by Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund
Daily Lobo Columnist
The June bug hath a gaudy wing,
The lightning bug a flame,
The bed bug hath no wings at all,
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But he gets there just the same.
Bed bugs, like lice, have been the constant companion of man for centuries. The earliest writings on natural history mention them. They have a variety of names, including chinches, mahogany flats, wall lice and redcoats. These interesting little insects are about a fifth of an inch long and oval in shape.
I don't get many bed bug calls on campus, but when I do, it is usually right after Spring Break. Apparently, some students bring them back on campus from their travels. This isn't unusual as you can pick up bed bugs in dingy theatres (the porno flicks on Central Avenue are a good place to collect specimens). You can also get them in dark restaurants and bars and hotels and motels. Even five-star hotels get them occasionally.
Bed bugs are active at night, crawling out of their hiding places and often traveling considerable distances in order to find a meal. They hide during the day in a variety of places, including in mattresses and box springs, in the slots where headboard and footboard slats are inserted, behind pictures and posters on the wall, in other furniture such as nightstands, behind baseboards, under carpets and in boxes. Bed bugs are gregarious and large numbers of them may hide in a convenient place.
These creatures of the boudoir, not surprisingly, have developed an incredible sexual deviation. The male bug possesses a stout, scimitar-like penis with which he stabs and punctures the female abdomen at a point far from her vagina. Having assailed the female, the male injects copious amounts of semen into her abdomen.
It has been suggested that some components of the semen may actually nourish the female in lieu of a blood meal. Some sperm do, however, swim through her abdominal cavity and eventually arrive at her reproductive organs, where they accumulate in sacs called sperm reservoirs, eventually fertilizing her eggs.
People differ in their sensitivity to bed bug bites. In some people, such as myself, the bite produces no reaction, but in others, swelling and irritation in response to certain proteins in their saliva may occur.
There is no evidence that bed bugs are vectors of any disease. The bites should be washed with soap and water but if itching is severe, some relief may be achieved by dabbing the bites with calamine lotion.
There was a case a number of years ago where one fellow in a dorm had bed bugs but didn't know it. He didn't feel anything when they were feeding on him. Eventually the bugs spread to adjoining rooms, where they were noticed. Upon inspecting this fellow's room, I found close to a hundred bed bugs along the seams in his mattress.
I have been feeding a "colony" of bed bugs for some time by periodically sticking my hand in their cage. Their cage consists simply of a one-gallon plastic terrarium with some tissue paper in it. The bed bugs hide in the folds of the tissue and crawl up on my hand and feed when it is placed in their cage.
It takes adults about five minutes to obtain a full meal while the smaller nymphs require less time. Once they are full of blood, the scamper off my hand and drop back into the tissue paper to hide and, eventually, molt.
One sign that you may have bed bugs even if you don't develop any symptoms from their bites is the presence of blood spots on the sheets. This is actually fecal matter as bed bugs normally poop right after feeding.
Bites on the body from bed bugs will usually be on the abdomen rather than on the extremities. The bite marks are often found around the waist along the underwear line. If you sleep nude, the bites may be anywhere on the abdomen and sometimes the legs.
While bed bugs are a nuisance, they are not dangerous in any way and, as mentioned earlier, don't carry any diseases.
If you go off on Spring Break and you bring back bed bugs, don't panic, just give me a call and we will take care of them.
Have a good time and "don't let the bed bugs bite."
