What bedbugs look like - photo and description

What types of bedbugs are there?

All types of bedbugs are classified into 3 main groups:

1. Useful. They are specially bred to protect the harvest of field, nectar-bearing, vegetable crops and fruit trees from pests. In the absence of Colorado potato beetles, thrips, aphids and other phytophages, beneficial bugs can support their livelihoods with the help of pollen and plant sap. However, they do not harm the crop.
2. Harmful. This category includes dangerous parasitic bugs and herbivorous insects. The former have piercing-sucking mouthparts and settle closer to people and poultry. They mainly live in bedding and clothing. Herbivorous bugs pose a threat to crops.
3. Harmless. These include soldier bugs, alder broodbugs and water bugs. They do not harm humans, domestic animals, livestock or crops. In rare cases, they can bite a person due to hunger, but they are not dangerous. Saliva does not contain pathogenic microorganisms and potential allergens. Bites from bugs that feed on plant sap do not cause plants to dry out or spoil fruit. They cannot be used in agriculture to protect crops from pests.

Fighting methods

Methods of dealing with bedbugs
There are several proven methods to get rid of bedbugs. However, you should additionally disinfest the entire room, paying special attention to the room where the person sleeps.

• You can get rid of clothing parasites at home by simply washing your bedding. Bedbugs die at temperatures below 20°C and above 60°C. They take off their clothes and throw them in the wash. The water must be at least 60 degrees Celsius, exposure must be at least 30 minutes. When boiled, the eggs of parasites die instantly; getting rid of them is very simple. You should dry your laundry outside. Finally, iron with steam. For delicate fabrics, steam treatment is recommended.
• To combat bedbugs, folk remedies are used, which have a deterrent effect. In the evening, wash the floor with the addition of citrus essential oils, lavender, mint, chamomile or vinegar or ammonia to the water. Lay out tansy and wormwood.
• A remedy for bed bugs indoors is an insecticidal preparation in the form of an aerosol, concentrated liquid. Disinsection is carried out according to general rules. The drug is diluted according to the instructions. Getting rid of solutions is much faster.

How to remove bedbugs depends on the degree of infestation of the room. Using the concentrate, you can remove parasites in 2 treatments every 14 days. Effective drugs that can help you get rid of it even in 1 treatment:

• Tetrix, Get, Executioner, Sinuzan, Delta Zone;
• Karbofos, Forsyth, Cucaracha, Fufanon;
• Dichlorvos, Clean House, Raptor, Combat.

If you cannot get rid of pests, or independent efforts do not give the desired result, you should seek help from specialists. In Moscow, the destruction of bedbugs is carried out in 1 day by professional means, using special equipment.

Agricultural pests

Phytophagous bugs are a type of insect that feeds on the sap of fruit plants and cereal crops. Colonies grow quickly, so damage from their activity reduces the volume and quality of the harvest.

Cabbage bug

Eurydema has a hard shell, an oval flattened body, reaching a length of less than 1 cm. The color is contrasting - in the area of ​​the scutum and elytra, the exoskeleton is covered with symmetrical red and black patterns. They pose a threat to plants of the Cruciferous family. Females lay up to 300 eggs. Capable of destroying a cabbage crop in a few days. Insect activity increases with rising air temperatures.

Rapeseed bug

The insect belongs to the shield family. The pattern on the exoskeleton is variable, consisting mainly of light and dark spots, which can be blue-black, green, beige, orange or red. The white belly turns black after wintering. Body length - 6-9 mm. The pest affects cruciferous crops: radishes, rutabaga, turnips.

Light green stink bug

The body is painted green, length - from 12 to 15 mm. Before wintering, the stink bug changes its color to bronze, and in the spring it returns to the bright green shade of its shell. The prothorax is concave. The bug settles on deciduous trees and berry bushes. Poses a threat to raspberries and cereal crops.

Lined stink bug

The insect's chitin is bright red and orange with black longitudinal lines. The second name is the Italian bug. The body length reaches 10-11 mm. There are black mustaches on the head. Insects are classified as phytophages, as they feed on the foliage of shrubs and trees. They eat green shoots of fruit plants.

Attention! The larvae of the scale insect eat the inflorescences of dill, carrots and parsley.

