FLIES AND OTHER HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



21 



the old style wooden bedstead with its numerous shelters. The 

 occurrence of this pest in a home is not necessarily a reflection 

 upon the ability of the housewife. Its continuance there may be 

 the occasion of grave reproach. Bedbugs are very liable to occur 

 on boats, are occasionally found in sleeping cars and are said to 

 be much more common in the Southern than in the Northern States. 

 This pest has been connected with the dissemination of several dis- 

 eases. 



Habits. This insect, as many can vouch for by personal ex- 

 perience, is nocturnal in habit. Recent experiments show that it may 

 feed under certain conditions on mice as well as upon man. This 



'^^^^ 



Fig. 6 Bedbug: a, and b, adult females from above and below, gorged with blood; 

 c, and d, structural details. (After Marlatt, U. S. Dep't Agric. Div. Ent. Bui. 4. 

 n. s. 1896) 



habit, should it prove to be general, accounts for cases where 

 bedbugs are found very abundant in houses which have been unin- 

 habited for some time. Another species^ occurs in swallows' nests 

 and occasionally invades adjacent living rooms. It appears to 

 live almost exclusively upon birds, though a third form,^ found on 

 chickens, has been known to suck human blood, but not under 

 natural conditions. 



The oval, white eggs of the bedbug are deposited in cracks and 

 crevices in batches of 6 to 50 or thereabouts. The yellowish 

 white, nearly transparent young hatch therefrom in a week or 10 

 days. Experiments have shown that about 11 weeks are neces- 

 sary for the young insects to attain maturity, though the period 

 is probably greatly modified by the degree of warmth and the 



'C i m e X h i r u n d i n i s Jenyns. 

 ^Cimex columbarius Jenyns. 



