The way the photographs are composed gives you a real sense of size and the features involved. Some are especially graphic, so skip if you would.

bed bug eggs, nymphs, and fecal stains - copyright Richard Naylor

Sizes are variable but eggs are approximately 1 mm. First instar nymphs are not much larger.

Entomologist Richard Naylor’s image gallery has moved here. The old gallery (which I really like best) is presumably to be taken down. Incidentally, the old page to his profile features a nice redirection message. I’ll leave you to stumble upon it.

He also curates a gallery of bed bug gaffes that is now what you might call fairly mature. (See also our interview in February.)

Bed bugs stretching and feeding while lying down on their backs

Lou Sorkin sends his holiday regards.

That cardboard looks pristine. Did the bed bugs get new refugia?

Mostly adult bed bugs feeding in an atypical position

jar & feeding, mostly adults, labium straight

Atypical feeding position. Bed bugs stayed on the cardboard and when moved away from skin, would not move forward onto skin but back up and retreat into corrugations. Front legs not used to assist in pushing stylet fascicle into skin, labium not bent, so feeding here must be shallow. See close-up insert. Red skin color is basically a birthmark, a nevus, but small red dots are from previous feeding by other bed bugs.
This feeding posture does not fit that described by Usinger (1966) Monograph of Cimicidae, Chapter 3-Bites, page 34 and figure 3-1 on page 35.

For the Dickerson & Lavoipierre diagram referenced in Usinger see this.

Update: in this photograph you can see a fuller view of the body; the front legs are not holding on to the cardboard.

bed bug feeding on its back not holding cardboard with front legs

The papers say the city is ready to do battle, more on what that might mean later.

Of course bed bugs have always been a big deal. Eradicating them, a big production. We had a brief respite there in the 20th century with a succession of various effective and cheap (and therefore widely deployable) control methods. Now we get to spend incredible amounts of cash killing bed bugs, and be grateful for it. And the organizational logistics of eradication? Again comparable to what they once were?

All of which is to say, let’s have any excuse to look at some photographs from a bed bug disinfestation protocol at Camp Lee (now Ft. Lee), Virginia in 1943.¹

Photos copyright Dr. Eugene J. Gerberg, used with permission, all rights reserved.

Soldiers’ gas masks were “often severely infested.”

Inspections were conducted to determine the extent of the problem (and whether local control efforts instead of fumigation would still be effective).

Bedding was disinfested in a high-pressure steam chamber. The metal beds were dipped in a vat—and altogether reconsidered, wooden bedsteads replaced, and the cracks in a remaining 4 x 4 wood support filled with putty and painted.

Hydrogen cyanide fumigation:

And finally, one of my favorite photos:

Allow none to pass.

An educational program on bedbug control should be arranged. Posters are helpful in pointing out methods of detection and eradication.

Photos copyright Dr. Eugene J. Gerberg, used with permission, all rights reserved.

I read once, in PCT, that there were congressional hearings in the 40s about army personnel and bed bugs. I’ve never been able to find the records. If anyone knows more, I’d be grateful for the details.

1. “Bedbug control by fumigation with hydrocyanic acid gas discoids,” private photo album, EJ Gerberg (1943).

Like this one showing the fascicle of doom inside its sheath:

Janice Haney Carr - CDC Public Health Image Library - ID # 11728

As described in Dickerson & Lavoipierre, the labium encloses the “needle-like stylets,” of which there are two pairs (mandibles are the outer pair and maxillae the inner pair) which together form a flexible “compact bundle” called a fascicle. The food canal (largish) and salivary canal (very small) are formed by the maxillae fitting together. The labium does not enter the skin; it bends to allow the fascicle to probe deeply into the skin. (To see photos of bed bugs feeding — and mating and being charming and all that — see this.)

All of this as it may be, once your mind latches on to an analogy, it’s hard to dislodge. Mine has been this one!

Alcoholic Juice Box by alexleavitt via flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleavitt/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Not quite, but tempting.

Here is another view of the tip of the mouthparths:

Janice Haney Carr - CDC Public Health Image Library - ID # 11731

What is that?

Janice Haney Carr - CDC Public Health Image Library - ID # 11730

Like the spikes of a flail.

“The tip of the labium consists of 2 lobes bearing minute sensory papillae.” – Usinger, Monograph of Cimicidae, 1966.

