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Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite!!

Published

on August 26, 2010

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We’ve all heard that old saying from our parents while tucking us in at night. As a child I thought it was just some silly little rhyme about weird fictional creatures that may bite me in my sleep. Imagine my surprise when I found out that bedbugs really do exist! This silly little rhyme has taken on new meaning to people now, especially since reports of bedbug infestations have been surfacing recently in local, national and even world news. I was recently interviewed by a reporter in conjunction with a story she did on a bedbug infestation in a local apartment complex. I was then interviewed by a local radio station. Since the subject seems to be piquing the interest of Houstonians, and terrifying some of them, I wanted to shed some light on it for you!

Nymphal bedbug

photo credit: liz.novack

Simply known as bedbugs, insects belonging to the family Cimicidae are small parasites that feed on the blood of mammals and birds. They are related to other insects such as stink bugs, cicadas, and assassin bugs in the order Hemiptera. All of these insects feed using a piercing and sucking mouthpart known as a “beak.” Many of these insects are well-known plant pests which use their beak to penetrate the tissues of plants. Others are predators, and a few suck blood. The common bedbug Cimex lectularius is found worldwide in temperate climates. They are small, about 1/8-1/4 of an inch long, oval to round in shape, flattened laterally unless engorged, and rusty brown in color. A female bedbug can lay around 300 eggs in her lifetime and the eggs take only about a week to hatch, depending on the temperature. Bedbugs prefer to feed on humans because we are very abundant, and well, an easy target! They are also known to feed on rats, mice, rabbits, and chickens. Bedbugs may be small, but they are very tough! They can withstand some temperature extremes and they can live for up to 15 months without food!

Bedbugs used to be quite a problem until about the 1940′s when they were nearly eradicated from heavy pesticide use, including DDT, which they are now resistant to. Their numbers have been slowly rebounding since about the mid 1990′s. This can be blamed on several factors including increased world travel, their growing resistance to many kinds of pesticides and their ability to go unnoticed. Because of their size and shape, bedbugs can slip into and hide in nearly any sized crack or crevice, making them very difficult to spot during the day. At night, they come out to feed. They find their host by detecting body heat and carbon dioxide emissions, much like mosquitoes do. Once on the host, they penetrate the skin with their beak and inject an anesthetic to make sure they go unnoticed. They then take a small blood meal and withdraw their mouthparts. If they are not disturbed they will move to the side and do this again.

Bedbugs are not a medically significant pest because they don’t spread any type of disease; they are really just a nuisance. They are most common in buildings or complexes in which people come and go often and rooms or residences are close together - such as hotels, cruise ships, jails, hospitals, public housing, apartment buildings, etc. In hotels and other travel destinations, bedbugs can hitchhike on articles of clothing and baggage. In apartment buildings, they can travel easily between units. If an infested apartment becomes vacant, the bugs will seek a new host by traveling to an adjoining apartment. Bedbugs usually end up in residences such as houses because they are transferred unknowingly from one of these other types of places. Now, don’t get all upset and scared thinking if you’ve traveled or visited friends you could definitely have bedbugs. The best way to deal with any kind of pest insects is: Don’t be paranoid! Be preventative and be prepared! Here are some answers to questions you may have about bedbugs:

How do I know if I have bedbugs?

Leaf-footed bug, relative of a bedbug

photo credit: procristination

This can be a bit tricky, but certainly not impossible! Be aware of your surroundings and what’s going on with your body. You should always inspect your body for insect bites and investigate things that may be making you itch and why. Take your lifestyle and activities into account to rule out other pests. Do you spend a lot of time outside or do you have pets? Don’t mistake mosquito and flea bites for bedbug bites. If you find yourself going to bed unscathed and waking up with itching or irritation, it may be something to look into. Due to the way they feed, bedbugs will sometimes leave 2 or more bites in a row next to each other, but not always. If you see bites like this, it is a telltale sign. Since bedbugs, don’t cause symptoms in everyone, there are other signs to watch for. Inspect your sheets for tiny blood smears and molts (shed skins). For this reason, it is helpful to have white or light colored sheets. Inspect your bedroom, mattress, and even your couch for small crawling bugs. If you find something bring it in to show us, or send a picture. We are ALWAYS happy to help the public by identifying insects!

