Both adult beetles and their larvae have biting mouth parts. They can bite if you get them under your clothes or squeeze them. However, this rarely happens. The only Danish species, which bite humans on its own initiative, is the seven-spot ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata. Usually, this only happens, when the ladybirds are quite numerous and […]
Butterfly scales
Adult butterflies dust may cause allergic reactions. The dust is small scales, which give the wings color and gloss. The scales are converted hairs that easily break off and float in the air. People, who work in areas where butterflies are bred, or where there are many moths, often suffer from asthma and eczema caused […]
Butterflies
Butterflies do not bite – simply because they do not have biting or stinging mouth parts. The butterflies’ larvae have biting mouth parts, however, they are customized to only eat certain kinds of food – and human skin is not on the menu as long as it is on living people.
Butterflies and beetles
Butterflies (Lepidoptera) and beetles (Coleoptera) are the animal orders which are richest in species. 140,000 different kinds of butterflies and 350,000 kinds of beetles are known, and a huge number of new species from the tropical rain forests are waiting to be discovered and described. Despite there being so man are no known blood-sucking butterflies […]
Water bugs
Back swimmers (family Notonectidae) actually swim upside down. They live in fresh water, where they hunt insects, fry and tadpoles and suck out the intestines with their short, strong proboscis. If water bugs are squeezed or get in contact with a human body during bathing, they may bite. Back swimmers’ bites are painful. Common backswimmer […]
The masked hunter
The masked hunter, Reduvius personatus, is primarily found on attics, in outbuildings and similar places. The nymphs secrete a sticky substance which causes dust and dirt to stick to them. The adult masked hunter, on the other hand, is shiny, brownish animals. They are 1.5 cm long. Masked hunters are predatory insects and feed on […]
Bed bugs in animals
Some of the birds and bats, with which we more or less voluntarily share our house may be infected by bed bugs. They are similar in appearance to common bed bugs and behave the same way. They live in the near vicinities of the host animal nests or beds and seek them out to suck […]
Physical methods
Heat treatment. All stages of insects are relatively vulnerable to high temperatures. If it rises just a few degrees above the optimum temperature, development stops and harmful effects occur. Coming up around 50 degrees Celsius the heat kills in a short time. Heat treatment is therefore an obvious control method. Less suspicious effects can be […]
Pesticides and methods
Cleaning. It has been mentioned that bed bugs can thrive in very clean rooms. Thorough cleaning and vacuuming can remove some of the animals, but not eradicate them completely, and if there are only a few remaining, the population will quickly grow again. However, it is obvious that it is easier to implement effective control […]
Prevention
It is probably impossible to completely guard yourself against getting bed bugs, but with some consideration, the risk can be significantly reduced. If you have slept in a place where you have been bitten or you simply suspect bed bugs have been there, it is a good idea not to bring your luggage directly into […]
Temperature dependence
The bed bug’s life and development is highly dependent on the ambient temperature. Some insects, certain moths and bumblebees among others, can to a certain extent “warm up” and raise their body temperature by activating the wing muscles. The vast majority has to make do with the available temperature. At a temperature of about 27 […]
Development of adult bed bugs
Insects cannot grow gradually; their exoskeleton simply prevents it. Therefore, they must grow in stages, changing skin sometimes in the course of development and growing a size each time. The insects’ development can proceed in two radically different ways. Some insects undergo a complete metamorphosis. A good example is butterflies, where out of the egg […]
Egg-laying
Once the female has mated, development of the eggs in the ovaries is completed, and she can now begin to lay eggs. They are laid in the hideouts, glued to the ground. A bed bug egg is approx. 1 mm long, it is whitish and almost pear-shaped. Under optimum conditions, 25-27 degrees Celsius and easy […]
Mating
Bed bug mating behavior is something else. The male does not inseminate the female’s genital opening directly, as with other insects. His genital organ is transformed into a kind of hypodermic needle that can pierce the female’s exoskeleton and ejaculates the sperm directly into her abdomen. It is quite a violent process that looks more […]
Can you recognize a bed bug bite?
There are big differences in people’s sensitivity to bed bug bites. Some, about 10% of the Danish population have no reaction at all. This means that they can donate blood to a large population of bed bugs without noticing it, and maybe only discover the animals later by accident. In most people, the bed bug […]
Disease transmission
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 […]
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 […]
Where does it come from?
The era of insects began about 400 million years ago. However, the direct ancestors of bed bugs, plant lice and reduviids, have only been found as fossils in approx. 300 million years old layers. The bloodsuckers didn’t have any opportunities until the warm-blooded mammals and birds came approx. 200 million years ago. But when were […]
Bed bugs
Three things hurt in a peasant’s house: “Mean wife, smoke and bed bug” (Peder Syv, approx. 1680) Where in the system do bed bugs belong?Bed bugs are insects and therefore belong to the largest class of living animals. Currently, about 1 million different species of insects have been described and it is expected that there […]
Bugs
A bug’s mouth parts form a complex stinging and sucking device. In broad outline, it consists of a long, thin straw which, when not in use, is located in a sheath formed by the extended lower lip. Some bugs do not have wings; however, most ticks have two pairs. The rear wings are clear flying […]
Life cycle (Thrips)
Thrips live on plants. They suck the sap out of the leaves, and the affected areas often appear to be shimmering because air enters into the empty cells. Some thrips are considered pests. The thrip eggs are laid within the plant tissue with a saw-like ovipositor. The male thrips are very rare; therefore, the eggs […]
Thrips
Thrips (Thysanoptera) are also known as thunder flies, thunder bugs, storm flies, thunder blights, storm bugs, corn flies and corn lice. Their legs usually end in two tarsal segments with a bladder-like structure and their four very wings have ciliated fringes on the edges. In Denmark, there are more than 100 different thrips species and […]
Lice in cats
There is only one species of feline lice: Felicola subrostrata, also called feline chewing louse. This louse will get up to 1.3 mm long and is characterized by its triangular head. As a biting lice, it is quite peaceful as it eats skin flakes, etc. This does not usually bother the cat. However, biting lice […]
Lice in dogs
Dogs can have two different species of lice. One is a blood-sucking kind of louse, and the other is a biting kind of louse. The sucking louse, linagnathus setosus, sucks blood like the lice found on people. It lives on dogs and foxes and never bites humans. This species of canine lice can grow to […]
Control
The treatments used against crab lice are the same as the once you use to eradicate head lice and body lice. Shampoos are most suitable because they do not sting the thin-skinned places. Apply on the body and on the scalp hair and eyebrows if these are also infected, however, do not apply on the […]
Detection
Many people only experience a little itching discover the crab lice by accident. For other, itching, especially in the crotch, is an outstanding symptom of crab lice. Itching in the groin area can have many other causes (among the animals, the flagellate Trichomonas vaginalis or pin worm Oxyuris vermicularis, may cause itching. These two kinds […]
Spreading of crab lice
Crab lice are spread by intimate contact – either through intercourse or simply by sharing a bed with an infected person. However, there are cases of crab lice which cannot be explained by intercourse or sharing a bed. The lice rarely leave their host but they cause itching which can result in them being scratched […]
Crab louse bites
The crab louse does not move much. When it has chosen its sucking place, it keeps the mouth inside the skin – also in the periods where it does not suck blood. Crab lice suck blood almost all the time. That is probably why they do not tolerate being away from their host for long […]
Occurrence
The crab louse has adapted to sparse hair. The scalp hairs are too close (about 220 hairs / cm 2). The pubic hair (about 34 hairs / cm 2) is better suited for crab louse. The crab louse primarily live in pubic hair but is also seen in the hair on the chest and in […]
Biology
An adult female lives about a week. It lays three nits a day and only mate once in her short lifetime. The nits hatch after 7-8 days. The three nymph stages lasts a total of 13-17 days. The total development time from nit to nit is therefore 20-25 days.
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