Many types of bacteria and viruses can be found on a bed bug, but it has never been shown to transmit diseases to humans. However, bed bugs have close relatives in South America, reduviids of the genus Rhodnius, which like bed bugs have adapted to living in houses and sucking the blood of humans. They can transmit the unpleasant “Chagas disease”.
How do they look?
Bed bugs are flattened, and thus well suited to seek shelter in narrow crevices and cracks. The color is reddish brown and the body shape almost oval. The adult bed bugs are 4-5 mm long and 2-3 mm wide, which is a size you can see. It lacks the wings of a typical bug. The front pair of wings is reduced to a pair of small pads and the hind wings are completely missing. This means that the abdomen is exposed and you can clearly see its articulation. Males are consistently larger than females, and their abdomen, which carries the genitals, is more pointed.
Bed bug development from egg to adult