Bed bugs jump and fly: the whole truth and myths about the ways of moving bed bloodsuckers

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Bedbugs belong to a numerous and rather diverse subspecies of insects, uniting more than 50 families and about 40 thousand species. Among their representatives there are individuals moving in a variety of ways. Some of them only crawl, others fly and jump, others can swim.

Content

How do house bugs move
- How bedbugs move from apartment to apartment or from house to house
- How fast do bedbugs move
Can bed bugs fly
- Other types of parasites
Can bed bugs jump
- Why bed bugs can't jump
Are flying bed bugs dangerous to humans?

How do house bugs move

Household bugs, living in close proximity to a person and feeding on his blood, are not particularly agile. Nature did not endow them with the ability to run fast. Therefore, these parasites can only crawl using their three pairs of limbs. Moreover, bed bugs can easily climb an inclined and vertical rough surface, but they cannot climb a smooth slippery plane.

Bed bugs…

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How bedbugs move from apartment to apartment or from house to house

Bed bugs move around human habitation, mainly at night, slowly crawling from shelter to their prey in order to refresh themselves. During the day, it is quite difficult to notice bed pests, because they spend all the time in secluded places and make rare short movements over short distances out of sight of a person. In the absence of a food source, parasites can migrate to a neighboring apartment or house.

The fastest way is to move bloodsuckers inside one apartment building through utilities, for example, ventilation ducts and sockets, often installed opposite each other in the wall separating the adjacent room. During migration through the ventilation shaft, they crawl several hundred meters per day.

Bloodsuckers are also able to move along the outer walls of multi-storey buildings. Bedbugs can independently overcome the distances between buildings only in the warm season, since low temperatures are detrimental to them. However, this variant of relocation to a new place is rarely used by parasites. Basically, insects move from house to house on pet hair, furniture and electrical appliances, clothing or human shoes.

How fast do bedbugs move

The speed at which a hungry bed bug moves is insignificant and does not exceed 1-1,5 meters per minute. An adult who has drunk blood moves 2 times slower. Even more unhurried is the bug larva, overcoming this distance twice as long.

Bed bugs running Close-up

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Can bed bugs fly

Not all representatives of hemipterans have the ability to move through the air, but only some of them. The presence of wings depends on the habitat, food preferences and lifestyle of the insect. Many individuals have full-fledged wings, some had them at the initial stage of evolution, and then disappeared, while some species remained at the initial stage of development.

Bed bugs

Bed bugs cannot fly. In the process of natural selection, they did not develop wings, because the ancestors of insects more often drank the blood of bats living in caves, and there was no need for parasites to fly from place to place. True, in the upper part of the body of bed bugs there are subtle elytra, but they are not suitable for moving through the air.

white parasites

Along with bed bloodsuckers in private homes, there is a very rare species of white bugs, which are distinguished by a light color, long hairs on the sides of the upper body and the absence of both front and rear wings. They live mainly in the attic, room cornice or in a cluttered room, and feed on the blood of bats and almost never bother people.

Chimney and swallow

Also in the attic, under the roof of the house, in chimneys, floor or wall cracks, chimney and swallow bugs can live. As a rule, their diet consists of the blood of birds, but in the absence of birds, parasites can pass to human blood. Their wings are underdeveloped or absent altogether, so these types of insects cannot fly either.

Garden

But various representatives of garden bugs, in particular the berry shield bug and the turtle, have small wings that allow pests to fly from place to place, sometimes flying into a human dwelling. They are dangerous only for cultivated plants, but not for people.

Other types of parasites

Among the wild bugs found in their natural habitat and able to fly, there are some species.

Predators, for example, dirty and disguised predators that feed on blood, internal nutrients and body parts of insects.

Parasites that consume the blood of humans, specific birds or animals.

Herbivorous flying bugs, such as brown marbled bugs, prefer mushrooms, sap and plant parts, organic matter.

Can bed bugs jump

Some species of hemipteran insects can jump and do it so fast and high that the movements made can be mistaken for flight.

Water striders moving on the water surface for short distances by jumping. From the side it may seem that they simply measure the water in small segments. This ability is necessary for individuals to obtain food in their environment.

Kraeviki and stink bugs, often found in the forest, garden and vegetable garden. Moreover, these insects not only jump well, moving over long distances, but also fly.

Triatomy, living in Central and South America. People call them killer bugs.

Coastal creatures that can ride quite long distances. The duration of their jumps is 60 seconds. Thus, predators prey on invertebrates.

Why bed bugs can't jump

Unlike them, domestic bloodsuckers cannot jump. This applies to both small and mature individuals. Sometimes they climb to the ceiling and fall on top of a sleeping person, pinpointing the location of the victim from the heat and exhaled carbon dioxide. But this is by no means considered a jump.

Their short paws with claws, covered with a large number of small villi, are not at all adapted for jumping, as they have a completely different structure and purpose.

Are flying bed bugs dangerous to humans?

Outdoor pests that can fly are in most cases not dangerous to humans. Their appearance is associated with climatic and weather conditions. So you should not immediately grab onto insecticides and rush to poison insects.

The danger is only a certain type of bug that lives in the tropics. It's a parasite triatomine bug, which feeds on the blood of warm-blooded creatures and carries a deadly disease known as Chagas disease.

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