Harmful turtle

Insects have the following features:

• hard, durable exoskeleton shell;
• oval shaped body;
• small size - up to 1.3 cm;
• The coloring is dirty, a mixture of yellow, brown and dark gray.

In winter, it hides in the forest thicket, where it buries itself in fallen leaves. On agricultural land it prefers to stay in warm outbuildings with reserves of cereal crops. Fields with rye and wheat are affected.

Important! Under the influence of the saliva of a harmful turtle, the structure of gluten in cereal crops changes, the ripening speed and quality of the crop decreases.

Berry bug

Insects are polyphagous. They prefer to suck the juice of berries, flowers and leaves of ornamental and oil-bearing plants, and fruit trees. After this, the buds and leaves dry out, the fruits fall or quickly deteriorate. The berry bug reaches 12 mm in length, the body is colored reddish-brown. The surface of the exoskeleton is covered with chitinous hairs. It is easily distinguished by its characteristic black and white rim along its abdomen.

Marbled bug

The insect is a dangerous pest that affects up to 300 plant species. They emit a pungent, unpleasant odor that repels birds and rodents. The body of the bug is pear-shaped. There are brown streaks of varying degrees of intensity on the back, which creates the effect of a marble pattern. With the onset of frost, bedbugs move into heated rooms. In the spring they reproduce quickly, laying up to 20-30 eggs at a time. Up to 3 generations are hatched per year.

Reference! Since July 1, 2021, the Eurasian Economic Union has included marbled bugs in the list of quarantine objects.

Types of street bugs

When people hear about bedbugs, they have many unpleasant associations. But the Hemiptera family consists of both harmful and beneficial insect species. They have their own characteristics and varieties.

Predators

Carnivorous predators feed on adult insects and their offspring. These are quite large representatives of the family - reaching 2 cm.

Their color is very diverse : in tropical species bright and variegated colors predominate, and in the middle zone there are individuals with a black or brownish-brown color. If danger arises, predators change their color, becoming a grayish-woody color.

They go hunting mainly at night, using spider techniques. These street insects can sit motionless in ambush for a long time, waiting for their prey.

As it approaches, the predator chooses the right moment, makes a dynamic jerk, plunging its proboscis into the body of the prey.

Horse flies and lace makers

Horseflies received this name because they lack vision organs. Individuals of this outdoor species at all stages of development feed on plant sap.

While eating, they inject a toxic liquid that kills or disrupts the normal functioning of plant cells. Green horsefly migrates to beet fields. The apple gadfly is also well known.

Such insect pests feed on the veins of leaves, causing their partial death. At the sites of bites, the leaves turn yellow. The green horsefly in its wingless stage resembles a large green aphid, but it is more active and causes more damage to vegetation.

Lace makers are distinguished by transparent elytra, like fine lace. The most famous member of this subfamily is the pear laceweed. It most often lives on young fruit trees. To eliminate them, manipulations are carried out to destroy weeds and tree trunks are whitened with the arrival of spring.

Shield insects

Shield insects cause the most damage to garden and vegetable crops. Characteristic of some representatives of these insects is a specific stinky odor (stink bug).

The most popular are shield insects living on cabbage, as well as rapeseed.

The cabbage bug has the following features:

• body length of an adult – up to 10 mm;
• back - red;
• There are 6 spots on the scutellum and elytra.

Cabbage stink bugs are otherwise called cruciferous bugs and are often confused with the soldier bug.

The rapeseed bug looks like this:

• body length of a sexually mature individual is 5-8 mm;
• the back is shiny, color from black to green;
• in young individuals, a yellow spot is visualized at the end of the scutellum;
• A yellow longitudinal stripe is also visible from the front.

After winter, insects first attack the weeds, and then move on to the seedlings of cabbage, radish, and mustard. The larvae cause more damage.

The female lays up to 300 eggs, from which the offspring hatch in 7-14 days. The larvae are smaller than mature individuals and lack wings. But they are able to pierce the leaves of plants with their trunk and suck the juice from them.

Agronomists use various insecticides to control such pests. And at home, many people prefer laundry soap.

This has been proven over the years and is an effective means of combating. Dissolve 2 bars of soap in 10 liters of water and spray the infected plants. The manipulation is repeated 2-3 times (based on the pest population) with an interval of 5-7 days.

