate sperm throughout her body cavity. His reward? Being father of up to five bed bug eggs a day, or up to 500 in a lifetime.
What happens when you're bitten: It depends on you and your skin type. But typically an itchy red welt will result up to nine days after being bitten. Some unlucky individuals may be allergic to the bed bug's saliva and so will suffer nausea or other types of illness.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
Nicholas Read, Vancouver SunPublished: Saturday, October 25, 2008
What it's called: The bed bug, or in Latin, Cimex lectularius.
What it looks like: A small wingless oval-shaped insect, no more than half a centimetre long, that looks like something out of the Cretaceous period. Its light tan to deep brown flat body is formed by six distinct horizontal plates that give it the appearance of armour, while its head is vaguely reminiscent of a triceratops.
Where to find it: All over the world. It became scarce in developed nations in the latter part of the 20th Century, but has since made a big comeback, to the consternation and disgust of hotel patrons everywhere. It's particularly fond of small crevices, which is why it likes mattresses and bed frames so much. It also will stow away in luggage, furniture and even pillows. Definitely time to say "yech!" It travels from apartment to apartment or hotel suite to hotel suite through cracks in walls or tiny holes made for wires or pipes.
What it eats: The blood of warm-blooded animals, including bats, birds, dogs, cats and humans. That is why it's such a menace to us. It also is primarily nocturnal so it does its hunting and blood-sucking at night.
What eats it: Other kinds of bugs and arthropods including house centipedes, masked hunter bugs and fire ants.
In the American Southwest, the traditional cure for bed bugs is to throw your mattress on a nest of fire ants. Though then there is the problem of how to get rid of the ants.
How it reproduces: Through something called traumatic insemination.
Instead of inserting his genitalia into the female's reproductive tract in the way of most copulating partners, the male has to pierce the female almost in the way of a hypodermic needle and then ejaculate sperm throughout her body cavity. His reward? Being father of up to five bed bug eggs a day, or up to 500 in a lifetime.
What happens when you're bitten: It depends on you and your skin type. But typically an itchy red welt will result up to nine days after being bitten. Some unlucky individuals may be allergic to the bed bug's saliva and so will suffer nausea or other types of illness.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
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