house ant, which will also attack the bedbug, seems not to find this 

 odor disagreeable. 



The bedbug is thoroughly nocturnal in habits and displaj^s a certain 

 degree of wariness and caution, or intelligence, in its efforts at conceal- 

 ment during the day. It thrives particularly in tilthy apartments and 

 in old houses which are full of cracks and crevices in which it can con- 

 ceal itself beyond easy reach. It usually leaves the bed at the approach 

 of daylight to go into concealment either in cracks in the bedstead, if 

 the latter be one of the old wooden variety, or behind wainscoting or 

 under loose wall paper, in these places manifesting its gregarious habit 

 by collecting in masses. The old-fashioned heav}^ wooden bedsteads 

 are especially favorable for the concealment and multiplication of this 

 insect, and the general use in later years of iron and brass bedsteads 

 has very greath' facilitated its eradication. Bedbugs are not apt to be 

 very active in winter, especially in cold rooms, and ordinarily hibernate 

 in their places of concealment. 



The bedbug, though normally feeding on human blood, seems to be 

 able to subsist, for a time at least, on much simpler food ; and, in 

 fact, the evidence is pretty conclusive that it is able to get more or less 

 sustenance from the juices of moistened wood, or the moisture in the 

 accumulations of dust, etc., in crevices in flooring. No other explana- 

 tion would seem to account for the fact that houses long unoccupied 

 are found, on being reinhabited, to be thoroughly stocked with bedbugs. 



There is a very prevalent belief among the old settlers in the West 

 that this insect normally lives on dead or diseased cottonwood logs and 

 is almost certain to be abundant in log houses of this wood. This 

 belief was recently voiced by Capt. S. M. Swigert, U. S. A., who reports 

 that it often occurs in numbers under the bark of dead trees of cotton- 

 wood {PopulHs monilifera) , especially along the Big and Little Horn 

 rivers in Montana. 



The origin of this misconception — for such it is, so far as the out-of- 

 door occurrence is concerned — is proba))ly, as pointed out by Professor 

 Riley, from a confusion of the bedbug with the immature stages of an 

 entirely distinct insect ( Aradns sp. ) which somewhat resembles the former 

 and often occurs under cottonwood liark. In houses, green or moist cot- 

 tonwood logs or lumber may actually furnish sustenance to the bedbug 

 in the absence of its usual food. The bedbug is, however, known to 

 be able to survive for long periods without food, specimens having been 

 kept for a year in a sealed vial, with absolutely no means of sustenance 

 whatever, and in unoccupied houses it can undoubtedly undergo fasts 

 of extreme length. Individuals obtained from eggs have been kept in 

 small sealed vials in this otiice for several months, remaining active 

 and sprightly in spite of the fact that they had never taken any nourish- 

 ment whatever. 