Video

Brown marmorated bug (Halyomorpha halys)

Berry bug

Not everyone knows what garden bugs look like, although they have encountered them in their garden plots. A large street insect (up to 10 mm in length) is identified by yellow transverse stripes, like the Italian bug.

In summer, its body is brownish-red in color, and by autumn this street pest turns brown.

It feeds on various types of berry crops and is content with juice. His priorities are raspberries, gooseberries and black currants. Brown spots on the leaves, dried out, and bad-smelling berries indicate the presence of berry beatnik.

Green forest bug

This outdoor insect has several names: forest, garden or grass bug.

Distinctive features:

• lives mainly on raspberries or gooseberries;
• if there are no berry crops, she eats the juice of tree leaves;
• in the absence of other options, eats grass;
• brings particular harm to cereal crops;
• gets along well with other representatives of the fauna;
• on top of his body is protected by a dense chitinous shell;
• practically does not fly, although it has short wings.

As environmental conditions change, such a street bug can change color. In spring and summer they are bright green, turning yellow-brown in autumn.

Bedbugs are parasites

Parasitic type bedbugs are blood-sucking insects that settle closer to people. The danger is that they can carry infectious and viral diseases.

Bed sheets

Bed bugs are the main species of house bugs that feed exclusively on the blood of mammals. They often live in the sleeping areas of humans and pets. When in danger, they emit an unpleasant bug odor.

Cimex lectularius

It is a wingless, flat-shaped insect. Adults reach a size of up to 8 mm. The exoskeleton of a hungry parasite is dirty yellow or brown. After saturation with blood, it changes color to black or dark red.

The eggs of the parasites resemble small grains of rice - up to 1 mm in length. Painted white. Due to the content of a specific secretion produced by internal glands, when crushed, eggs emit a sharp, unpleasant odor.

Attention! Types of bed bugs appear regardless of the sanitary condition of the apartment.

Cimex adjunctus

Alternative names: white, mouse bug. It feeds on the blood of bats and rarely lives in human bedding. In appearance it does not differ from Cimex lectularius. The length of the body is from 3 to 8.5 mm, depending on the degree of saturation of the parasite with blood. Females are larger than males. A distinctive feature of a mouse bug is the presence of white hairs near the head. Insects do not have fore or hind wings.

Cimex hemipterus

The bug Cimex hemipterus is a blood-sucking insect. Parasites prefer to settle closer to people. They actively displace the bugs Cimex lectularius, with which they are similar in appearance. Distinctive features are thinner, elongated limbs and a less rounded body. With the onset of dusk, the activity of parasites decreases. They are highly resistant to chemical insecticides.

Oeciacus

An alternative name is the swallow bug, which parasitizes the bird species of the same name. The rounded body is painted white. Distributed in the European part of Russia.

Triatomine bug (Triatominae)

Belongs to the family of carnivores and is nocturnal. The insect has an elongated body, about 2 cm long. The exoskeleton is black or gray, with orange or red spots on the sides. Adults have hard wings and 3 pairs of limbs. On the cone-shaped head there are long antennae and a piercing-sucking mouthparts. The parasite's diet includes only the blood of mammals and birds. The proboscis is sensitive to infrared radiation.

An alternative name is the kissing bug, because its mouthparts are not capable of piercing the thick skin of the body. To suck blood, the insect bites a person in the soft tissues of the eyes and lips.

Important! The triatomine bug is one of the most dangerous types of parasite, as it can infect humans with Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis.

Chicken bugs

The insects resemble chicken mites in appearance. They are brown in color and have a flattened body. They swell from drinking blood and change color to black or burgundy. They are nocturnal and hide in hard-to-reach crevices during the daytime. You can suspect the presence of parasites in birds by skin irritation and redness. Bedbug bites cause severe itching and pain, which is why the bird begins to peck at the affected area and injure itself with its claws.

Bedbug larva feeding

Ectoparasites have developed a piercing-sucking type of mouthparts. It is present in adults and nymphs. The offspring emerging from the egg have a clearly visible long three-segmented proboscis. It appeared by transforming the lower lip. The upper and lower jaws have elongated to the point of piercing bristles. The parasite pierces the skin with them, then releases saliva through a special channel. Bedbug secretions contain anticoagulants that prevent blood from clotting. Through the second channel, the nutrient fluid enters the parasite’s body.

