Party All Over Your Body

Imagine laying naked in bed,and you are not alone. Someone else is with you, and is just as naked. Better yet, it isn't just one other, but hundreds of others with you. Getting pretty hot in here, but brace yourself their is more. They will always be there with you. You leave knowing they are there, and naked, and waiting for you. I can think of no better way to introduce to you the Cimex lectularius. Cimex lectularius  also known as the 'bed bug" is more common than we hope to think. Imagine this guy in your bed:

Picture thanks to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

I completely agree with your thinking; this is not the prettiest of bed mates. Nonetheless plenty of households have them so it is best to know a little bit about them. As you can see these guys are reddish brown but when born are translucent. They grow to be about 4-5 mm when they reach adulthood. However their ability to fully mature is dependent on their diet, which in this case happens to be humans. Specifically human blood, because these bugs are actually hematophagous (blood suckers.) "Bed Bugs" are in a way teenie tiny vampires. They pierce the skin of its prey (humans) with its rostrum which is made up of the maxillae and mandibles. The image to the right shows the highlighted rostrum. The entire maxillae and mandibular bundle penetrates the skin and blood is sucked up through a straw like food canal. The whole process takes about 5-10 minutes for the bug to become full. Then it will leave the human and head back to YOUR bed. If you don't already you should really feel used.

If hundreds of these guys weren't enough, they too reproduce like any other living animal. Though their sex life is a little too intense for my liking. The male bed bug has a hypodermic penis and will stab the female in the abdomen when it is ready to mate. The fertilized eggs are produced and will hatch little immature translucent bed bug babies. These little nymphs will go through five stages of life, each lasting about a week, and will shed its exoskeleton at each stage. It can take as little as two months for these guys to fully develop depending on food and temperature. That means these "newborns" will be making babies of their own a very short amount of time. So we need to do what we can to rid our beds and our homes of these insects.

SOME SIMPLE SOLUTIONS:
-Prevention:
         +keep out wild animals
         +keep indoor/outdoor house pet well groomed
         +treat old furniture before bringing it into the house
         +be sure clothes are free of insects before entering the home
-Management:
         +for a two hour period keep the temperature at less than 17 degrees Celsius
         +vacuum any insects found
         +wrapping mattresses in some type of impermeable material
         +pesticides (not very effective)
*A combination of different above methods will decrease the amount of bed bugs*
-Predators:
         +Masked Hunter Insect
         +Cockroach
         +Ants
         +Spiders
         +Mites
         +Centipedes
 *It is really your decision if these bugs are better found in your home rather than the bed bug*


References:

"Bed Bug." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug>.