THE BEDBUG. 1 
Its Relation to Public Health, its Habits and Life History, and Methods of Control. 
The bedbug is one of the numerous insects which have been sus¬ 
pected of conveying disease to man. Compared with such insect 
pests as mosquitoes, lice, and fleas, however, its r61e is decidedly a 
minor one. It has been claimed that the bedbug can take up the 
microparasites of European relapsing fever, plague, and possibly 
leprosy, along with the blood of men or animals suffering from these 
diseases. It is also possible that in rare instances the bedbug may 
transmit plague or European relapsing fever to man. On the other 
hand, there is no convincing evidence that the bedbug is the usual and 
ordinary insect transmitter of these or any other diseases at present 
known to us. 
If the bedbug acts as a transmitter of disease, it apparently does 
so by the accidental carriage of disease elements on the mouth parts; 
but this occurs only under the most favorable conditions. These 
would require, first, the presence of great numbers of microparasites 
on the skin or in the blood of a man or animal sick with some disease 
transmissible to man by subcutaneous inoculation; second, it would 
probably be necessary that there should be many bugs biting in 
order that one or more of them should bite some healthy person 
within a rather short space of time after these insects had fed on the 
infected individual. 
In actual practice these conditions would be found only in the 
most filthy and insanitary surroundings and would call for drastic 
measures to exterminate all vermin. It is, of course, possible that 
under unsettled conditions where sick and well are crowded together 
with no facilities for cleanliness, bedbugs might act as transmitters 
of septicemic diseases. Experience has shown that under such 
grossly insanitary conditions such insects as fleas and lice appear to 
be and are far more dangerous as carriers of disease. Special meas¬ 
ures for their extermination should be taken. Added precautions 
for the examination of bedbugs under these conditions would 
probably not be justified by the results. 
Notwithstanding the minor r61e which must be assigned the bed¬ 
bug as a carrier of disease, its presence is an offense against sanitary 
decency. Its bites are quite poisonous to some people and its odor 
is most disagreeable; and every effort should be made to keep all 
i Reprint from the Public Health Reports, vol. 86, No. 50, December 10,1920, pp. 2964-2970. 
2 
81065°—24 
r \ 
LIBRARY OF CONGRfcSS 
RECEIVED 
-APR 2 8 1924 
DOCUMENTS DIVISION 