Harm from nymph bites

Weak small insects choose open areas of the human body to feed. If children are sleeping in the room, they are the ones who are attacked. Parasites are attracted to the thin epidermis, the proximity of capillaries and the lack of hair. They prefer to bite the face, neck, arms, back and stomach. A characteristic feature of the species is multiple attacks. After which entire chains of damage remain. The bite sites are very itchy and a red rash appears. The severity of the allergic reaction depends on the characteristics of the human body; for some, bedbug attacks go unnoticed.

Information. Many pathogenic bacteria have been found in the intestines of house bugs and their larvae. They are carriers of typhoid, plague, tularemia, hepatitis, and fever. Scientists have not recorded cases of people becoming infected with dangerous viruses, but the threat exists.

Multiple generations of nymphs deprive apartment residents of normal rest. At night they will have a restless sleep. Fatigue accumulates, ability to work decreases, and the person becomes irritable. Each larva drinks only a few milliliters of blood, but given their huge numbers, anemia can occur. The most dangerous impact of parasites is on children.

To control pests, products designed for adults are used. Popular insecticides in aerosols are “Raptor”, “Clean House”, “Dichlorvos”. The use of concentrated emulsions “Executioner” and “Get” is effective. After 2 weeks, re-treatment will be required. By this time, a new generation of larvae will emerge from eggs that do not die from chemicals.

Bugs living in water

Water bugs have adapted to life in the depths and on the surface of stagnant bodies of water. These include:

• belostoma;
• smoothie;
• water strider

These types of bedbugs have elongated limbs that widen towards the end. They perform the function of rowing to quickly move through the water film. They prefer to live by attaching themselves to algae and muddy bottoms. All types of water bugs are predators. Depending on the size of the imago, their prey will be insects, eggs, eggs and fish fry.

Important! Insects need air to breathe. They have retained developed wings, necessary for flying short distances in search of a new habitat.

Water striders

In the warm season they live on the surface of standing water bodies. Limbs covered with hydrophobic exoskeleton hairs help make specific movements along the water surface. The front legs are short and are used to capture and hold prey. Adult water striders reach a length of 30 mm. Compounded eyes and sensitive receptors on the limbs allow insects to receive information about the surrounding world and detect the slightest vibrations in the water film. They feed on invertebrates.

Gladysh

Large freshwater bugs have convex elytra. The color of the exoskeleton depends on the color of the bottom of the reservoir where they live. Adults spend most of their time at the surface of the water, resting their limbs on the water film. Unlike water striders, the insect's body is immersed in the water column. Thanks to this, the smoothie catches small insects and fish fry. In winter, water bugs crawl under the leaf layer. When the reservoir dries up, they fly to a new habitat. The rest of the time the wings are practically not used.

Belostoma

An alternative name is giant water bug. It has a flat, streamlined body with thickened forelimbs that perform a grasping function. Adults reach up to 15 cm in length and feed on frogs, salamanders and small fish. They can bite through human skin, but are not considered dangerous to swimmers.

Reference! The male takes care of the offspring, and the female lays her eggs on his back.

What size are bed bugs?

One of the challenges in killing bedbugs is that these insects are difficult to detect with the naked eye due to their size and ability to hide well.
You can find bedbugs, but only if you carefully inspect all places where they are located or accidentally run into their nest. In other cases, the chances of finding bedbugs are not great. The size of the bed bug is an important feature you should be aware of. Let's take a closer look at how the size of bedbugs changes throughout their life.

What does a bed bug look like?

Female and Male Bedbug
First of all, let's take a look at what bedbugs actually look like to determine whether the insect in front of you is actually a bedbug or not.

Bed bugs have six legs and two antennae. The antennae of bedbugs consist of four parts, there are “wings”, but their size does not allow bedbugs to fly. The bug has an oval body and can have different colors, depending on the age and when the insect last fed.

The body color is reddish-brown and most nymphs (larvae) are translucent. Bed bugs have golden hairs, but they cannot be seen without a microscope. If you crush an insect, you can smell a sweetish musty smell, sometimes this smell is compared to the smell of cognac.