What should I do if I have bedbugs?

photo credit: JMazzolaa

First, it is important to get a positive identification. Show the bug(s) to a competent Entomologist. Most pest control operators should know how to identify one, but again, we are a sure thing! If you do have bedbugs, DO NOT try to treat them yourself! Washing your sheets with hot water or even throwing your mattress out will not fix the problem! Bedbugs will more than likely be hiding in other places. Call a reputable pest control company to treat the problem. Scientists are constantly developing new pesticides to combat them and some companies can do hot steam treatments which will eliminate all stages of the bugs. They cannot take heat above about 115 degrees F. These services may be expensive, but they will work.

What can I do to prevent getting bedbugs?
Again, don’t be paranoid! That won’t do you any good and it will just stress you out. You can be preventative by doing certain common sense things that will help protect you against most pest insects. Make sure your house is in good repair, seal up cracks, fill holes, etc. Most pest insects especially bedbugs can come in through and hide in tiny spaces. Keep your house clean and clutter free. Have a squeaky clean disinfected home is good to keep the cockroaches away, but not necessarily bedbugs. All they need is a host, you or your family! However, by eliminating clutter around your home, you’re eliminating harborage and hiding places. This will make it a less attractive environment for them and if they’re there, they will be much easier to treat. Be well prepared and make smart choices when traveling. If you’re staying in a hotel, do your research. You can find out a lot of information about hotels online. The same thing goes for moving into an apartment. Look for well maintained complexes and do your research!

So what if now I’m totally grossed out and scared of getting bedbugs??
Like I said, bedbugs are nothing to be afraid of. I know something about little creatures coming out at night to feed on us in our sleep is the stuff of nightmares for some, but consider things like lice or mosquitoes that feed on us regardless of when we’re awake or asleep and can transmit harmful pathogens. At any given moment there are trillions, actually an unimaginable number of microorganisms, including bugs, living and feeding on us. As creepy as it may seem, it’s totally natural. If you follow the advice in this blog, you should lead a relatively bedbug free life, and if there’s anything else we can do to put your mind at ease, answer questions, identify critters, we’ll be happy to! Until next time, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

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Spot the Planet Uranus with the Naked Eye

Published

James

on August 25, 2010

in Astronomy

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The “Great Planet Race” in the western evening sky this summer is beginning to wrap up; Venus has caught up with Mars as they both leave Saturn behind. As these planets set in the west, though, another rises in the east at about 9:30, and will have cleared most buildings and trees by 10 p.m. And this one is involved in a conjunction of its own.

This is none other than Jupiter, king of the planets. Once Jupiter rises, it is easy to find because it outshines everything in the sky except the sun, the moon, and Venus. Just look east for the brightest thing in the night sky. Last I checked, Jupiter is still missing one of its belts. For the rest of this year, Jupiter remains well placed for observing in convenient evening hours. If you have a telescope, watch for yourself and see if the belt returns!

Although Jupiter seems to be by itself among the much, much dimmer stars of Pisces, it in fact has a close companion that few of us ever get to see without a telescope, the planet Uranus. We typically identify Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as the five naked eye planets, and for practical purposes, that’s true. However, Uranus is actually visible to the unaided eye under perfect conditions. In the time before man made light dimmed the skies, many people could see Uranus. However, they were unable to recognize it as a planet because it is dim and changes position very slowly. (It takes 84 years for Uranus to reappear near the same stars). Thus Uranus, although plainly visible, went undiscovered for centuries. For example, in 1690, John Flamsteed was cataloguing stars and constellations, numbering stars in each constellation from west to east. However, the ‘star’ he catalogued as ’34 Tauri’ (#34 in Taurus) was in fact the planet Uranus.

