Image of Cimex

Description:

This 2006 photograph depicted an anterosuperior view, i.e., from the front and above, of an adult bedbug, Cimex lectularius, as it was in the process of ingesting a blood meal from the arm of a voluntary human host.

Bedbugs are not vectors in nature of any known human disease. Although some disease organisms have been recovered from bedbugs under laboratory conditions, none have been shown to be transmitted by bedbugs outside of the laboratory.

The common bedbug C. lectularius is a wingless, red-brown, blood-sucking insect that grows up to 7 mm in length and has a lifespan from 4 months up to 1 year. Bedbugs hide in cracks and crevices in beds, wooden furniture, floors, and walls during the daytime and emerge at night to feed on their preferred host, humans.
Created: 2006