The appearance of bed bugs changes if the insect has recently eaten. Usually the body of an adult insect is flat, but by drinking blood its abdomen will change shape, it will be narrower and elongated, for this reason people confuse bedbugs and small cockroaches.

Below at the end of the article we will publish several photos of insects so that you have an idea of ​​what these insects can look like at different stages of life.

Bed bugs helpers

There are beneficial species of bedbugs whose diet includes herbivorous insect pests. They are specially bred and sold in quantities of 250-500 individuals to control whiteflies, thrips, spider mites and aphids.

Podisus maculiventris bug

The diet of bedbugs includes up to 90 species of agricultural pests:

• Colorado potato beetle larvae;
• American whitefly;
• bean beetle;
• gypsy moth.

Females are larger than males, the latter reaching a length of 11 mm. The color of the body varies from brown to dark beige. Females lay from 20 to 70 eggs, up to 1 mm in size. The larvae hatch after 1-1.5 months.

Anthocoris nemorum

Antocoris bugs inhabit deciduous fruit trees and shrubs, field and vegetable crops, and nectar-bearing plants. The body is elongated, colored brownish. Females are larger than males, reaching up to 4 mm in length. They are useful because they are polyphagous predators whose diet includes agricultural pests:

• eggs of sawflies that attack currants and gooseberries;
• pear sucker;
• red fruit mite;
• aphid;
• leaf rollers.

Predatory bugs of the genus Orius

A small insect of light brown color. Very voracious, used primarily in the fight against thrips, they eat the pest at any stage of development. Bugs of the genus Orius also eat:

• aphids;
• spider mites;
• whiteflies;
• eggs and cutworm caterpillars.

Predatory bugs are characterized by the fact that they destroy more insect pests than they need for nutrition. In the absence of phytophages, Orius can feed on pollen, which does not harm the crop.

Family of predators (Reduviidae)

They are the largest order of hemipteran representatives. They are nocturnal and suck eggs of insect pests. Predators are black, brown, and brown in color interspersed with orange, yellow and green.

Attention! Tropical species of predators can feed on human blood.

Macrolophus (fly family Miridae)

Macrolophus bugs are highly voracious. Over the entire lifespan of about 30 days, up to 2500 whitefly larvae and 3000 whitefly eggs are eaten. Adults have an elongated green body, 2.7-4 mm in length. The exoskeleton is covered with small hairs. The female is distinguished by an elongated abdomen with a pronounced ovipositor.

Macrolophus is used to control herbivorous pests of greenhouses, as it eats greenhouse and tobacco whiteflies, tomato moths and thrips.

Perillus bicentennial

It feeds on herbivorous insects. The main delicacy of Perillus is the Colorado potato beetle, which eats both eggs and larvae. If there are no beetles in the colony's habitat, the diet includes butterflies, caterpillars and umbrella species.

The bug is heat-loving and dies quickly at low temperatures. It has a black shell with bright orange patterns.

Behavioral characteristics and life expectancy

Furniture bugs develop quite quickly from larvae to adults. Their life expectancy is on average 15 months. Parasites are most active at night: from 3 to 6 o'clock. During the day, home pests do not emerge from their hiding places. This only happens if the nest has been disturbed.

Adults feed more often than nymphs. Usually the break between meals is 5-10 days. Parasites move quite quickly and can spend no more than 25 minutes eating, taking into account the time to achieve their goal. Behavioral features distinguish bedbugs from ticks. If you pay attention to a number of signs, you can quickly take action to eliminate parasites from your home.

Differences from other insects

How to find out what type of household pest was found in the apartment?

Main features:

1. Number of paws. For example, a tick has 4 pairs of them, while a bedbug has 3.
2. Insects feed in different ways. Cockroaches do not suck blood. The tick has a different feature - it remains on the body after the bite. Bedbugs, in turn, feed regularly, out of sight.
3. The body shape is flattened and rounded. In comparison, cockroaches look different and have a longer body.
4. Paw sizes. In a tick they are longer than in a bedbug.

