Bedbugs are ubiquitous, species diversity has provided them with different body shapes and sizes. A distinctive feature of insects is semi-rigid wings, although some groups are devoid of them. Not everyone knows what bugs look like, even if they saw them on plants in the summer. They can be of various colors: brown, green, red. The most familiar species shown in the photo are bed bugs. The parasite feeds on human blood and settles at home.
What types of bedbugs are
All types of bedbugs are classified into 3 main groups:
- Useful. They are specially bred to protect the harvest of field, nectar-bearing, vegetable crops and fruit trees from pests. In the absence of Colorado beetles, thrips, aphids and other phytophages, beneficial bugs can support life with the help of pollen and plant sap. However, they do not harm the crop.
- Harmful. This category includes dangerous parasitic bugs and herbivorous insects. The former have a piercing-sucking mouth apparatus and settle closer to people and poultry. Mostly they live in bed linen, clothes. Herbivorous bugs pose a threat to crops.
- Harmless. These include soldier bugs, alder brooders, and water bugs. They do not harm humans, pets, livestock and crops. In rare cases, they can bite a person from hunger, but they do not pose a danger. Saliva is free of pathogens and potential allergens. Bites of bugs feeding on plant sap do not cause drying of plants and damage to fruits. They cannot be used in agriculture to protect crops from pests.
The harm from soldier bugs: dietary habits and the scale of threats
Previously, insects in the summer cottage in the form of soldier bugs were not considered harmful. Now the situation has changed radically: they began to attack other organisms and destroy the works of many people (gardens, crops). Mass attacks of pests lead to the death of plants, and the fruits deteriorate from the inside and become unsuitable for food. Vineyards are especially threatened, from the stems of which juices are sucked, after which the fruits themselves are gradually eaten.
It is worth noting that soldiers can feed on carrion, gathering in whole groups on dead insects and even vertebrates. If a dead brother comes across on the way, then he is also exposed to a general meal, which scientists call cannibalism.
Agricultural pests
Phytophagous bugs are a type of insect that feeds on the sap of fruit plants and cereals. Colonies grow rapidly, so damage from their vital activity reduces the volume and quality of the crop.
Cabbage bug
Eurydema has a rigid shell, an oval flattened body, reaching a length of less than 1 cm. The color is contrasting - in the area of the scutellum and elytra, the exoskeleton is covered with symmetrical red-black patterns. They pose a threat to cruciferous plants. Females lay up to 300 eggs. They are able to destroy the cabbage crop in a few days. Insect activity increases with increasing air temperature.
Rape bug
The insect belongs to the family of bush bugs.The pattern on the exoskeleton is variable, it consists mainly of light and dark spots, which are blue-black, green, beige, orange or red. The white abdomen turns black after wintering. Body length - 6-9 mm. The pest affects cruciferous crops: radishes, rutabagas, turnips.
Light green bush bug
The body is colored green, the length is from 12 to 15 mm. Before hibernation, the bushworm changes its color to bronze, in the spring it returns again the bright green hue of the shell. The prothorax is concave. The bug settles on deciduous trees and berry bushes. It poses a threat to raspberries and cereals.
Ruled brat
Insect chitin is colored bright red, orange with black longitudinal lines. The second name is the Italian bug. The body length reaches 10-11 mm. There are black antennae on the head. Insects are phytophages because they feed on the foliage of shrubs and trees. Eat green shoots of fruit plants.
Attention! The larvae of the ruled bratwurst eat the inflorescences of dill, carrots and parsley.
Harmful turtle
Insects have the following characteristics:
- tough, durable shell of the exoskeleton;
- an oval body;
- small size - up to 1.3 cm;
- the color is dirty, mixed of yellow, brown and dark gray.
In winter, it hides in the forest thicket, where it buries itself in fallen leaves. On agricultural land, he prefers to stay in warm outbuildings with stocks of cereals. Fields with rye and wheat are striking.
Important! Under the influence of the saliva of a harmful turtle, the structure of gluten in the composition of cereals changes, the rate of ripening and the quality of the crop decrease.
Berry bug
Insects are polyphages. They prefer to suck the juice of berries, flowers and leaves of ornamental and oil-bearing plants, fruit trees. After that, the buds and leaves dry out, the fruits fall or quickly deteriorate. The berry bug reaches 12 mm in length, the body is colored reddish-brown. The surface of the exoskeleton is covered with chitinous hairs. It can be easily distinguished by its characteristic rim along the abdomen in black and white.