But what are sensory papillae for?

Is the labium a suitable-skin-probing-site-sensing organ? And if so, what are the cues? Inquiring minds want to know… but can’t find out.

Anyway, while looking I found something that may interest you:

The bed-bug usually probes the tissues of the host repeatedly before settling down to feed, and it is most unusual for an insect successfully to locate a source of food immediately after the fascicle has entered the host’s skin. Sometimes probing is so prolonged that the insect becomes dissatisfied and completely withdraws the fascicle, changing its position on the surface of the skin and selecting a new site for probing.

Dissatisfaction? The mind reels.

Dickerson, G., Lavoipierre, M.M.J., 1959. Studies on the methods of feeding of blood-sucking arthropods. II. The method of feeding adopted by the bed-bug (Cimex lectularius) when obtaining a blood-meal from the mammalian host. Ann. Trop. Med. Parasitol. 53, 347–357.

This is their drawing of the stages of probing:

schematic diagram of the successive stages in the introduction of the fascicle of C. lectularius into the ear of a rodent - Dickerson and Lavoipierre 1959

Bonus Dickerson/Lavoipierre:

Whilst probing, the fascicle often pierces, cuts across, and sometimes enters, minute capillaries and larger vessels, without ceasing its restless movement. This active probing results in the formation of small and large haemorrhages in the tissues, but we have seldom observed the bug to feed upon them. The fascicle continues its active movements in the tissues until it encounters and enters a vessel of suitable calibre, from which the blood-meal is then taken up.

What constitutes a “vessel of suitable calibre” is not elaborated upon except that they thought bed bugs ignored both very small capillaries and large blood vessels.

When engorgement is complete, the bug withdraws its fascicle, the blood pours out of the lacerated vessel, and a withdrawal haemorrhage is produced. If the fascicle has penetrated deeply into the tissues of the host the insect may have some difficulty in withdrawing it, owing to the small backwardly directed teeth on the tips of the mandibles, which fix them firmly in the tissue.

Blood and lacerated vessels. And we haven’t yet considered the saliva.

From Lou Sorkin.

There are some bed bug problems that are very difficult (like the lack of access to pest control services and the difficulty of containing infestations in multi-unit buildings), and then there are problems that are simpler, if only someone would stand up and own them.

“There is no law”

Nicole wrote to us about a bed bug problem in her neighborhood in Ridgewood, right under her window:

My neighboring building has bedbugs, I feel bad that they are dealing with that, but they do not feel bad or care that they are possibly going to contaminate my apt. They have been tossing mattresses outside, against my property, near my bedroom windows. [...] I notified the owner, who confirmed that the mattresses are infested (you can also see that the mattresses & box springs are covered in BB feces). I asked the owner to move the mattresses away from my window; he said he does not have to do so. I asked if he could at least put plastic covers on them, again he said he does not have to, there is no law….

two improperly discarded bed bug-infested box springs

When Nicole calls 311, every time a new mattress or couch appears, the operators are understanding but all they can do is report the problem to the Department of Sanitation as an “untidy property” complaint. It is unclear what the Department of Sanitation has done. Nicole suspects that the neighbor has been getting tickets, and might be ignoring them, but she has called 311 four times already.

She also called the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and… need we spell it out? Not their problem.

Nicole’s landlord has also talked to the landlord of the infested building, to no avail.

It breaks my heart when people write this:

Please help and let me know what can be done.

I wish I could.

discarded box spring under the window

close up of discarded box spring

“You are ruining people’s lives”

What is the fate of all this infested furniture?

Large trash day in Nicole’s neighborhood is on Wednesday. The Sanitation Department has picked up once. The second batch of infested mattresses was picked up by a mattress scavenging truck on a Saturday:

A truck came and picked up the mattress, I warned the guy, but he didn’t care, he wanted to make his 10 dollars. I freaked out on him, I yelled “YOU ARE RUINING PEOPLE’S LIVES!!” He did not care!!!!

bed bug-infested mattress underneath window

close up of discarded mattress, one of several

Another set of mattresses was still outside as of last night.

Other trash from this building—strollers, a headboard—have been taken by people in the neighborhood. None of it was labeled as infested with bed bugs.

I have warned everyone I see picking through my neighboring building’s trash, nobody cares.

improperly discarded furniture and carpets

So what is the solution to this deceptively simple bed bug problem of improperly discarded bed bug trash?

