A Review of Bed Bug Bully for Consumers

Recently, the University of Kentucky partnered with the National Pest Management Agency – a non-profit organization established in 1933 – to conduct a Bugs Without Borders Survey. They found that bed bug infestations in the United States are continuing at a high rate and in fact showed signs of increase over the years. There are many factors which may act as contributing factors to this phenomenon including warmer climates and the elimination of the chemically strong pesticide, DDT, which was banned in 1972 for being unsafe for humans and pets.

Are Bed Bug Bites Dangerous to Humans?

As with many things, the full answer is a little more complicated than that.

Ultimately, we can’t be certain as yet: studies are being conducted on bed bugs from populations that have recently adapted to so many of our modern industrial pesticides, and human blood-borne diseases are even more adaptable than the bed bugs themselves. Bed bugs are not known to pose a threat to human health, not yet, but as many as 30 or more human blood-borne pathogens survive after being ingested by these parasitic, blood-sucking insects.

Incidental Risks to Human Health from Bed Bug Bites

Here are some facts we know about bed bugs, in terms of actual risks to human health:

• Bed bug bites inject an anaesthetic, and a mild anticoagulant. These chemicals are a part of the bug’s highly evolved saliva, and they allow it to feed—undisturbed, and quickly—on its human victims. Afterwards, the bug’s bites produce an itchy, sometimes painful rash, which may be accompanied by hives or other visible swellings. There is the possibility of an allergic reaction to bed bug saliva, resulting in potentially more serious complications.
• Bed bugs cause insomnia. The feeding pattern of bed bugs makes for uncomfortable and restless sleep, and many people find the idea of being fed upon by a horde of tiny insects to be more than a little disturbing. Bed bugs have been documented as causing insomnia, which may endure even after an infestation has been eradicated and all feeding has stopped. In rare instances, individuals have required medication and psychiatric treatment to help recover from their affliction.

Are Bed Bugs Dangerous to Humans?

Over the last 3-4 years, experts have begun to explore the fact that bed bugs carry infectious human diseases, by dint of their preferred sustenance: the organisms which give rise to HIV, herpes, every form of hepatitis, MRSA, and other blood pathogens have been found to have survived the feeding process.

With no known cases of bed bugs transmitting these diseases from one person to another, scientists are looking into why that is, given that the microorganisms are already adapted to infect humans. No definitive answer has been provided yet.

Another point of concern are the arboviruses. These are diseases, such as the Zika virus, malaria, dengue, and yellow fever, which are known to be transmitted primarily through the bites of mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and other parasitic insects, arachnids, and arthropods. Here again, there are no recorded cases of these infections being transmitted by bed bugs—but the possibility remains, as the arboviruses are particularly prone to rapid adaptation.

Don’t Let the Bed Bug Bite!

Victims of bed bug bites usually experience itchy, sometimes painful rashes, which may also involve large and highly visible welts. In rare cases, the anaesthetic and anticoagulant in bed bug saliva can lead to an allergic reaction, resulting in a more severe range of problems. Because bed bugs are tiny and difficult to spot, particularly if they haven’t fed recently, these rashes are one of the earliest visible signs of a bed bug infestation.

Bed bugs grow to be approximately 4 mm in length and will be half to two-thirds as wide. Their young can be as little as half that size and will be a pale brown, white, or yellowish color. Adult bed bugs are red, reddish-brown, yellowish-brown, or dark brown. Both adults and nymphs will turn darker, and become large and sluggish after they have fed.

These unwanted houseguests inject a chemical, a modified saliva when they bite. This combines an anaesthetic, or painkiller, with an anticoagulant, which thins the blood and makes it less prone to clotting. The amount injected isn’t enough to cause serious harm to a person, although individuals with an existing heart or blood condition may be at some risk from large numbers of bites (studies aren’t clear on that point).

The reason for the anticoagulant is that bed bugs find the thinner blood easier to feed on, as well as to digest. Having eaten, bed bugs become sluggish, and will often spend some time remaining where they’re at to digest their meals.

Bed bugs will also defecate, breed, and lay eggs in the vicinity of a sleeping individual on whom they have just fed, unless there is some immediate threat to their safety. For this reason, another early sign of bed bug infestation is what they leave behind on the mattress: eggs, and egg husks, as well as tiny little black spots—bed bug offal—the size of the head of a pin.

A restless sleeper might roll over, inadvertently crushing bed bugs which have recently fed, leaving blood spots on their sheets and mattress which are often mistaken for their having bled after being fed upon. In fact, the anticoagulant is so mild as to wear off almost immediately after feeding has ended.

For more information on how to recognize bed bugs, what myths to ignore, and how to kill bed bugs, please consider the following links to other pages on this site. If you suspect you might have a bed bug problem, take action immediately—before their colony gets any bigger!

A Historical Review of Bed Bugs

In the 5th century BC, in Greece, writers lamented the issues of dealing with the nighttime predation of blood-sucking insects, introduced following early invasions of the Persian army. The history of bed bugs are also recorded in ancient Egypt, and in the early Roman Republic, where writers described them as “sofa bugs” and advocating burning any infested articles.