Marble bug
The insect is a dangerous pest that affects up to 300 plant species. They emit a pungent unpleasant odor that repels birds and rodents. The body of the bug is pear-shaped. On the back there are brown streaks of varying intensity, which creates a marbled effect. With the onset of frost, bugs are taken into heated rooms. In spring they multiply rapidly, laying up to 20-30 eggs at a time. Up to 3 generations are hatched per year.
Reference! Since July 1, 2020, the Eurasian Economic Union has included marble bugs in the list of quarantine objects.
Bed bugs are parasites
Parasitic bugs are blood-sucking insects that settle closer to humans. The danger is that they can carry infectious and viral diseases.
Bedding
Bed bugs are the main types of domestic bugs and feed exclusively on the blood of mammals. They often settle in sleeping places of humans and pets. In case of danger, they emit an unpleasant bug odor.
Cimex lectularius
It is a wingless flat-shaped insect. Adults grow up to 8 mm in size. The exoskeleton of the hungry parasite is dirty yellow or brown. After saturation with blood, it changes color to black or dark red.
The eggs of the parasites resemble small grains of rice - up to 1 mm in length. Painted white. Due to the content of a specific secret produced by the internal glands, when the eggs are crushed, they emit a strong unpleasant odor.
Attention! Types of bed bugs appear regardless of the sanitary condition of the apartment.
Cimex adjunctus
Alternative names are white, mouse bug. It feeds on the blood of bats, rarely settles in human bedding.It does not differ in appearance from Cimex lectularius. The length of the body is from 3 to 8.5 mm, depending on the degree of saturation of the parasite with blood. Females are larger than males. A distinctive feature of a mouse bug is the presence of white hairs around the head. Insects do not have front or hind wings.
Cimex hemipterus
The bug Cimex hemipterus is a blood-sucking insect. Parasites prefer to settle closer to humans. The bugs Cimex lectularius, with which they are similar in appearance, are actively displaced. Distinctive features are thinner elongated limbs and a less rounded body. With the onset of dusk, the activity of parasites decreases. They are highly resistant to chemical insecticides.
Oeciacus
An alternative name is the swallow bug, which parasitizes the bird of the same name. The rounded body is white. Distributed in the European part of Russia.
Triatomine bug (Triatominae)
Belongs to the family of predators, is nocturnal. The insect has an elongated body, about 2 cm long. The exoskeleton is black or gray, with orange or red spots on the sides. Adults have rigid wings and 3 pairs of limbs. On the cone-shaped head, there are long antennae, a piercing-sucking type of mouth apparatus. The parasite's diet includes only the blood of mammals and birds. The proboscis is sensitive to infrared radiation.
An alternative name is the kissing bug, since its mouth apparatus is not able to pierce the thick skin on the body. To suck blood, the insect bites a person into the soft tissues of the eyes and lips.
Important! The triatom bug is one of the most dangerous types of parasite, because it can infect a person with Chagas disease or American trypanosomiasis.
Chicken bugs
Insects resemble chicken mites in appearance. They are colored brown, with a flattened body. They swell from drunk blood, change color to black, burgundy. They are nocturnal, in the daytime they hide in hard-to-reach cracks. It is possible to suspect the presence of parasites in birds by skin irritation, redness. Bedbug bites cause severe itching and pain, which is why the bird begins to peck at the affected area, injure itself with its claws.
Who can be confused with a bug?
Seemingly detailed description of the appearance of the bug allows you to easily distinguish it from any other insects, harmful or not. However, the variability of the parasite's appearance, which allows for a serious variation in both size and body color, often leads to confusion. For example, quite often a well-fed bug can be mistaken for a cockroach. Photos of both insects are posted below, with the bug on the left and the cockroach on the right.
The similarity of the two parasites is obvious. They have similar sizes, similar coloration of a segmented elongated body. The main differences lie in several parameters. First, the bug's body looks more rounded. Secondly, it darkens only after feeding. Thirdly, cockroaches are much more mobile and faster than bed bugs, which move even in a hungry state at a low speed, and in a well-fed state they are generally inactive.
Another parasite with which the bug is often confused is the linen louse. Confusion often arises when comparing insect larvae. Just look at the photo of the louse lice and compare it with the above images.
Various methods and means are used to combat various insect pests. Therefore, it is extremely important to know what a particular pest looks like, including a bed bug, and be able to distinguish them from each other. To do this, you should consider in detail the most important external signs of bedbugs at different stages of their life cycle.
Water bugs
Water bugs have adapted to life in the thickness and on the surface of stagnant bodies of water. These include:
- belostoma;
- smooth;
- water strider.
These species of bedbugs have elongated limbs that widen towards the end. They perform the function of rowing for fast movement on the water film. They prefer to live by attaching themselves to algae and muddy bottom. All types of water bugs are predators. Depending on the size of the adults, insects, eggs, eggs, and fish fry will become their prey.
