Experiment Update

As introduced I have bottled a number of bed bugs at various age stages in order to examine feeding behaviors and longevity without feeding.

It is purported that bed bugs can live for 365 days (or more) relatively quietly while waiting for their next meal to arrive. Actually many bugs reliant on blood feeding have this same trait. I have seen documentaries about tics in the desert that bury themselves into the sand until a passing buffet disturbs the ground and they wake up and jump on for a feed.

Well, I bottled my samples five months ago and most of the samples are still going strong. There have been a few deaths, a few babies but mostly adults. I cannot say for certain how old the adults I captured were already, but this is what I have noticed.

-Most of the adults have died.
-The babies who have never fed before who were born a few months ago are still alive.
-The babies who have fed and have shed their skin and morphed to the next stage are still alive.
-The gang, adults and young ones held in an airtight container are not doing as well as those in a fresh air container.

One bottle group I put mesh over the opening, and another I put cotton cloth and have intermitently fed them by placing the material against my skin.

First I blow through the material to activate the bottle with CO2 and then tip it onto my wrist or arm, and then observe who is feeding and how long it takes.

My first purpose was to test if they could bite through material, and if so, how thick a layer can they effectively bite through. My second purpose was to have a control group, a group that is fed periodically versus a group that is not fed and to test the longevity of both.

This is what I have noticed about the material thicknesses:

-The adults do not bite through the cotton. They take no interest in it. Even if they have not eaten in months! However the newly hatched babies and the young ones not yet morphed into an adult seem to recognize skin through the cloth and eagerly chow down.
-The adults and the babies do recognize skin through mesh however and feed heartily.
-The bugs also prefer to bite at the edge of the opening rather than the middle, however if the places around the rim are taken they will snug in next to their neighbors or just wait their turn.

The latter point proves to me my theory that bed bugs prefer to feed where they perceive shelter. I quite often find a line of bites running up my shin. When I sleep I do so on my side. My leg is lying on the bed and where the mattress is in contact with my leg, along the edge there is where the feeding takes place.

In this way I can tell from this pattern, the bites occurred while I was lying down.

I also have had a line or grouping of bites across my foot near my toes and realized that the line matches exactly the straps on my sandals so that means that the bites are occurring while I am standing or sitting somewhere for long lengths of time, probably at my desk, and should investigate that area for bed bugs.

I hope you have found this post of interest, by signing up for the newsletter you will get updates in your mailbox when I have posted something new.

Bed Bug Quiz

Here is a quiz from medicinenet.com to test your knowledge about Bed Bugs! Think you know everything? Check again!

Bed Bug Quiz

BedBugs 101: Free iPhone App to Recommend

I just discovered an excellent FREE iPhone app called BedBugs 101. It is like an instant information resource when you need it.

It is packed full of facts and pictures.

Yes, it is an advertisement for the Protect-a-Bed system, a set of mattress, box spring, and pillow encasements that I am willing to endorse, but you do not have to buy anything to enjoy the application itself.

Plus, if you ever find any bed bugs you can instantly report it at the Bed Bug Registry, right there in the App. (I also link to this registry check the side bar.)

I absolutely love this App!

Here is the link!

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/bedbugs-101/id411932955?mt=8

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Skin Primer, Part 1

Since Bed Bugs feed by inserting their beak into the skin, I thought a primer on skin would be good.

This diagram image from Kidshealth.org shows a cutting of skin.

My questions are:

1. What does the skin emit that lets the bed bug know skin is near?
2. How deeply does the bed bug beak have to penetrate to get blood?
3. Can bed bugs bite through a layer of material?
4. How thick would the material have to be before the bed bug cannot penetrate the skin?

What skin emits:

From cosmetic sites I found out that skin actually does not breathe, so it does not emit carbon dioxide or any other waste gasses per se. However the sweat glands release salt, water and toxins, and the oil gland releases oil. When we sweat, as in during a work out, ketones get released in the sweat, a by product of breaking down fat. What does get emitted is infrared radiation.

How deeply a bed bug has to penetrate to reach blood:

Here is an image of the bed bug's mouthpiece from bed-bug.org:

What we need is a measurement.

To quote directly mdconsult.com (Ferri: Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2011, 1st ed.)

A bedbug’s bite is a wound caused by the penetration of the bedbug mouthpiece into the skin as the insect feeds on blood from vessels or extravasated blood from the damaged surrounding tissue.

Do they need to hit a capillary or a vein? Does breaking the skin, the outer layer cause bleeding?

To find out more I had to get more technical. The mouthpeice is called a "haustellum"which is defined as

haus·tel·lum/hôˈsteləm/ Noun: The sucking organ or proboscis of an insect or crustacean. (wikipedia - Merriam-Webster The Free Dictionary)

In looking for information about how deeply a bed bug has to insert the haustellum to get blood I came across an interesting examination of a tic-like blood sucking insect called a Ked engorging a mouse ear.

Melophagus ovinus: Feeding mechanism on transilluminated mouse ear

W.A. Nelsona and Denis M. Petrunia1,

Veterinary-Medical Entomology Section, Research Station, Canada Department of Agriculture, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

Abstract

Melophagus ovinus (L.), the sheep ked, when fed on a mouse ear, is a vessel feeder (solenophage). The haustellum of the ked penetrated the skin through the stratum corneum by rapid eversion of the prestomal teeth reinforced by pressure on the haustellum. It probed the subepidermal tissue with a reciprocating motion, accompanied by continuous activity of the prestomal teeth. When the labella contacted a venule of 30–100 μ, they immediately penetrated it, the prestomal teeth everted and anchored the labella to the vessel wall. Sucking of blood followed immediately and engorgement was complete within 5–10 minutes. Bursts of saliva were seen entering the vessel four or five times during engorgement. Sheep skin biopsy material containing the haustellum indicated that the ked fed from venules near the level of the apocrine glands and bases of wool follicles. Previous work is discussed in relation to these results.

Prestomal teeth. Labella. Bursts of saliva. This is what is happening folks!

I learned from cirrusimage.com/bedbug that

"[Bed Bug] mouthparts are modified for piercing and sucking.....Bed bugs grasp human skin with their forelegs, pierce the skin, and inject anticoagulant and anesthetic-containing saliva." 

which pretty well describes the above quote about the ked. The Cimex family (bed bugs) are also solenophages.

The stratum corneum (n. , pl. , strata cornea) is the horny outer layer of the epidermis, consisting mainly of dead or peeling cells, as per answers.com. I gather that the mouthpiece only needs to penetrate the outer dead skin layer, which, according to en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/437704 is between .01 and .04 mm depending on the "grip requirements" (e.g. the palm or sole of the feet, it is thicker.) They provide this image of skin layers:

I have never felt bitten on the sole of my feet or on my palm so by this I see they prefer the thinner layer areas on the body.

Can Bed Bugs bite through a layer of material?:

Yes, they can.

How thick does it have to be so that the mouthpiece does not reach the skin?


I do not know yet, however in one experiment I have attempted to do with trapped bed bugs in a bottle is to cover the bottle opening with material and press this up against my skin and see how long it takes for the bed bugs to realize there is skin under there and to see if they take interest and try to bite.

This is how I got onto this line of questioning which is far from answered.