THE COMMON BEDBUG 117 



THE RELATION OF THE BEDBUG TO DISEASE 



Metschnikoff was probably the first to bring the bedbug 

 under suspicion as a transmitter of disease. Since that 

 time many writers and experimenters have labored hard 

 to prove this insect guilty of graver offenses than that of 

 simply stealing blood from human hosts. The most they 

 have been able to do so far, however, is to show that in 

 one case, at least, the bite of the bedbug formed a starting 

 point for a case of bubonic plague. As a matter of fact, 

 this is really a stronger indictment against the bedbug 

 than, at first thought, might appear. The sores resulting 

 from bedbug bites offer ideal points of entrance for disease- 

 producing organisms and are a source of real danger. 

 Actual and definite proofs of the transmission of disease by 

 the bedbug are difficult to obtain, but suspicion points 

 strongly in that direction. It is supposed that they spread 

 the germ causing Obermeyer's relapsing fever, a disease 

 occurring in Europe. Nuttall succeeded in transmitting 

 this germ through the bite of a bedbug from one mouse to 

 another. It is inferred that if the bedbug can transmit 

 the germ from mouse to mouse, it can also transmit it from 

 man to man. 



Dutton has also shown, experimentally, that the bedbug 

 may spread typhoid fever. The bugs were infected by 

 feeding on the blood of a person in the acute stage of the 

 fever. The bacilli were retained by the bug in a virulent 

 condition for at least twenty-four hours. 



In 1907 Patton discovered the parasites of a tropical 

 disease of the Old World, known as Kala-azar, in bedbugs 

 (Cimex rotundatus) that had fed on persons suffering 

 from this disease. He did not demonstrate, however, 