Important! Insects need air to breathe. They retain the developed wings necessary for short-distance flights in search of a new habitat.
Water striders
In the warm season, they live on the surface of stagnant bodies of water. The limbs covered with hydrophobic hairs of the exoskeleton help to make specific movements on the water surface. The forelegs are short and are used to capture and hold prey. Adult water striders reach a length of 30 mm. Faceted eyes and sensory receptors on the limbs allow insects to receive information about the world around them and catch the slightest fluctuations in the water film. They feed on invertebrates.
Gladysh
Large freshwater bugs have convex elytra. The color of the exoskeleton depends on the color of the bottom of the reservoir of their habitat. Most of the time, adults spend at the surface of the water, resting their limbs on the water film. Unlike water striders, the insect's body is submerged in the water column. Thanks to this, the smoothie catches small insects and fish fry. In winter, water bugs are taken under the foliage. When the reservoir dries up, they fly to a new habitat. The rest of the time, wings are practically not used.
Belostoma
An alternative name is the giant water bug. It has a flat, streamlined body with thickened forelimbs that perform a grasping function. Adults, up to 15 cm in length, feed on frogs, salamanders and small fish. May bite through human skin, but are not considered hazardous to swimmers.
Reference! The male takes care of the offspring, on whose back the female lays eggs.
How to distinguish a female from a male bug
The bed bug, like a significant part of other insects, females are somewhat larger than males. However, it is extremely difficult to distinguish them according to this or some other characteristics. The fact is that the deviations in size in the overwhelming majority of cases are insignificant and amount to 1-2 mm. Much more serious differences in size, for example, between a young and an adult bug.
When answering questions about what a female bug looks like and how it differs from a male, a more rounded abdomen is often mentioned. But even this sign is very difficult to detect in practice with the naked eye, and it is not necessary. The fact is that both males and females of the parasite are subject to destruction. Moreover, gender, unlike food intake, does not in any way affect the danger or likelihood of detecting a bug.
Bedbugs helpers
There are useful types of bedbugs that include herbivorous insect pests in their diet. They are specially bred and sold in the amount of 250-500 individuals to control whiteflies, thrips, spider mites and aphids.
Bug Podisus maculiventris
The diet of bedbugs includes up to 90 types of insect pests of agricultural land:
- Colorado potato beetle larvae;
- American whitefly;
- bean beetle;
- gypsy moth.
Females are larger than males, the latter reaching a length of 11 mm. The body color varies from brown to dark beige. Females lay from 20 to 70 eggs, up to 1 mm in size. The larvae hatch after 1-1.5 months.
Anthocoris nemorum
Antokoris bugs inhabit fruit deciduous trees and shrubs, field and vegetable crops, nectar-bearing plants. The body is elongated, colored brownish. Females are larger than males, reaching up to 4 mm in length. They are useful because they are polyphagous predators, whose diet includes pests of agricultural land:
- eggs of sawflies attacking currants and gooseberries;
- pear honeydew;
- red fruit mite;
- aphid;
- leaf rollers.
Predatory bugs of the genus Orius
Small insect of light brown color. They are very voracious, used mainly in the fight against thrips, they eat the pest at any stage of development. Bed bugs of the genus Orius also eat:
- aphids;
- spider mites;
- whitefly;
- eggs and caterpillars scoop.
Carnivorous bugs are characterized by the fact that they kill more insect pests than they need to feed. In the absence of phytophages, Orius can feed on pollen, which does not harm the crop.
Family of predators (Reduviidae)
They are the largest detachment of representatives of the hemiptera. They are nocturnal, sucking out the eggs of insect pests. Predators are black, brown, brown in color with the presence of blotches of orange, yellow and green.
Attention! Tropical carnivore species can feed on human blood.
Macrolophus (family of horseflies Miridae)
Macrolofus bugs are highly gluttonous. Over the entire lifespan, about 30 days, up to 2500 larvae and 3000 whitefly eggs are eaten. Adults have an oblong green body, 2.7-4 mm long. The exoskeleton is covered with fine hairs. The female is distinguished by an elongated abdomen with a pronounced ovipositor.
Macrolophus is used for the control of herbivorous pests in protected ground, because it eats greenhouse and tobacco whitefly, tomato moth and thrips.
Perillus two centuries
It feeds on herbivorous nascoms. The main delicacy of the perillus is the Colorado potato beetle, which eats both eggs and larvae. If there are no beetles on the territory of the colony, the diet includes butterflies, caterpillars and umbrella species.
The bug is thermophilic, quickly dies at low temperatures. It has a black carapace with bright orange patterns.
