And can they infest your home? Bat bugs are members of the Cimicidae family of insects. Unlike the common bed bug, however, bat bugs do not prefer to feed on human blood, though they will if need be. However, as their name suggests, their first choice of food is bat blood. Bat bugs cannot reproduce without their bat hosts. However, if the bats take off for a new home or die out, bat bugs will move downstairs and can show up in mattresses and beds.
The bat bug looks a lot like its bed bug relatives. These two insects are very similar in size, shape and color. The main physical difference between these two insects is that the hairs on the upper thorax regions of bat bugs are longer than those of bed bugs. Like bed bugs, bat bugs do not infect humans with diseases when they bite. The project started in in Duval Fla.
County Public Schools and teaches the public how to know if an insect is indeed a bed bug and then how to deal with it. By being aware of signs of infestation in our daily activities, we all can play our part to prevent spreading these pests.
Then schools sometimes compound the problem by spraying insecticides, which is only part of the solution. Thus, among many concepts, the course materials show how to identify bed bugs so that a few do not turn into an infestation. After Duval County school district administrators received calls from schools in asking how to deal with bed bugs, the U. Environmental Protection Agency asked Duval County to form a task force to educate public schools about bed bugs, according to the study.
The panel hoped that by teaching a new curriculum in schools, students would take the information home to their parents, friends and neighbors and tell them how to cope with the insects. When the bed bug courses were first taught in , almost everyone who took it learned more about bed bugs through the lesson plans, according to the study.
In the schools, teachers taught the curriculum to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. The study found that fifth-graders learned the most — one-third more knowledge — of any set of students. Teachers and others also taught the course to adults in the community. Almost everyone who took the course learned more about Integrated Pest Management, the study reported. In fact, every group that was tested after taking the course knew more about bed bug biology and the medical significance of bed bugs than they had before taking the course, the study showed.
The only way that you can declare that there is an active infestation of bed bugs is to find live bed bugs or viable able to hatch eggs. There are many other signs of a bed bug infestation such as shed skins, blood spots or fecal spots, but these by themselves only show that there was a bed bug infestation at some time.
That infestation could still be active, or it could have been eliminated or it could have died out on its own. The following are signs of a bed bug infestation:. You must find one or more live bed bugs or healthy, unhatched eggs before you can say there is a bed bug problem at the site today.
Anyone can find live bed bugs in a heavy infestation, but live bugs are difficult to find in the earlier stages of an infestation or when there is only a small population of bed bugs. In addition to your visual inspection, there are detection tools available such as bed bug monitors and traps, and canine scent detection bed bug-sniffing dogs.
All of these detection tools can find live bed bugs when used properly, but all have limitations and significant error rates. In order to grow, a bed bug nymph will molt, or shed its skin, five times. The old exoskeleton that is left behind is tough and long-lasting. The empty, shed skins are the same general size and shape of the bugs that shed them except they are empty and translucent. Good bed bug hiding places will often have a large accumulation of these shed skins. Finding bed bug shed skins confirms that there were bed bugs at the location at one time.
Inspect for live bed bugs immediately around the area where you found the skins since it is now a known bed bug harborage site. Look at the skins closely because small bed bug nymphs sometimes hide inside the shed skins of larger nymphs and adult females sometimes deposit their eggs in shed skins.
As with shed skins, finding dead bed bugs only confirms that bed bugs were at the location at some time in the past. But, they do, of course, have one distinct difference — their food preferences. Bed bugs prefer human blood, while bat bugs prefer bats. If you think that you have a bat bug infestation, you need to act fast.
Luckily, there are some specific things you can do to get rid of them. First, cut them off from their food source, whether it be you or any bats that live on your property. If they are feeding on you, elevate your bed and any other furniture you frequent and lay bed bug traps. Neither species of pest is able to fly or jump, so they need to crawl in order to get to you. Bats sleep anywhere they can get in and out of easily, which can include can attics, barns, basements, cellars, and even inside of walls.
Bat bugs, a relative of bed bugs , are bloodsucking pests that primarily feed on bat blood. To the naked eye, bat bugs are almost identical to bed bugs in both shape and size. One way to tell the two apart, although you need magnification to do so, is by the length of the hair on the upper covering of their thorax — bat bugs have shorter hair than bed bugs. Yes, bat bugs can bite humans. As previously mentioned, human blood is not their first choice but in the absence of bats they will feed on a human host.
Bat bugs and bed bugs are related and are very similar in their appearance but you can often tell them apart by where they are encountered.
Since bat bugs feed on bats, it is common to find them in areas where bats roost including attics and wall voids. Bed bugs, on the other hand, feed primarily on human blood and are typically found in areas where people sleep or congregate. Bed bug hiding spots inside a home include mattresses and box springs, bed frames, upholstered furniture, and even electronics. Bat bugs will bite but they are not capable of infecting humans with disease.
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