Replica of Herschel’s telescope

In March 1781, William Herschel became the first to identify Uranus as a planet when he observed it in his telescope. As Uranus is about twice as far from the sun as Saturn, Herschel’s discovery doubled the size of the known solar system. Herschel wanted to call the new planet ‘George’ (actually Georgium Sidus in Latin) after his patron, King George III. German astronomer Johann Elert Bode, who had calculated an orbit for the new planet, suggested calling it ‘Uranus’ because in Graeco-Roman myth, Saturn had been the father of Jupiter and Uranus the father of Saturn.

Here are charts showing the relative positions of Jupiter and Uranus from now into the new year. The event depicted is a triple conjunction, in which two outer planets align on three separate occasions only a few months apart. This occurs when distant planets align while Earth is on the same side of the sun as they are. As Earth passes the slower outer planets, we see them slow down, stop, and reverse direction for while. We see the planets resume direct motion once Earth has pulled far enough ahead on its much faster inner orbit. As a result, we see three conjunctions instead of just one. The three closest alignments of Jupiter and Uranus occur on June 8, 2010, September 18, 2010, and January 3, 2011. At all three, Jupiter is less than one degree (about the width of an adult’s pinkie held at arm’s length) under Uranus. The conjunction of June 8 occurred in the morning sky, but the two yet to come will be visible in convenient evening hours. On the night of September 20-21, Earth is directly in line with the pair, causing them to rise at dusk at set at dawn–Jupiter and Uranus will be up all night long. By winter, Jupiter and Uranus will be high in the south southwest at nightfall.

Late 2010 is a good time to get a glimpse of a world we don’t usually notice in the sky. A small telescope or even binoculars will reveal Uranus. And if you find yourself away from the city on a moonless night, see if you can pick out which of the dim points of light just above Jupiter is a little more than meets the eye.

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How To Evolve a Wing

Published

Bob

on August 23, 2010

in Paleontology

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Our Archaeopteryx show has bedazzling fossils – the only Archaeopteryx skeleton in the New World, complete with clear impressions of feathers. Plus frog-mouthed pterodactyls, fast-swimming Sea Crocs, and slinky land lizards. Today we learn the different ways in which wings evoloved on various prehistoric creatures.

Solnhofen show us three ways for Darwinian processes to construct a wing from a normal arm

Dactyls:
Dactyls evolved from very close relatives of early dinosaurs. The dinosaurs and their crocodilian kin are archosaurs. Archosaurs developed a unique asymmetry in the hand. Primitive reptiles, like today’s lizards, have five fingers, each with a strong claw. In archosaurs the outer two fingers are weak and have no claw at all.

Crocodilians and many dinosaurs kept this arrangement - for example, stegosaurs and Triceratops had five fingers and three claws on the inner fingers. Meat-eating dinosaurs usually evolved three-fingered hands, doing away with those outer two claw-less fingers.

‘Dactyls evolved their archosaur hand in a different manner: they lost the pinky (the outermost finger). The claws on the inner three fingers were strong – useful for climbing trees and the sides of cliffs. The fourth finger evolved into an organ we see in no other creature: Finger four became immense, as thick as the thigh or thicker. The finger could be folded back where it joined the wrist for walking on the ground. When flying, the giant finger four was stretched outwards.

Schematic of a generic pterosaur wing, pencil drawing, digital coloring

photo credit: Arthurweasley

Solnhofen fossils showed that the wing surface was attached to the finger four and to the sides of the body and the inner edges of the hind leg. So ‘dactyls could flap like a bat – using up and down strokes of both arm and leg to make the power stroke.

