Bug publicity and misinformation

This is a blog for all the bug related publicity and misinformation on the web.

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Fail! Surely the fact the images clearly depicts an insect crawling over a leaf should have given the BedBugBusters a clue that this was the wrong image. Well spotted Bethan.

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Here is a great find by Bethan in Nottingham. Presumably the New York Observer, like many before them, are under the impression that bedbugs are arachnids.

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This entry from bedbugsmanual.com is one of the most fantastically stupid images of what a bedbug is supposed to look like that I have seen for a long time.

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The distinction between bedbugs and ticks continues to baffle gettingridofbedbugs.com.

Here is another great entry from the same site, spotted by Bethan in Nottingham. This time they have found what appears to be a shield bug. I wonder if they have any actual pictures of bedbugs on their bedbug website at all?!


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This article is from the website factoidz.com. Since the definition of a factoid is “a questionable or spurious, unverified, incorrect, or fabricated statement presented as a fact” (wiki), perhaps it isn’t surprising they got the wrong picture.

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Make sure you check out the  TripAdvisor to avoid ending up in a hotel overrun with shield bugs.


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Pest911 is another pest control company that has made the mistake of assuming their web designer is an entomologist.

Wrong Latin name guys!

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This superb find by Tom Gartner was sent to me by Lou Sorkin. It was apparently spotted in a Brooklyn hardware store. That is one lousy product for bedbugs!

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These people have apparently cracked the problem of bedbug treatment and are willing to share their secrets for the bargain price of $24.95. Here is a secret for you…those aren’t bedbugs!

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You can rely on Manchester Pest Removal to tackle your shield bug problem…

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Merlin, shame on you! I know you guys should know what a bedbug looks like, but you too have been caught out by a mislabeled shield bug. iStock photo must have made a fortune out of tagging this image as a bedbug.

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Well done www.killbedbugs.org.uk for earning a place on the misinformation wall of fame for still not grasping the difference between a dust mite and a bedbug. What is really strange is that you have other pictures of bedbugs on your site, even further down the same page, but nobody thought it was strange that your images clearly depict completely different animals. FYI, bedbugs aren’t common for every household across the world – that’s dust mites.

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If you live in New Jersey you can apparently rely on Prep Boyz to save you from bedbugs.

Unfortunately, like so many before them, this “Unique Bed Bug Elimination Preparation Service” can’t tell the difference between ticks and bugs.

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One would think that an organisation with the web address “deadbedbugs.info” would at least know what a bedbug looked like, but apparently this is not so. Strangely they have taken the image from wikipedia where it is clearly labeled “Hook Flea”.

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Would you pay a company to get rid of your bedbugs if they didn’t even know what a bedbug looked like?

Good Riddance Pest Services can’t tell the difference between a tick and a bug. Count the legs!!

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Maybe this image is designed to be a spoof but the article, published at gawker.com, wins a place in this blog for the absurd accompanying text. They have picked up on a comment in this New York Times article, that HIV can’t persist in the gut of a bedbug. Aside from the fact that this work was actually published in 1986, and isn’t really news at all, they have taken it to mean that a bedbug’s gut could cure AIDS! What they have failed to grasp is that HIV is unable to survive virtually anywhere outside the human/primate body. It is just as valid to say “Opal Fruits May Have The Cure For AIDS”, since HIV can’t survive in them either.

Most absurdly of all, this “news” has been subsequently republished by The Independent here!

And since The Independent are running it, The Hindustan Times has decided to jump on the merry band wagon of bedbug misinformation. Who’s next I wonder?

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Here’s a classic example of the bedbug/dust mite confusion from bnet.com.

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For some reason gawker.com have produced this strange figure combining an actual bedbug and a shield bug. Presumably they couldn’t decide which the correct image was.

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This one was spotted by bedbugger.com and features a shield bug posing as a bedbug in a CBC news story.

In fact this bug bears an uncanny resemblance to the “bedbug” image from the EPA’s homepage below. So where did it come from? Well it turns out that iStockPhoto is responsible, as they tag this image as “bedbug” on their website and nobody bothers to check.

Here are some other sites that have made the same mistake:

networx.com, bedbugsremovalfaq.com, CBSnews.com (again), aikenstandard.com, eduinreview.com, simplepestcontrol.com (this is a pest control company – how simple are they?!).

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For the bargain price of $17.95, the good people at www.bugkill.net have prepared for you an informative guide on getting rid of bedbugs. Only problem is, they seem to be a little confused about what bedbugs look like! The insect in the extract below is actually a weevil!

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The Daily Express has managed to find a picture of a dust mite for their bedbug article. The article goes on to state that bedbugs are about 1/60th inch (0.4 mm) long. Presumably they were still thinking about dust mites when they wrote that.

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This one is from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s homepage. To us it looks like a kind of shield bug.

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Here’s another one from The Government of South Australia. This time they have used a picture of a psocid.

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This one from Tri-County Health Department definitely isn’t a bedbug it’s an aphid. The cornicles on the abdomen are a dead giveaway.

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Why not tackle bedbugs the old fashioned way with DDT impregnated wallpaper?!

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It seems that these people genuinely want to know what a bedbug is. Judging by their diagram they really have no idea. They have labeled the thorax as “Head” and the abdomen as “Thorax”. For an organisation that calls itself “the bed bug institute”, that isn’t very impressive!

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Definitely not a bedbug – a ladybird perhaps?

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Good work. You not only failed to find a picture of a bedbug for your leaflet, you failed to find anything with six legs. I particularly like the bit about removal of food sources. Apparently if you seal up your food waste properly bedbugs won’t be able to snack on it!

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Now this is the right way to promote bedbug awareness. Good on you Protect-A-Bed!

Apparently these adverts have reached the London subways now as well.

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David Cain spotted this.

If you would now like to see some real bedbug images Click Here!