We report the case of an 82-year-old patient, hospitalized for malaise. Her clothes were infested by numerous insects and the entomological analysis identified them as being Cimex lectularius (bed bugs). The history of the patient highlighted severe cognitive impairment. The biological assessment initially showed a profound microcytic, aregenerative, iron deficiency anemia. A vitamin B12 defici...

that besides taking the usual precautions of isolating the sick and contacts and disinfecting the hospital ward, all the bed bugs should be killed. The iron cots were accordingly stacked in heaps and were surrounded with the dry leaves of sugar-cane, and the leaves set on fire. An intense heat of short duration was obtained and all the bed bugs effectually burnt without any damage to the beds. ...

With the recent global resurgence of the bed bugs (Cimex lectularius L.), there is a need to better understand its biology, ecology, and ability to establish populations. Bed bugs are domestic pests that feed mainly on mammalian blood. Although bed bugs have not been implicated as vectors of pathogens, their biting activity inflicts severe insomnia and allergic reactions. Moreover, they have re...

Developing effective alternative approaches for disinfesting bed bugs from residential spaces requires a balance between obtaining complete insect mortality, while minimizing costs and energy consumption. One method of disinfestation is the application of lethal high temperatures directly to rooms and contents within a structure (termed whole-room heat treatments). However, temperature and time...

The ability to identify individual human hosts based on analyses of blood recovered from hematophagous insects is beneficial for both medical and forensic entomology. Bed bugs, Cimex lectularius L. (Heteroptera: Cimicidae), may have several advantages over other blood-feeding arthropods for forensics because they do not remain on the host after their blood-feeding activity and remain in close p...

The cost and effectiveness of two bed bug (Cimex lectularius L.) integrated pest management (IPM) programs were evaluated for 10 wk. Sixteen bed bug-infested apartments were chosen from a high-rise low-income apartment building. The apartments were randomly divided into two treatment groups: diatomaceous earth dust-based IPM (D-IPM) and chlorfenapyr spray-based IPM (S-IPM). The initial median (...

Bed bug (Cimex lectularius L.) infestations are currently controlled by a variety of non-chemical and chemical methods. There have been few studies on the comparative effectiveness of these control techniques. We evaluated three bed bug management strategies in an apartment building: (1) non-chemical methods only (n = 9); (2) insecticides only (n = 6); and (3) integrated pest management includi...