Dinosaurs and Birds:

Archaeopteryx

Birds evolved their wing by another wonderfully unique method. Their hand bones were 99% identical to those in small meat-eating dinosaurs. Only the three inner fingers were retained. Darwinian processes had clipped off the pinky and fourth finger. Solnhofen fossils prove that specialized wing feathers were attached to the second finger. So Archaeopteryx flew with the feathered arm.

Raptor-type dinosaurs, like Velociraptor and Microraptor, had evolved feathers very like those of birds. But these small dinosaurs evolved hind-leg wings to assist the arms. Flight feathers were attached to knee and shin as well as to the forelimb. When a tiny raptor-like dinosaur evolved into Archaeopteryx, the feathers were lost from the hind-legs, leaving just the arm to do the work of flying.

Bats:

Bats are specialized mammals and no bats had evolved in the Jurassic. The first bats appear much later, about 55 million years ago.

Bats use strong skin to make the wing. But unlike ‘dactyls, who evolved just one finger to support the wing surface, bats use three or four fingers to spread the wing and control the wing in flight.

Don’t miss Archaeopteryx: Icon of Evolution, currently on display at HMNS. Want to learn more? Check out our previous blogs on Archaeopteryx.

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Have fun and save money? Too good to be true? Not any more

Published

Daniel B

on August 20, 2010

in Energy

. 0 Comments

Generously supported by Marathon Oil Corporation

You may have heard the big news. The Houston Museum of Natural Science is forming a new energy conservation initiative!

On October 9th, the Houston Museum of Natural Science will kick off its new Energy Conservation Club website. The Kick Off will include Billy B, hands on activities, information on conservation, and more! All for free!

All this to kick off what will become the central clearing house for energy conservation education, the Energy Conservation Club website.

Recycled Art

photo credit: clementine mom

So what is an Energy Conservation Club (ECC)? An ECC is a group formed at a school, home school, church, or other organization to help people promote energy conservation. They will promote energy conservation through actions; energy audits of home and school, experiments to show how much energy can be saved, plays about energy conservation, short stories, and energy conservation and recycle art. These are just a few ways to promote energy conservation. The sky’s not even the limit.

Do people who want to promote energy conservation have to form a club to use the website? No. We encourage clubs and extracurricular activities, but a teacher could just as easily assign her class an energy conservation project or use the materials on the website in any way. A fun energy conservation project could also be entered into the NEED’s Youth Awards. A great way to do two projects for the energy of one.

There is also nothing stopping individuals from using the website. If you just want to learn a way to save money on your electrical bill, you’re more than welcome to visit us. We would love for you to tell us about it, so we could share your stories with others and encourage them.

photo credit: aloshbennett

What exactly will the website contain? It will have energy conservation tips updated regularly to help you save electricity and money. Grand philosophical thoughts such as “Turn the lights off when you leave the room.” We explain how to read an electrical bill and a meter. We tell how a smart grid differs from a smart meter. We’ll also show you the math and calculations behind how to choose which light bulb you should use. In addition, there will be all the information you need to teach about energy, from the science of fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. And that’s just for starters! We’ll keep updating the website with the latest and greatest energy conservation news and information.

We will also tell you what conservation events are going on in the community, such as the City of Houston’s Green building tours or the next NEED workshop for teachers. Energy in the News will keep you up to date on the exciting developments in energy.

You might be wondering why were doing all this. One answer is we want children and adults to be excited about science and learning. Another reason is that because the electrical demand of the country will grow by 30% in the next 25 years, we need an alterative to putting up coal fired power plants. Another might be the deep-seated need to be responsible and use what we have wisely, which includes not using electricity when we don’t need it.

What can you do to have access to this plethora of important information? That’s the easy part. The kick off will be at the museum on October 9th and will be free. We’ll have Billy B singing and dancing (my favorite is the water cycle) and lots of hands on activities and information. After the 9th you’ll be able to access all the information for free. The choices you make today will create the possibilities of tomorrow.

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