Habitats

When daylight comes, the pests hide in their nests and do not move beyond their nests. You need to look for such areas closer to the places where they feed - beds. If the wallpaper nearby has come off the wall or there are cracks in the flooring between the baseboard and the wall, there is also a possibility of a nest forming here. Most commonly used areas: mattress folds, interior structure of the sofa.

Beneficial bugs

Some types of bedbugs are valuable helpers because they eat eggs, larvae, and adult pests. They protect crops from agricultural lands from Colorado potato beetles and butterfly caterpillars.

Picromerus

Helper insects have pronounced sexual dimorphism. Females are larger and more massive compared to males. The body of female bedbugs reaches 15 mm in length. Males have a slender body measuring less than 10 mm. The gray body of Picromerus is oval in shape, the limbs are colored reddish, the antennae and head are black. Despite the presence of developed wings, insects do not fly. Elytra are used for parachuting from tall plants.

Insects attack in groups and eat potential victims, for example:

• American whiteflies;
• Colorado potato beetles;
• cutworm caterpillars;
• sawflies;
• different types of larvae.

Arma is predatory

The insect feeds on pests of agricultural crops. The adult size is up to 14 mm. The shell is brown with many black spots. The predatory arma is thermophilic; colonies of bedbugs inhabit steppe and forest-steppe zones.

The diet includes:

• cutworm caterpillars;
• hawthorn;
• alder leaf beetle;
• Colorado potato beetle and its eggs.

Zicron blue

Zicron blue saves potatoes from Colorado potato beetles, which are their main source of food. It destroys only pest eggs; bedbugs do not feed on adult insects. Predators have a blue-green rounded body with a shiny shell. The period of activity occurs during the daytime.

Signs of bedbugs

Determining the presence of bedbugs in the house is not difficult. All insects leave waste products that can be used to determine their presence. You can verify the presence of bedbugs by numerous bites on the body. A bug bite does not cause pain. The parasite secretes a special substance and drinks human blood.

This process occurs at night. As a result, slight itching of the skin may occur. As a rule, the bites of these parasites look like long tracks. One bug can inflict about 10 bites per night. Based on the resulting bite marks, the movement of the parasite can be determined. The damaged area is a reddish spot with a diameter of 15 mm.

In the center of the spot there is a point that is the site of the bite. Bed bugs damage areas where the skin is very thin. Such places include the neck, buttocks, arms, back and face. Single bites do not pose a threat to human health. Using hydrogen peroxide or alcohol, you can prevent infection from penetrating into the deeper layers of the skin. After a few days, the bites go away. The danger is the mass formation of bedbugs, which causes the most unforeseen consequences. In this case, it is necessary to go to the hospital for a general examination.

During the period of night sleep, a person makes movements. Therefore, the possibility cannot be ruled out that a person can crush the parasite. In the morning you can find stains on the bed linen, or the insect bodies themselves.

Also, you can find the products of their vital activity in the form of excrement. They appear as small black dots. If you cannot find them, you need to carefully look through all the corners in the apartment. Upon careful examination, you can see eggs or larvae of parasites. The eggs have a transparent oval shape. During parasitic activity, parasites emit an unpleasant and pungent odor.

It can only be felt during the breeding season. The smell of one parasite is impossible to smell. Once a whole population of insects forms, the smell becomes intolerable. Bed bugs live in secluded places. Bed linen is not a favorable environment for them. Therefore, they live and breed close to the bed.

Harmless bedbugs

These varieties do not harm humans, domestic animals, livestock and agricultural land.

Soldier bug

They belong to the red bug family. They do not pose a threat to humans and are not carriers of dangerous diseases. The soldiers are painted black, the elytra and the back of the exoskeleton have a red pattern. Hind wings are absent; there is an elongated proboscis. The basis of the soldiers' diet is the juices of fruit trees and liquid from the leaves; they do not harm agricultural lands. The leaves do not dry out after punctures, and the fruits do not spoil.

Alder bug

The alder brood bug gets its name from the female, which chooses only alder to lay eggs. Belongs to tree shield insects. It has an elongated body, reaching a length of 8 mm. They are colored light brown with many dark spots. Black and yellow stripes alternate on the edges of the wings.

Insects spend most of their lives on trees. Females do not leave the eggs and hatched larvae until they are able to independently obtain food and exist outside the nest. Hens do not pose a threat to humans.