Why bedbugs are dangerous for humans
Bed bugs are true hematophages, that is, they feed exclusively on human blood and nothing else.
There are many opinions that at this moment they are capable of transmitting pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases to us along with their saliva, but today there is no evidence of this.
Although, but still there is certain harm from them:
- Violation of moral, aesthetic and sanitary and hygienic standards of human living.
- Chronic disturbance of night sleep, because a person always remembers that somewhere around here terrible bloodsuckers rustle. In addition, although the saliva of bedbugs contains pain relievers, some of their bites can be quite sensitive.
- The saliva of parasites contains a large amount of allergic proteins for our immune system, so bites are characterized by severe itching the next day. This is not pleasant, in addition, scratching often occurs in these places with possible inflammatory processes, which in turn require systematic treatment.
If our readers still have questions on the directions indicated in this article, we will be happy to answer them in the comments.
Useful bugs
Some types of bugs are valuable helpers, because they eat eggs, larvae, and adults of insect pests. They protect crops from agricultural land from Colorado beetles, butterfly caterpillars.
Picromerus
Helper insects have pronounced sexual dimorphism. Females are larger and more massive than males. The body of female bugs reaches 15 mm in length. Males have a slender body less than 10 mm in size. The gray body of the picromerus is oval, the limbs are reddish, the antennae and the head are black. Despite the presence of developed wings, insects do not fly. Elytra is used for parachuting from tall plants.
Insects attack in a group and eat a potential victim, for example:
- American whiteflies;
- Colorado beetles;
- caterpillars of the scoop;
- sawflies;
- different types of larvae.
Arma the predatory
The insect feeds on pests of agricultural crops. The size of an adult is up to 14 mm. The carapace is colored brown with many black spots. Armagh is a predatory thermophilic, colonies of bugs inhabit the steppe and forest-steppe zones.
The diet includes:
- caterpillar scoop;
- hawthorn;
- alder leaf beetle;
- Colorado potato beetle and its eggs.
Zicron blue
Zicron blue saves potatoes from Colorado beetles, which are their main food source. It destroys only the eggs of pests, the bugs do not feed on adults. Predators have a blue-green rounded body with a shiny shell. The period of activity falls on the daytime.
Features of the body structure of a bed bug
Description of what does an apartment bug look like, without considering the structure of his body, it will be incomplete. The body of an insect consists of three main elements - the head, chest and abdomen, the last two of which have a segmented structure. The chitinous cover, strong and dense, covered with short and thin hairs, unites these departments into a single organism (see photo).
It is advisable to consider each of the departments of the bug's body in a little more detail. The head is deservedly considered the most important part of an insect. It hosts:
- two convex eyes with a high level of light sensitivity;
- organ of touch and smell in the form of long antennae. They play an essential role in all movements of the bug and its orientation in space;
- a proboscis bent under the abdomen, which is used to pierce the victim's skin and suck out blood. It straightens immediately before eating and contains two channels. The first is used to inject saliva into the blood, containing a special anesthetic enzyme, and the second is used directly to suck blood and transport it to the bug's digestive system.
Insect chest formed from three segments. The same number of pairs of legs are attached to them. In the upper part of the second segment, there are two shortened elytra, which are practically invisible due to their uselessness. The bed bug has no wings, so the parasite, contrary to popular myths, is not able to fly. A similar delusion is insect jumping, which is also impossible due to the peculiarities of the structure of the legs of the parasite.
The number of segments on the abdomen of the parasite is usually 10. Spiracles are located along their edges. Behind the third pair of legs, glands are located on the bug's body, the purpose of which is to release a strongly odorous secret, which occurs at a time of danger. The genital organ and the posterior foramen of the insect are quite logically located on the last segment of the abdomen.
Harmless bedbugs
These varieties are not harmful to humans, domestic animals, livestock and agricultural land.
Soldier bug
They belong to the family of redbirds. They do not pose a threat to humans, they are not carriers of dangerous diseases. The soldiers are painted black, the elytra and the back of the exoskeleton are patterned in red. The hind wings are absent, there is an elongated proboscis. The diet of the soldiers is based on the juices of fruit trees, liquid from the leaves, do not harm agricultural land. The leaves do not dry out after punctures, the fruits do not deteriorate.
Alder bug
The alder brood bug got its name from the female, which chooses only alder for laying eggs. Refers to arboreal shield bugs. It has an elongated body reaching a length of 8 mm. Colored light brown with many dark spots. On the border of the wings, black and yellow stripes alternate.
Insects spend most of their lives in trees. Females do not leave eggs and hatched larvae until they can independently get food and exist outside the nest. For humans, hens do not pose a threat.
