Population Growth Potential of the Bed Bug, Cimex lectularius L.: A Life Table Analysis

Abstract

Experimental life tables were constructed and analyzed for three strains of the common bed bug: a pyrethroid-susceptible laboratory strain (HS), a highly resistant field strain (RR), and a field strain with a declining level of resistance (KR). Egg to adult survival in the RR strain was 94% compared with 79% and 69% in the HS and KR strains, respectively. The RR strain also developed significantly faster from egg to adult (∼35 days) than the other two strains (∼40 days). Analysis of a survivorship and fecundity life table for the RR strain produced the following results. The average life expectancy for a newly laid egg was ∼143 days, and that of a newly molted adult was ∼127 days. Females produced an average of 0.64 daughter eggs/day with the highest weekly production during the fifth week of adult life. Analysis of daily reproductive parity showed that females produced 1–3 and 4–6 eggs on 79 and 21% of the days, respectively, when egg laying occurred. The net reproductive rate (R0) of the RR strain was ∼35, which represents a 35-fold increase in the population per generation (∼92 days). The intrinsic rate of increase, r, was 0.054 indicating that the population multiplies 1.1 times/female/day (λ) and doubles in size every 13 days. The stable age distribution (cx) was dominated by nymphs (54%), followed by eggs (34%) and adults (12%). Reproductive values (vx) for the strain increased from egg to the adult stage.

Are Australian field‐collected strains of Cimex lectularius and Cimex hemipterus (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) resistant to deltamethrin and imidacloprid as revealed by topical assay?

“…The results of this study conform to other studies on bed bug field strains (both C. lectularius and C. hemipterus ) in reinforcing a trend of pyrethroid resistance being widespread (Yoon et al ; Seong et al ; Zhu et al ; Tawatsin et al ; Durand et al ; Palenchar et al ) and present at an extent that could compromise the insecticide efficacy of some formulations (Boase et al ; Moore and Miller ; Moore and Miller ; Polanco et al ; Gordon et al ), although we have found that aerosol‐based pyrethroids are still effective at killing even the most resistant strain when applied directly at the insect (Lilly and Doggett, unpublished). Furthermore, the results of imidacloprid topical discriminating dose assays against C. lectularius support the findings of the singular study to date, which determined via a similar topical methodology that resistance had developed (to varying degrees) in three field strains from the U.S. (Romero and Anderson ).…”

The re‐emergence of the bed bug as a nuisance pest: implications of resistance to the pyrethroid insecticides

“…In the highly resistant (B‐haplotype) Richmond field strain of C. lectularius , which has been documented as having large numbers of upregulated genes coding for detoxification enzymes (Adelman et al , 2011; Polanco et al , 2011a), egg‐to‐adult survival was significantly higher and egg‐to‐adult developmental rates were demonstrated to be significantly faster than for a susceptible laboratory reference strain. Overall, under optimal conditions the resistant strain demonstrated the potential for a 35‐fold increase in population density per generation over the susceptible strain (Polanco et al , 2011a). However, the Richmond strain was also found to be much more vulnerable to mortality during starvation than susceptible bed bugs.…”

Within‐generation dynamics of leatherjackets (Tipula paludosa Meig.)

“…This method has only rarely been used (Stiefel et al. 1992, 1997; Polanco et al. 2011), but was selected because there was evidence of an unquantifiable underestimation of population size at early instars (see fig.…”