Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T21:52:41.735Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The physiology and activity of the bed-bug (Cimex lectularius L.) in a natural infestation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Kenneth Mellanby
Affiliation:
The University of Sheffield

Extract

A natural infestation of bed-bugs which has existed for several years in an animal room has been studied. The bugs feed on the rats kept in cages in the room.

Methods are described by which the bugs were trapped during their periods of normal activity.

Adult bugs appear to feed on an average once every 5 or 6 days when the temperature is in the region of 20–27° C. (68–80·6° F.). Most of the female bugs lay a continuous series of eggs at the rate of nearly three per day.

Female bugs are not usually fertilized more than once a week in this wild population. In laboratory cultures copulation is much more frequent.

In the animal house the bugs were most active between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. This activity seems to be controlled by some inherent rhythm.

Some marked bugs were released and the proportion of recaptures to others in the total catch was noted. From this a rough estimate of the population was made. It appears that few adults live more than 29 days as they are probably killed by the rats when trying to feed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1939

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cragg, F. W. (1923). Observations on the bionomics of the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius L., with special reference to the relations of the sexes. Indian J. med. Res. 11, 449–73.Google Scholar
Héraud, A. (1916). Destruction de punaises. Vie agric. rur. 6, 296.Google Scholar
Jackson, C. H. N. (1933). On a method of marking tsetse flies. J. Anim. Ecol. 2, 280–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, C. H. N. (1937). Some new methods in the study of Glossina morsitans. Proc. zool. soc. Lond. pp. 811–96.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. G. (1937). The relative values of man, mouse and domestic fowl as experimental hosts for the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius L. Proc. zool. soc. Lond. pp. 107–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. G. & Mellanby, K. (1939). Bed-bugs and cockroaches. Proc. roy. ent. Soc. Lond. (A) 14, 50.Google Scholar
Mellanby, K. (1932). Effects of temperature and humidity on the metabolism of the fasting bed-bug (Cimex lectularius), Hemiptera. Parasitology, 24, 419–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellanby, K. (1935). A comparison of the physiology of the two species of bed-bug which attack man. Parasitology, 27, 111–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellanby, K. (1938). Activity and insect survival. Nature, Lond., 141, 554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellanby, K. (1939). Fertilization and egg production in the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius L. Parasitology, 31, 193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar