What they look like indoor bugs, we can see in the photo or pictures.

Features of insect life

Insects mainly feed at night, although for them the time of day is not important, the main thing is that there is no bright light. Most often, their habitat is beds and other places where people spend a lot of time.

Here characteristics these insects:

1. An adult pest is approximately the size of an apple seed.
2. The body is oval and flat in shape (after being saturated with blood, it swells and elongates).
3. A hungry bug is rusty-brown in color and can take on a deep red-brown hue after eating.
4. All indoor bedbugs, including newly hatched ones, are easily visible to the naked eye.

Here are a few more interesting facts about insects:

As mentioned above, the favorite habitats of insects are places where a person sleeps. These could be beds, sofas, especially small cracks in wooden bases furniture, holes in the mattress. Often insect eggs can be found behind the wallpaper, under the baseboards near the bed.

The insects emit a faint almond-shaped odor, which can be felt if the infestation has reached an impressive scale.

Where else can you find bedbugs?

• any furniture;
• electrical outlets;
• tapestry fabrics;
• curtain folds;
• peeling wallpaper;
• plaster cracks in the wall and ceiling.

These places should also be checked if you suspect that there are uninvited guests in the house.

The insect pierces the skin with two tubes. With one he injects saliva containing an anesthetic under the skin, and uses the second for sucking. The time of biting and sucking blood lasts from 3 to 10 minutes.

The effect of the anesthetic lasts about an hour, after which the person will definitely feel itching, and redness of the skin will be observed at the site of the bite.

Main features

Indoor bedbugs can be recognized mainly by their bites.

• If you notice red bumps or flat welts on your skin that are very itchy, these are most likely bedbug bites. It's time to think about how to deal with them;
• the most likely places for bites are legs, arms, lower parts of the body, back, shoulders;
• It should be noted that every morning new affected areas will appear on your body.

• sheets;
• mattress seams;
• baseboards;
• sockets;
• paintings.

Having discovered bedbugs in your home, you've probably wondered where they come from?

• allergic reactions. In those who are especially sensitive, even anaphylactic shock is possible;
• rash;
• itching.

Severe itching that bothers a person causes a lot of anxiety. The quality of life deteriorates, irritability appears, and sleep deteriorates.

With multiple bites, the itching is so severe that the person scratches the affected areas, and this can lead to infections, although the bug itself does not tolerate infection.

Chemicals

Thinking about where bed bugs come from and how to fight them, we often resort to various chemicals. Indeed, they are very effective if used correctly.

Let's see what drugs exist and how much they cost:

Name of shop	Address	Product name	Price
Death Market	Moscow, Yaroslavskoe highway, 9	Karbofos	60 rub.
“7 steps” supermarket	St. Petersburg, Bolshevikov Ave. 24,	Executioner	100 rub.
Arnica	Novosibirsk, st. Sorge, 183	Combat Superspray	450 rub.
Veles	Ekaterinburg, st. 40 years of October, 61	Fufanon	1500 rub.
Alpha Vet	Minsk, st. Surganova	Pyrethrum	245,000 rub.
Ukrozoovetpromsnab	Kyiv, st. Vasilkovaya, 16	Insecticide	210 UAH

That's not all chemicals for insect control. Let's look at the most popular:

Delta Zone.

Modern microencapsulated product, main feature which lies in the fact that after the solution dries, no kind of film remains on the surface, but only tiny granules containing a high concentration of insecticide (in this case, deltamethrin).

The main advantages of the drug:

• no odor;
• long-term effect – after treatment the substance remains active for several months;
• safety for humans, animals and high toxicity for different types insects;
• high efficiency even in cases where bedbugs have developed resistance to other types of insecticides.

Insecticide.

Advantages:

• the bottle is equipped with a sprayer, so there is no need to pour the product anywhere;
• developed in a specialized research institute, so the product can be trusted.

The drug contains cypermethrin, permethrin, piperonyl butoxide. These substances provide high processing efficiency. But there are also disadvantages:

• the premises can be processed only during the absence of all people and animals;
• not suitable for people prone to allergies, as the drug is quite toxic.

Pyrethrum.

Available in powder form, which is used to treat insect habitats.

Advantages:

• safe for children;
• it can be used for a long time without removing residents from the house.

Folk remedies

Many people, wanting to know how to get rid of bedbugs at home, resort to traditional methods. They are, of course, less effective and take longer. Their use is advisable when small children and people prone to allergic reactions live in the house.

Tansy and wormwood.

1. 2 tablespoons of wormwood or tansy.
2. Half a liter of water.
3. Boil over low heat for a quarter of an hour.
4. Cool and strain.
5. Pour the resulting broth into a spray bottle and spray all possible places where insects accumulate.

Ledum.

In the old days, fumigation of premises was used using this plant.

1. The grass must be dried and dried well.
2. Set it on fire in the same way as you would when burning fragrant incense.
3. Wait until the smoke spreads throughout the room.

By the way, some are quite effective houseplants from bedbugs. So, if you want to get rid of insects, be sure to place a decorative chamomile on the windowsill next to the bed.

This is quite popular among the population folk remedy from bedbugs, like a solution of ordinary vinegar. It is truly effective, as well as accessible, inexpensive and safe for humans.

What means should not be used to kill bedbugs?

At least in order to identify a bloodsucker at the first meeting, even an accidental one, it will be useful to have an idea of ​​how. Photos of these insects, as well as their larvae and eggs, are given below...

What does a bug look like?

The bed bug is quite distinct from all other bugs. And in general, it is not difficult to recognize it among other domestic insects. Look at the photos:

The main difference between the bedbug and water strider bug is the lack of wings. This feature distinguishes it well from cockroaches. Due to the absence of wings, the bedbug has clearly visible boundaries of the abdominal segments - its entire body seems to be stretched several times over with stripes.

An adult bed bug is dark brown in color. If he is hungry, then the width of his abdomen is almost the same as its length. After feeding, the abdomen stretches, and the insect itself becomes longer. On average, the body length of a bed bug is 5-6 mm.

This is interesting…

After a full meal, the body length of the bed bug almost doubles. During one feeding, the bug itself consumes twice as much blood as it weighs. In the photo below you can see how the shape and size of the insect’s body changes during the feeding process.

In addition, after saturation with human blood, the house bug becomes somewhat darker, and hungry individuals can even be light red. The photo below clearly shows the differences between dark and well-fed bedbugs and their lighter, hungry relatives:

See also our experiments on bedbugs:

We catch bedbugs and test for them different means- see the results...

Like all representatives of the order Hemiptera, bed bugs have a small triangular head. On its underside there is a long proboscis formed by fused jaws. It is hard and durable enough to pierce human skin. But the bug cannot cope with the already denser skin of cats or dogs.

There are two channels in the bug's proboscis (see photo). Through one, the insect absorbs blood, through the other, it injects a special analgesic substance into the bite wound, thanks to the action of which a person does not feel pain from the bite for several hours.

This is interesting…

Young bedbug larvae do not know how to inject a special secretion into the wound. Therefore, their bites begin to be felt earlier, in especially sensitive people - even while the insect is feeding. However, due to the small size of the larvae and the thinness of their proboscis, even without an anesthetic, their bites are insensitive.

Outside the moment of feeding, the piercing proboscis of bed bugs is pressed against the lower part of the cephalothorax.

It is the appearance of small brown spots of incomprehensible nature on the bed - a clear sign presence of bedbugs in the apartment.

Bed bugs quite mobile. An adult insect runs more than a meter in a minute. Thanks to their flat body, they comfortably live in the crevices of furniture, behind baseboards, under carpets and between books. In addition, they migrate very quickly and easily between rooms in apartment buildings.

Often, the waste products of bed bugs catch a person’s eye more often than the insects themselves. Their excrement is tiny black dots, a bit like poppy seeds.

The photo below clearly shows almost black bedbug excrement:

Bed bug larvae are scientifically called nymphs. Like other insects with incomplete metamorphosis, bed bug eggs produce miniature copies of adults. They also have paws, antennae and a piercing proboscis.

The main differences between nymphs and adult bedbugs are their smaller size and their inability to reproduce. In addition, bedbug larvae have a lighter color: when hungry, they are light yellow, almost transparent, and after saturation, a drop of blood becomes clearly visible inside their abdomen.

The photo clearly shows the blood in the larva’s stomach and the light rim of the abdomen:

Apartment owners who are not savvy in entomology may confuse the larvae younger age with ants. Indeed, after hatching, the bedbug larva has a body length of about 1 mm and an elongated body. Only later, after the first feeding, will it darken and look like an adult insect.

The photo shows the chitinous coverings of insects after molting:

Finally, the bug can be confused with a cockroach nymph. But all cockroaches and their larvae have a characteristic distinguishing feature- two small processes on the back of the abdomen, peculiar tails (see photo). Bedbugs don't have them.

Bedbug nest: is it it?

Bed bugs do not create nests in the truest sense of the word. In general, there is no organization in their clusters. However, due to the fact that they prefer to hide in the same places, the places where they are concentrated very quickly begin to look like they are quite well inhabited and equipped. They are called nests.

A typical example of a bloodsucker nest is shown in the photo:

As a rule, such a nest contains a large number of bedbugs different ages. Here, eggs, developing and already empty, insect excrement and the remains of the chitinous covering of their bodies that have fallen after molting are scattered in disarray. Such a cluster itself gives the impression of a very untidy, dirty place.

A characteristic feature of bed bugs is their accumulation in large quantities in order to retain heat. A typical bedbug nest looks like a continuous moving mass of their bodies. In cockroaches similar behavior not visible.

The location of the nest is also important. Bedbugs most often concentrate in sofas, beds, behind carpets, in closets, where they can easily find narrow crevices and from where they can quickly get to a sleeping person. At the same time, ants and cockroaches prefer dirty ventilation ducts and kitchens.

The photo below shows characteristic bedbug bites:

When exterminating bedbugs, it is better to immediately use modern insecticidal preparations, without wasting time on outdated and ineffective ones. traditional methods struggles like kerosene and vinegar (see). When choosing a product, it is useful to focus not only on its effectiveness, but also pay attention to the absence of odor, efficiency and safety for humans.

What is especially important to know about bed bugs

Video: 5 rules for choosing an insect extermination service

What does a house bug look like - photos, dimensions

The size of a bed bug usually ranges from 3-8.5 mm. The color and oval shape of the bug vaguely resembles an apple seed or a rusty coin.

That's just the spread color range, along with their changing shape, is the reason why many people mistake them for cockroaches, lice or even.

For example, in the photo below there is a real cockroach on the right, and on the left there is a bug filled to the maximum with blood. At a quick glance you might not be able to tell the difference.

The larvae of these two insects can also be confused.

Perhaps only the presence of paired appendages on the last segment of the abdomen and longer antennae make it possible to distinguish cockroaches from bedbugs. If you haven't guessed, there is only one cockroach here - the one on the far left.

Upon closer examination, bedbugs in the larval stage also resemble linen lice - their blood-sucking colleagues in the shop.

Such external variability is influenced by the degree of satiety of bedbugs, their gender and, of course, age. Let's consider each factor in order.

What do fed and hungry people look like?

The bug almost doubles in size after feeding on blood. This occurs thanks to flexible segments - transverse stripes on the abdomen that can lengthen and thus stretch the chitinous shell. As a result, hungry bugs are usually round and flat, while well-fed bugs are more elongated and convex. It is easy to determine how long and when the last time a bug fed by its appearance. Most often, the time limit for blood sucking is no more than 3-7 minutes. Therefore, it is rare to see a bug like the one shown on the left in the photo - filled to the brim with blood and elongated like a two-tailed bug.

And yet, well-fed bugs are always narrower than hungry ones. The reason for this is blood pressure on the abdomen, which also makes bedbugs inactive.

Depending on the nature of the diet, the color also changes. Hungry ones have a brown color, while bedbugs that have drunk blood are usually brown, with a scarlet tint.

If the bug is black or dark brown, then the blood has had time to clot; if it is red, then the bug has probably just arrived.