Other, varied solutions for dealing with bed bugs ranged from seemingly sensible, to what might strike us in the modern day as incredible. Some ancient writers believed that bed bugs could be tamed, as with other, much larger animals. Fungi, various plant-based oils, and even concoctions made from insect parts were all applied to the problem, with varying (but generally little) success.

The use of essential oils from plants which demonstrably resisted insect predation, such as mint and clove, were the most successful methods of fighting bed bugs in ancient times. Unfortunately, these and many other traditional folk remedies were largely forgotten about with the development of modern pesticides.

A Bed Bugs History

Bedbugs, unlike ticks, are actually insects. Specifically, they are parasitic insects belonging to the Cimicid family. They feed exclusively on blood, being one of many species within the Cimicid family to do so. The common bed bug’s scientific classification is Cimex Lectularius, and it is distinctive from other species within its family due to its preference for human blood.

Many Cimex Lectularius are incapable of deriving all of their nutrition from other forms of blood, having adapted quite thoroughly to feeding off of humans, much as their precursors fed off of the bats with which we shared our caves (or who shared their caves with us) thousands of years ago.

After evolving to feed on humans, some early bed bugs left the caves when we did, and joined up unknowingly with trade caravans and waves of human migration. They reached China around the same time that they reached Greece, in the last few centuries BC. From there, they went across Europe, then went north.

They’ve been recorded in England since the early Middle Ages, and are believed to have come to America with the Pilgrims on board the Mayflower. From the northeastern US, they spread rapidly south, reaching South America before also arriving at the west coast in the company of trappers and fur traders.

A Persistent Nuisance

Bed bugs are highly adaptable, and they resist most of our efforts to eradicate them. Even many of our best efforts require direct, individual applications to kill the insects, and they are able to lie dormant for extended periods of time. This allows them to relocate quickly to new places, where even a few individual bed bugs can quickly establish a thriving colony. In this way, they have spread all over the world, and can now be found virtually anywhere that people live.

This results in bed bugs being a persistent nuisance across the united states, and all over the rest of the world. Bed bugs cause a considerable amount of economic damage, as traditional extermination services are quite expensive—beyond what many people can afford, particularly if multiple treatments for bed bugs are required (which they often will be).

Loss of sleep is a major contributing factor to depression. Worldwide, events like car accidents, job loss, and suicide spike on Mondays, after a weekend in people didn’t get enough sleep; they are also known to trend in response to sleeplessness caused by other factors, including bed bugs. It is probably unfair to suggest that the insects themselves have a direct and considerable impact on suicide rates and car accidents, but in a culture where “enough sleep” is often a wistful fantasy, they certainly aren’t helping.

Here are a few basic facts about bed bugs, of which you might not be aware:

• Bed bugs live in all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Elsewhere, they are found just about wherever humans live. To date, there have been no reported cases of bed bugs among the few permanent residents of Antarctica.
• Bed bugs can travel by hiding in clothing, suitcases, luggage, cars, trucks, planes, and trains. They originally came to the New World by boat—on board the Mayflower. They reached Alaska by spreading north through Canada but likewise reached Hawaii by boat.
• Bed bugs can survive temperatures below the freezing point. They are less adept at surviving high heat: they can’t survive being boiled but have been known to survive water temperatures of up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Their anaesthetic is not a placebo. Bed bugs have actual anesthetic agents in their saliva, along with anticoagulants. Anaesthesia deadens local pain impulses, and the anticoagulants prevent blood from immediately clotting in the tiny wounds they inflict.
• Bed bugs are naturally attracted to humans. Bed bugs can sense body heat, and can also pick up on carbon dioxide emissions. They can figure out whether or not there are people in a building from outside of the building, and can tell a sleeping person apart from an active one.
• Bed bugs have natural predators, which will likewise enter your home. Cockroaches, spiders, ants, and centipedes are all among the creatures which prey on bed bugs in nature. If you have a bed bug infestation in your home, their natural predators will be drawn to the food source.
• Bed bugs use multiple pheromones for reproduction and territorial defense. Male bedbug pheromones serve as scent markers, denoting territory and warding off rival males. These are also used to attract female bed bugs. Once a colony has a foothold in your home, the males will send out pheromones to bring in more bugs.
• Bed bugs have accompanied migratory human populations for thousands of years. There are cave paintings, depicting what may be parasitic insects, which are 20,000 years old or more. These are located in the Middle East—the right part of the world relative to where modern bed bugs first arose.
• Bed bugs were written about thousands of years ago, with indirect earlier accounts. The ancient Greeks present the earliest known accounts of bed bugs being a current issue as of their writing; these accounts date to approximately 400 BC, long before the time of Alexander and before the rise of Rome. There are written accounts of bed bugs as having been a past problem which goes back even further, suggesting bed bugs were in eastern Europe five to six thousand years ago.

An Uncertain Future

Scientists are hard at work developing new means of fighting bed bugs. While their potential as a health risk is uncertain, it seems clear that they are a costly and uncomfortable problem the world over, and have been so for thousands of years. With modern pesticides proving largely ineffective without direct application, as well as being extremely toxic to people, all-natural plant-based products like Bed Bug Bully are getting a serious second look.

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