A new study examines the feeding patterns of bed bugs -- and the impact
they can have on humans' blood after several months.
The study, conducted by University of Florida researchers and published
the journal Medical and Veterinary Entomolgy, shows that bed bugs will have a
bigger or a smaller blood meal depending on when they last fed. For example, if
bedbugs are fed every day, they have 1.5 times fewer instances of eating than
those only fed occasionally, researchers found.
Researchers also found that production of bed bug eggs is linked with
how much blood the bed bugs were able to consume the week prior. "Longer
and more frequent feedings increased egg production, which would allow a faster
growth of bed bug populations," they wrote in the study. "The
increase in bed bug populations obtained with more frequent and longer feedings
can be the difference between a population that barely survives at a location
and a thriving population."
Researchers conducted their study by letting bed bugs feed on chickens
(both chickens and humans are known to be great "feeding hosts" for
bed bugs). Bed bugs may be psychologically threatening and cause extremely
irritating, scratchy bites -- but they aren't dangerous in the sense that they
don't transmit disease. But in their simulations, the researchers noted that
the potential blood loss associated with being fed on by bed bugs may not be
good for health. "Our simulations suggest that uncontrolled populations of
bed bugs can reach harmful levels for infant and adult humans in 3–8
months," they wrote in the study. "Considering the blood supply
available from humans, and the amount of time this host spends sleeping and
available for bed bug feeding, it is obvious that bed bug populations in
human-occupied facilities have the potential to grow extremely fast."
Again, bed bugs don't spread disease. But Scientific American
previously reported that some people may be allergic to bed bug bites, and that
itching bed bug bites can sometimes lead to infection. As far as the research
shows, they don't transmit diseases, but they do bite and take blood. People
can get secondary infections if they scratch their wounds. In some people, the
itching is unbearable. There's some disagreement as to how many people don't
itch at all. That's one reason why infestations can be so bad, because people
don't realize they have them.
Also, there have been reports of people being sickened from using
pesticides to get rid of bed bugs, the New York Times reported last
year. "People lose their minds and, yeah, they'll do a lot of things
trying to get rid of them," Dini M. Miller, an associate professor of
urban pest management at Virginia Tech University, told the New York Times.
"Certainly the over application of pesticides is one of them."
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