Volume 1

Report of the Committee on Bed-Bug Infestation : 1935-1940.

Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee on Bed-Bug Infestation : 1935-1940. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    concluded that the following temperatures are fatal to all bugs, and that slightly lower temperatures are not :— | Degrees C. Degrees F. fe For the egg Ay ie 44 45-0 | 113-0 1 hour. 41-0 105-8 24 hours. For nymphs ols ane be 45-0 113-0 15 minutes. 44-4 111-5 14 hours. For adults ate 7 * 44-0 111-2 1 hour. 40-0 104-0 24 hours. In practice we seldom need to know the lethal low temperature, though it might be valuable, particularly in countries with very cold winters. For eggs, no body of data exists ; for nymphs and adults it seems that —17° C. (1:4° F.) is fatal in two hours, and —18° C. (—0-4° F.) in one hour. Further research is needed in respect of the zone between —5 and —15° C. 0-24 48 0-15 30 0-10 20 0°05 10 DOs. 12 aan I/days days12 16 20 24 28 32 36 Os Fic. 8. The mean duration of the period from oviposition to hatching of C. lectularius eggs at constant temperatures and the reciprocals of these values plotted against temperature. © = duration; + = reciprocal. E—Food It is generally known that the principal host of the bed-bug is man, but that large and apparently healthy communities of bugs may be found in chicken houses, and occasionally in places where rabbits, experimental rats, etc., are kept. It is also known that bugs will feed readily, at least under artificial conditions, on a number of common “ laboratory ’’ animals and birds, and that such bugs grow and lay eggs. | A part of the present investigation has been given to a further study of these problems, and particularly of the question whether a community of bugs
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