The ability to “deflate” gives bedbugs useful advantages for survival:

• For example, a dried out bug can easily get through a narrow crack or a barely noticeable seam. Physical compactness allows you to crawl anywhere - under picture and photograph frames, into book bindings and even into electronic devices.
• Hungry bugs move faster than usual, therefore, having opened their lair, in this state it is almost impossible to catch them all (sweep, vacuum, etc.) or have time to crush them. As a rule, in such cases, most of the bedbugs scatter.
• A bug flattened to the surface is difficult to mechanically impact. It is almost impossible to crush it with a boot or slipper. If you're about to do this, it's easier to aim with something sharp, like a pen or screwdriver.

How to distinguish a female bedbug from a male

Like many other arthropods, females are larger than males. As can be seen in the photo, the uterus has a rounded abdomen, the lower part of the body is wider on the sides, and in males it is slightly more elongated in length and, as it were, pointed. As a result, males are on average smaller than females.

What do small bugs look like?

Bed bugs go through several growth stages before they are ready to reproduce. Distinctive feature All bugs, including bedbugs, have a type of metamorphosis - incomplete transformation. This means that the life cycle of a bug is represented by only three main stages - larva and imago (adult). Bedbugs do not have any pupae or nymphs. And the larvae are not caterpillars, but the same bugs, only in a smaller form.

Small bugs of a lighter color, yellow shades, with a black dot at the bottom of the abdomen. The larvae grow as they drink blood and molt, periodically shedding their hard chitinous shell. Newly shed small bugs appear white, and sometimes even transparent. As blood flows regularly and the chitin capsule hardens, they darken.

The age of small bedbugs can be easily determined by their size.

For example, the size of a first-stage bedbug larva that has just hatched from an egg barely reaches 1 millimeter, not exceeding the size of the egg in which it matured. You are unlikely to notice such an insect unless you specifically look for it. On top of that, at first small bugs are still transparent and move quickly, which makes them doubly difficult to find.

Availability different sizes and the color of small bugs, depending on the age of a particular larva, often confuses a person who does not recognize a bug in the outline of a small individual. In total, the larvae have five instars - according to the number of growth stages, during the transition between which they molt.

On average, a small bug grows by about 1 mm after each blood meal and molting. Taking into account his nutritional needs, this is approximately one serving of blood and one shedding every 1-2 weeks. A month and a half - and he is ready to reproduce.

If a “nest” is discovered, then, as a rule, bedbugs, eggs, larvae and their shed skins will be collected in one place, and excrement will be found everywhere. large quantities. The observation of such a place will also be accompanied by their smell. Pictures depicting bloodsuckers in furniture can show in detail what bedbugs look like, better than any verbal description. It doesn’t matter where bedbugs are, they always transform their habitat into what is shown in the following photos.

By placing bedbugs in glass jar and looking into it after that, already on the third day, we will see a similar picture.

What they are made of, how the body parts of bedbugs are structured and work, we will consider below.

The structure of a bedbug: dedicated to insect lovers

The bug's body includes three main sections - head, thorax and abdomen, the last two of which are segmented.

All this is held together by a dense chitinous cover with thin short hairs.

All blood-sucking bugs are usually called bedbugs, since the family is a taxon approved in biology. House bugs, linen bugs, mattress bugs, sofa bugs, furniture bugs, room bugs, household bugs, apartment bugs, human bugs, blood bugs (the list is not exhaustive) are just colloquial names for the same species.

Contrary to this scientific truth, some are convinced of the existence of such a species as the clothing bug. The definition of this mythical species is simple - separate subspecies bed bug, which breeds in clothing. Most likely, in such cases, people are mistakenly mistaken for bedbugs. body lice, which are also not called anything, not even clothes mites.

Others believe that green stink bugs that accidentally enter an apartment in the fall through a window bite and drink the blood of people. For example, this is what the so-called street bug looks like in the photo.

Garden bugs are a real nuisance, entering homes in the fall, especially in warm regions. However, these are herbivorous species and have little in common with bed bugs, even in appearance. Same wood bug It looks larger, sometimes its size reaches one and a half to two centimeters.

