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From the facts provided today is it believed that the bed bugs originally evolved with bats living in caves in the Middle East. Most of the Bed Bugs immgrated to the United States during WWII, then became rare after a wide spread of DDT began in 1940s and 1950s. In the recentt days Bed Bugs have been returning to the US with high numbers of immigration and travel from developing countries. Also with strong pesticides becoming illegal there has not be many ways to treat the wide spread of bed bugs.
In the past few years there has been an increase of 500 percent in bed bug populations, in the United States. New York City itself had 377 Bed Bug violations in 2004. In 2005, in the five month span from July to Novermber there were 449 violations just reported in the city. Infestations started being reported in 1999 in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia, Canada, India, Isreal, and the United States. One recent theory about bed bug reappearance involves potential geographic epicentres. Investigators have found three apparent United States epicentres at poultry facilites in Arkansas, Texas, and Delware.
Bed Bugs belong to the insect family Cimicidae, which includes three species that bite pople. Bed Bugs are small crawling insects, wingless and feed solely blood of warm-blooded animals. Bed Bugs are wingless and because they never developed wings they can not fly. Although these pests can not fly, they will crawl up to 100 feet to obtain a blood meal. Bed Bugs are generally active only at dawn, with peak feeding period about an hour before sunrise.
Bed Bugs are attracted by warmth and the presence of carbon dioxide, the bed bug pierces the skin of its host with two hallow tubes. With one tube it injects saliva, which contains anticoaguants and anesthetics, while with the other its withdraws the blood of its host. Bed Bugs feed for about 5 minutes before returning to its hiding place. Although bedbugs can live for a year to eighteen months without feeding, they typically seek blood every five to ten days. Bed bugs that go dormant for lack fo food often live longer than a year, well fed specimens typically live six to nine months. In most cases when the area is greatly infested with bed bugs, there will be a sweetish odor that is noticable. Female Bedbugs can lay up to five eggs a day, in a life being able to lay up to 500. Bed Bug eggs are a milky white color and are able to be seen by the naked eye. The female bedbugs lay their eggs by gluing them to hidden surfaces, such as cracks and crevices of the mattress. The eggs hatch in one to two weeks. The newly hatched nymps are translucent, lighter in color and contiues to become deep brown or brunt orange as they moult and reach maturity. Each bedbug only needs one full blood meal to develope to the next developmental stage, and can readily wait months between fedding opportunities.
Bed Bugs usually attack warm blooded host at night time when the carbon dioxide is released. The bites are usually not felt right away. Bed Bugs thrive in places with high occupancy. Since these pests are blood eatting insects they are not so affected by cluster, the reason it is said to reduce as much cluster as possible is to reduce as many different hiding areas as possible. Predictions on extent of infestation by geographic locations are not of much value. There may be some climate- related factors of spread in the winter months as the bedbugs are killed in cold. However, it may be that they are also suseptable to heat in warm regions. The fact is that this kind parasite that lives near but not necessarily on or its host has a highly- evolved method for survival that has been effective for millions of years. Bed bug populations can be huge when control is not being executed.
