When A Bed Bug Isn't A Bed Bug

Entomologists get excited over the strangest things. This morning I got my first bat bug sample ever, and I'm still all aflutter.

Bat bugs and swallow bugs are relatives of the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius--the species you are most likely to encounter on a daily basis in the pest control business. There are approximately 100 species in the bed bug family, referred to as cimicids (sigh MISS ids).  Most are specialists on certain types of birds and bats. Generally, these bird and bat feeders have little interest in human blood, and cannot survive without their normal winged hosts.

Most of these other species of cimicid bugs look much like our common bed bug.  They will be flat, oval-shaped and reddish-brown, with adult forms about the size of an apple seed.

Current thinking among biologists is that cimicids that specialize in birds and people are spin-offs from ancestral, bat-loving bed bugs. The data suggest that the switch-over from bat feeding to human feeding may not have been that long ago in evolutionary time. It's not difficult to imagine our ancient ancestors scratching from the first hungry bat bugs checking out other food choices in dark caves.

Today, it's rare to find our common bed bug feeding on bats, though it seems this species is less choosy about hosts than most other cimicids. Cimex lectularius has been found feeding on chickens, pigeons, swallows and even pets (though its clearly preferred host seems to be humans).

Distinguishing common bed bugs

Though bed bug identification is definitely a job for specialists, fortunately it's not difficult for any PMP to tell the difference between bat bugs and the common bed bug with a hand lens or office microscope.  It has to do with the haircut.

Common bed bugs, our main human bed bug pest, have a fringe of short hairs on the edges of the pronotum, that "shield-like" plate behind the head (see first picture).

Bat and swallow bug fringe hairs are longer (see lower picture). This shouldn't be hard to remember if you think of bats as being hairier than people.  Though this character won't necessarily help you tell a bat bug from a swallow bug or pigeon bug, it is a reliable way to tell one of these non-people feeders from the common bed bug.

Original Article Published Here: When A Bed Bug Isn't A Bed Bug