Icon Legend

This session is not in your schedule.

This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Presentation Icons

In-Person

Livestream

On-Demand

Student Competition

Video Chat

Ticketed Event

Poster Icons

Student Competition

In-Person

Poster

On-Demand

Back

39 Views

Video Q&A ViewAttendees 1

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

10-Minute Paper

MUVE: Urban and Stored Products On-Demand Presentations

Quantification of daily feces production for each bed bug (Cimex lectularius) life stage

On-Demand

Presenting Author(s)

Morgan M. Wilson

Research Technician/PHD Student
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia

Co-Author(s)

Dini M. Miller

Professor and Urban Pest Management Specialist
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia

Entomologists are receiving a growing number of requests to consult in bed bug lawsuits. A major focus in these lawsuits is the size of the infestation. One method for identifying an infestation is to look for fecal spots that bed bugs produce after feeding. The number of feces can be used as an indicator of how many bed bugs are present. It is well known that bed bugs produce dark fecal spots, but they also produce light colored spots. In addition, we recently discovered that they produce fecal spots that are only visible under UV light. Our studies determined that bed bugs produce nearly double the number of fecal spots than previously thought. Our objectives for this study were to determine the fecal contamination potential of different sized beg bug populations, and to determine the number of fecal spots produced by each life stage.