MSNBC: Bedbugs "use a barbed proboscis to suck their blood meal"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Can't sleep? The bed bugs may be biting

Blood-sucking pests are troubling the U.S. hotel industry

Updated: 12:30 p.m. ET May 12, 2005



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7829176/

Although bed bugs can prosper in almost any type of building, hotels and motels are particularly vulnerable because of the transient nature of their clients and the ease with which the insects travel in luggage, clothing and furniture.

Oval-shaped and less than a quarter of an inch long, the brown-colored insects like to settle close to their food source, often hiding out under mattresses and bed frames, in crevices and behind picture frames.

Once attached to a sleeping human, they use a barbed proboscis to bore through the skin and suck their blood meal. They can go months without feeding, patiently awaiting a new host or travel companion.

Unlike mosquitoes, which can transmit malaria, yellow fever and West Nile virus, bed bugs have not been linked to anything more serious than the itchy, red welts that often appear on a victim’s skin.

[babylonsister]

1. Ya know, I could have gone all day

without knowing that! :(

[LiberallyInclined]

2. I saw a report on these buggers on the news a few months back-

apparently there's a big problem in some parts of new york(and the country) with people picking up matresses that have been thrown out by others- they're often infested with bedbugs, but you can't tell by looking at them, as they retreat into the matress during the day.

some places even rewrap used matresses in plastic or even cloth, and then resell them as new.