Abstract
THE Medical Research Council has recently issued in its Special Report series, No. 245, a “Report of the Committee on Bed-bug Infestation 1935-1940”(H.M. Stationery Office, 1942. 1s. net). It is in the form of a 64-page brochure which comprises six sections on the subject, concerned with the varied aspects of the problem, each being contributed by different specialists. In the section on new data bearing upon the ecology of the bed-bug, it is gathered that, provided a source of blood is available, temperature is the most important environmental factor. In unheated rooms the winter mortality of the bug population may be as high as 80 per cent, whereas in warmed rooms the population tends to increase enormously from year to year. The threshold of activity of the insect may be so low as 7-10° C., while a temperature of 13-14° C. is most favourable to a long life of the insect in the absence of food: both above and below this temperature life is definitely shorter at comparable humidities. For long life a high humidity is essential. At 45° C. (113°F.) the eggs succumb in one hour, and the adults in the same time at a temperature one degree lower.
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Biology and Control of the Bed-bug. Nature 150, 427–428 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150427d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150427d0