And all this is not size compared to what large bedbugs look like. For example, 3-4 cm.

Or a giant belostoma from the family of water bugs, reaching a length of 10-12 cm.

Compared to the wide variety of hemipterans - water, forest and tropical bugs, bedbugs are rather inconspicuous in appearance.

Watch what bedbugs look like - short video

Flexible, hidden and look different. They are not chameleons and do not camouflage themselves on purpose. However, the shape, size and color in different time differ, sometimes misleading as to what kind of insect they are dealing with. And only a comparison from a photo with a thorough examination of the apartment usually leaves no doubt.

Bedbugs are a large group of insects from the order Hemiptera. The sizes of bedbugs range from 0.3 mm to 15 cm. Their total number is about 40 thousand species. But only a small part of these insects adapted to drink blood from warm-blooded organisms and turned into obligate bloodsuckers. House bugs are one such species.

Most representatives of the bedbug family are vegetarians, feeding on plant sap. A somewhat smaller, but also significant part are predators that hunt other insects, including their fellow insects. In tropical areas, there are transitional varieties of bedbugs that can feed on both plant sap and the blood of mammals.

Which bedbugs can be really dangerous and which ones are just pests?

There are significantly more bedbugs that feed on blood, but only three types are important to people:

• bed (Cimex lectularius);
• pigeon (Cimex columbarius);
• Triasomes (Triatominae).

The latter are a family of 130 described species.

Bed

Pigeon

After raising the offspring, the pigeons leave the nest, and the hungry bloodsucker enters the house, attacking people in search of food.

What do house bugs look like in the photo: bed bugs on the bottom left, pigeon bugs on the right.

How to understand that uninvited guests have appeared in the house

Life cycle of bloodsuckers

Lifespan is about a year. In the absence of food and low temperatures capable of falling into suspended animation for more than 1 year. At high temperatures in search of food they easily migrate across ventilation ducts or external walls.

They are carriers of Chagas disease, which has killed more people than from all insects dangerous to humans combined. Triatomids are not house bugs, but they stay close to homes, entering the room with things or on clothes, and also flying in on their own.

Garden pests and predators

These insects are not dangerous for humans, but they can cause great harm to cultivated plants, as they feed on flower sap. They can only get into the apartment by accident. It’s very easy to get rid of them: pick them up on something and throw them back out the window. Appearance The presence of herbivorous bugs depends on the presence of a defense mechanism and mimicry of dangerous species.

Soldier

Additional names: wingless red bug; Cossack Latin name Pyrrhocoris apterus. Distributed throughout the northern Palearctic, in North Africa and North America.

It feeds on plant juices. Can hunt small insects, including its own young. You can see what they look like in the photo below. Defense mechanism – unpleasant taste and conspicuous coloring

The toy soldier should not be confused with the very useful predatory perillus, even if they have the same “arm of arms” colors.

Forest

A group of species of bugs that feed on the sap of grass and young trees. Other names:

• woody;
• stinky;
• garden;
• stink bug;
• herbal.

You can only end up in the house by accident. Usually during forest fires or heavy rains that drive bedbugs out of the forest. These are quite large insects with a body length of more than 1 cm. They can be recognized by their characteristic body shape, similar to an irregular pentagon, since the color varies from green to brown. The insect is flattened on top.

Woody

The second name for a group of forest bugs. Official name The “woody” one is worn by the green shield bug (Palomena prasina), which belongs to the family of true shield bugs. It also feeds on flower juice and ripe berries. One of the troubles for people: a nasty smell and taste in the mouth, if you are “lucky” to bring it into your mouth with a berry. The photograph shows that its main protective mechanism is camouflage coloring.

Stinky

Another option for the name of forest or tree bugs. It does not attack people and is not dangerous.

Interesting!

Forest bugs do not like to fly; the energy of flight does not pay off.

They fly only to save lives, so they most often end up in an apartment with fruit. Thanks to its camouflage coloring, it is more often noticed when it is already in the mouth. To get these pests out of your apartment, just throw the unfortunate insect out the window. It is guaranteed not to return. Doesn't live at home.