What is the right carrots/stick approach? The city is fresh out of carrots (or so we’re told) even if they thought to make use of them for this type of problem, so what is the appropriate stick? What sort of fine will make the owner of this bed bug-infested property sit up and take notice?

What about the mattress scavengers?

Nicole, like many other New Yorkers, wishes there were an education campaign appropriate to the levels of infestation we are suffering:

That is one thing that bothers me, is the lack of knowledge people have. I don’t blame them, I only learned recently. I wish flyers were sent out with all bed bug related info, to help people understand better. [...] I wish these people that are dumping this stuff would realize that without wrapping up their infested trash, they risk the chance of bringing them right back into their apts.

Teaching people how to properly wrap and discard infested furniture should be a more or less straightforward matter. Disseminating such information widely is not so simple, but it can be done. The tenants in this building are plainly in need of information. Throwing away their furniture will not solve their bed bug problem. Nonetheless, if they insist on throwing it out, as people sometimes will no matter what information or warnings are available, then they can be taught how to wrap it in pallet wrap or bag it securely and label it as infested.

Of course, the limits of an education campaign are evident in the person of this landlord who says simply, and accurately, there is no law.

Nicole is worried about bed bugs. She can see people buying the bed bug spray bottles at her local hardware store. She knows people who have had bed bugs and she fears the extraordinary expense of bed bug eradication.

I wish I could say something reassuring to her. The dispersal habits of bed bugs are not well understood. There is no doubt, however, that bed bugs and even newly hatched bed bugs on those infested mattresses can survive for many days unfed. I am not prepared to tell Nicole that she shouldn’t worry so much. Would you?

Nicole has gotten a fast education on bed bugs. I especially appreciate her point about the stigma of bed bugs:

It is unbelievable how many people have them, but don’t really talk about it. I guess since I don’t have them, I just feel threatened by them, I am not afraid to talk about it or worry about the stigma that is attached to admitting to having bedbugs. I bring it up to everyone I know, just to spread the word, I was so surprised to learn how many people I knew, and people they know that had them…..it is out of control!

A problem that is out of control, yes. But a problem that nobody owns.

One of the bills considered by the City Council last February would have gone a long way towards addressing this problem. It got short shrift from nearly everyone at the hearing.

Interestingly, at this hearing, a representative of the Sanitation Department was asked some pointed questions about a report that had come to the attention of the committee members about a person who put out bed bug-infested trash in properly labeled and secured bags, only to have the Sanitation Department refuse to pick it up! The Sanitation Department! They’re the ones at risk in these scenarios, and they could take specific steps to protect themselves and all of us.

The Sanitation Department will have a seat on the Bed Bug Advisory Board, if it is ever convened.

Recently Brooklyn The Borough got this out of Seth Donlin at HPD about the missing NYC Bed Bug Advisory Board:

According to Mr. Donlin of HPD, membership for the group has been finalized and an initial meeting is being scheduled, but the membership list is not yet available.

I think we’re all tired of waiting.

close up of discarded bed bug-infested mattress

I’m smiling because it’s as if the research gods have answered my prayers.

And if there are American groups similarly preoccupied with ecology and dispersal? Then we have something to look forward to!

While you’re there, take a look at Richard Naylor’s fantastic photographs [12/2010 update: this page is moving to Evolutionary and Ecological Entomology » Blog Archive » Bedbug image gallery]. I’m counting on at least two of them to turn your head.

But it’s not up to me, and in fact we have our choice of photographs of advanced infestations. So advanced that we feel instinctively that only some degree of impairment of the occupants would allow bed bugs to get to that stage. We recoil. This is a problem, because we need to educate those who know nothing about bed bugs, the people who think it cannot happen to them. And these are not the images most suited for this purpose.

But these infestations unquestionably exist and challenge us.

We must help those who are living in neglect, unable to fend for themselves. But we must find them first. In multi-unit housing, we are really going to have to have a program of systematic inspection.

Entomologist Lou Sorkin recently uploaded photographs of a slipper infested with bed bugs. Caution: these images may be disturbing. Please do not click on the link below if you are distressed about bed bugs. You don’t need to see this.

If you feel you can, however, then I think perhaps you should see. This is a problem that can make you cry. But we can’t cry. We have to act. All of us.

Infested slipper, photographed by Lou Sorkin.