Skip to main content

Bed bugs like colours - especially red and black




Bed bugs like colours – but only some colours. Bed bugs are blood-sucking parasites that live on human blood, and they like warm beds. But a new study revealed that they have a preference for coloured sheets, and they have a preference for different types of beds.

A study in the Journal of Medical Entomology in April 2016 (BBC News, 26 April 2016) showed that bed bugs like black and red, but hate yellow and green, and that they prefer fabric and wooden beds, but hate plastic and metal beds.

Researcher Corraine McNeill, assistant professor of biology in the Department of Science and Mathematics at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, and colleagues from the Department of Entomology and Nematology at the University of Florida, conducted experiments with bed bugs. McNeill placed bed bugs in Petri dishes (alone or with a group of bed bugs) with different coloured shelters made of cardboard. The shelters (called harborages) were small tent-like structures that the bed bugs could hide under. The researchers used gloves to eliminate their body odour getting onto the cardboard harborages.



One group of bed bugs were fed within 1-2 days of the experiement, and another group of bed bugs were not fed (they were starved for 7-10 days). The bed bugs had a choice of eight colours: lilac, violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and black. A single bed bug was placed in the middle of the Petri dish and given 10 minutes to make a choice of colour. For each bed bug, new coloured harborages were used so that any scent of the previous bed bug was eliminated. The experiment was replicated 40 times with male and female bed bugs in both categories (fed and unfed).

Instead of choosing colours at random, the bed bugs selected black and red more often. The main reason that bed bugs like red, McNeill thinks, is because bed bugs are red and red sheets may seem to be other bed bugs. But they don’t really know for certain – nor do they know why the bed bugs like black but dislike yellow and green.

The study also showed that what bed bugs like, including their colour preference, depended on the stage of their life cycle, their gender, and how hungry they were.

The next step is to conduct further studies on other factors, such as human body heat and pheromones, and carbon dioxide levels. Oh, and the researchers haven’t used real bed sheets yet – only laboratory equipment of Petri dishes and coloured cardboard – so they will continue with their experiments.




http://jme.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/04/20/jme.tjw033

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36128646

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
2 comments
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more