Water bug

Turtle

Belongs to the family of shield turtles. Size up to 13 mm. Damages grain crops. Not dangerous for humans. It got its name because of the shape and pattern of the elytra, reminiscent of a turtle shell. We have to fight it in order to save the crops of cereal plants. It’s worth looking at photos of turtle bugs to know which bug appears on a plant and you need to immediately run for an insecticide.

Garden

This species does not exist in nature. In everyday life they include shield bugs, grass and forest bugs.

Scutellum

He's a stink bug, he's a forest bug, he's a tree bug. An insect belonging to the shield family. Many shield bugs are predatory. The photo shows a representative of the genus Podisus having lunch.

Predator

Representatives of the largest family of bedbugs. They feed on other insects. The foul predator and the domestic predator are synanthropic species that live in houses and prey on other synanthropic insects. Predatory bugs in the house: photo below.

On a note!

The dirty predator is the bedbug's natural enemy, but this is a case where the cure may be worse than the disease.

The dirty predator is a large black insect. Body size is 1.5 - 2 cm. The nymph of the predator bears little resemblance to an adult insect. More like a dusty, incomprehensible spider. For comparison: a photo of an adult predator and an image of a nymph using dust camouflage.

Perillus

A very helpful North American guest. Natural enemy of the Colorado potato beetle. Attempts to acclimatize the insect in the Krasnodar region were unsuccessful. Probably due to the fact that summer residents confused the perillus with the toy soldier. These species have similar coloration. In the photo you can see what color the perillus bugs are and how the perillus sucks out the larva of the Colorado potato beetle.

Probably many homeowners have encountered a similar misfortune. Some even claim that there may be different kinds bedbugs in the apartment. In fact, only Cimex lektularius is found in our latitudes; differences in size and color may be due to the stages of its development:

House bugs - biological features of body structure

Indoor bugs have three main sections:

• head;
• breast;
• abdomen.

Head. It is equipped with a proboscis through which blood is drawn from the patient. The structure of the oral apparatus includes two parts: piercing and sucking. With piercing bristles, the common bug pierces the skin and injects an enzyme that anesthetizes the bite site and reduces blood clotting. If there is not enough food at the site of the skin puncture, he moves further and makes the next puncture, and a portion of blood is sucked out with another bristle.

Household bugs do not have sharp eyesight; their bulging eyes do not tolerate bright light. But, oddly enough, they distinguish all shades of red perfectly.

House bugs, with the help of long antennae, detect relatives, find a person, identify enemies and look for inconspicuous shelters. The insect's sense of smell and touch is excellent and can determine whether it is warm-blooded by the amount of carbon dioxide released. Definition chemical substances bugs secreted by enemies, allows them to take cover in advance.

Abdomen. This part of the insect's body consists of 10 movable segments. That is why bed bugs that have eaten well can be up to 7-8 mm in size. Although, regular size sexually mature individuals - 5-6 mm. Because of this, discrepancies arise in information about what bedbugs look like in an apartment.

The process of bedbug reproduction is somewhat sadistic and is called traumatic insemination. The male's reproductive organ pierces the female's posterior abdomen and introduces sperm into a special organ. It can be stored in it for a long time, and, if necessary, supplied to the formed eggs for fertilization. Therefore, the female lays eggs little by little in different places, usually 5-7 pieces each.

Bedbug eggs are equipped with a strong shell that is impenetrable to poisons and resists traumatic forces. After a few days, the mature larva emerges from a special hole covered with a flap. The emerging bugs strive to find food for further growth.

All about bedbugs from other regions

In warm countries, there are other types of domestic bugs that have adapted to live in hot conditions and die at temperatures below 5°C. And not all of them are as safe as Cimex lektularius.

Cimex Hemipterus, African house bugs. The bites are very painful, causing burning, severe itching and blistering. They differ from ordinary bedbugs in their smaller size and slowness.

Outdoor insects of the hemiptera species

Bedbugs are one of the most common insects; their variety is found even in areas far north. Street bugs are distinguished by their habitat: