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My Live BB Nursery- I'm a Proud God-Father!
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Quite apart from my Dead BB collection on Flickr, I live captured 4 adults prior to treatment between Nov 6-11. All but one of the adults apparently expired within weeks, and now are all apparently dead.
But I just now discovered almost 5 weeks after capturing the adults that I am now the proud God-Father of two live 1st instar nymphs. There were 6 hatchlings but the others seem to have expired in the interim. But two are still lively and feisty and eager for their fist feeding.
I am tempted to feed them but I might clumsily set them free so I ought not to take any chances. I only saw two egg chambers in the jar and one looks sealed still, but my eyesight isn't what it used to be. I heard that they can crawl through the windings in a jar but this is a plastic honey jar and so far they remain trapped.
I note that when I opened the jar and blew into it, those two started to move agitatedly, grabbing the other nymphs corpses and shaking them violently for some reason. Perhaps they are trying to bring them out of dormancy? Or does it suggest they are trying to revive possible mates? They may be small but they are survivors! And yes they are very small! But oh so cute! Shudder...
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Kit
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Joined: Nov '07
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Posted 1 year ago
Wed Dec 12 2007 20:49:34
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Congratulations NotSoSnug! Have you picked out names yet? I am laughing so hard I am crying... Thanks for the levity.
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Oh well drat, they are so alike I would get them mixed up if I named them. Feisty and Eager seems in keeping with their natures when I discovered them so we'll call them that. I won't be dressing them up for visiting or anything so if I mix them up I can be forgiven.
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bugobsessed
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Posted 1 year ago
Wed Dec 12 2007 21:42:49
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I was going to suggest Flotsam and Jetsam, but I like Feisty and Eager better!
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itchyincharmcity
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Posted 1 year ago
Thu Dec 13 2007 12:54:01
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So if they can go 18 months without eating, how come the adults and most of the nymphs died within weeks?
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goawaybugs
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Posted 1 year ago
Thu Dec 13 2007 13:30:37
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NotSoSnug, do you think it took 5 weeks for the nymph to hatch? I thought the period was 2 weeks?
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I looked in the jar a week and a half ago and didn't see the nymphs nor egg containers for that matter, and nothing moved when I breathed on them except the last living adult so I suspect the nymphs hatched last week. That would be about right. There weren't any eggs that I could see for a few weeks after captivity. So they were probably laid before the female expired say about 2 weeks ago and then 1 or 2 weeks to hatch.
Sorry I'm not more observant, it's not been my priority to nurse BB babies. I was mainly trying to see how long an adult would last for in a real world situation. The babies are a bonus.
The adults were together this past 5 weeks or so and I noted that one was aggressively seeking another one early on so I wondered if that was the forced piercing/sperm delivery they talk about. At least one of the adults was recently fed, as that was the first one I caught right after it ate off me and it was bloated, so perhaps it was a female.
All four adults look pretty dessicated and shriveled now at well over 4 weeks for all of them- if they can remain dormant and look like that then hats off to them. They didn't move when I breathed on them either, unlike the nymphs who are very agitated.
Dunno whether or not this adheres to expectations, but there you have it.
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I was wrong, there are 4 live babies. I thought 2 were responsive but I wasn't patient enough. All four are quite upset now when I breath on them. Still no adult response and they look quite dead. The young hang around the adults a lot and I wonder if they feed off them, which might have accelerated their demise.
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lil_bit_obsessed
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Posted 1 year ago
Sun Dec 16 2007 0:37:13
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i have entertained thoughts on how interesting it would be to have a little bedbug colony in a sealed glass space, kind of like an ant farm. i don't think i'll ever be brave enough to do it, for fear that they might escape!!! but i think it's awesome that you are observing them... keep us up to date! i want to hear all about them, and what happens next. :)
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Wrong again- there's 7 babies. Call it my old (middle) aged eyes and a lack of good light in this dungeon... err apartment. Only one remains lively when I blow in the jar and even then it takes awhile. The other babies are still alive though, since they have moved from my last visit. I maintain that the adults are toast, but I have an email into an expert to confrim the likelihood. While they look extremely dessicated they may still be dormant, except...
I think that the adults dessicated and husk-like appearance stems from canabalism by the babies, several of whom are always on the adults and one of which today had several adult legs tangled on it when it sought to get to me. I think when you have missing legs you are probably dead eh.
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lil_bit_obsessed
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Posted 1 year ago
Sun Dec 16 2007 23:41:44
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seven!!! i wonder if they eat anything besides blood? if they eat each other, would that prolong their life? could that be why they live so long without a blood meal?
hrm.
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My bet is they are canabalistic in the jar but not in real life. The jar is a stressful, confined and unique situation for them and they will survive however they may. But really it's conjecture since I can't observe in detail due to lack of equipment or test for anything.
Our local schools don't study these kinds of bugs, only forestry related bugs so I can't access any local expertise or equipment and I'm not shipping them anywhere! In two weeks the surviving BBs will be immersed in alcohol and tossed, when I move.
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lil_bit_obsessed
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Posted 1 year ago
Mon Dec 17 2007 18:47:57
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i'm not sure how it's possible that i loathe the little blood-sucking monsters so much, and yet manage to be endlessly fascinated by them... talk about a contradiction.
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Well you have to respect how 'life finds a way'. Even if it is horrid and contemptuous life.
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goawaybugs
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Posted 1 year ago
Tue Dec 18 2007 21:56:34
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Wow, NotSoSnug--that's a whole lot of nastiness going on in that jar. My nauso-meter goes up just thinking about it. Thanks for keeping us updated, and answering my question!
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Well, all my jarred BBs look fairly compromised now. Even the 7 nymphs are all dried up and stiff and non-responsive. The adults are falling into pieces. The 4 adults were all put in the jar almost 7 weeks ago, the 7 nymphs laid and hatched during captivity.
So 7 weeks without food and nymphs likely feeding on the adults even if they were once dormant. Will continue to monitor for 2 more days then destroy all the samples including the 'scan collection' before moving at monthend.
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No new sightings, I take it?
The whole cannibalism thing is weird, NSS. People did some bizarre experiments back in the day and it was suggested, but I don't even want to think about it! :)
I wish you success in your move of course.
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Madam Minister: No new sightings since the last found dead bug on Dec 8th beside the treated bed, the previous one to that being on Nov 24th by a treated chair sicne my hunting in early November. So far as the harbourages are concerned I think that was it and between the treatment and my hunting the bulk are toast.
But then, there's always the stragglers and the lurkers. And even with my nightly searches, still ongoing though not so zealously, there's been nothing obvious. I imagine all egs are hatched so all that's left now is older nymphs and adults if anything in the few things I couldn't treat, like computer.
So. Thankyou for your wishes and one can only hope and pray that either I don't take any or they aren't where I'm going. But the way things are it's likely that BBs and me shall meet again one day and perhaps I will be a little wiser if not less horrified at that time.
Oh and I think canabalism is a useful strategy for survival if it makes sense. In this case the adults stand a better chance of surviving dormancy than 1st instar nymphs so it was self-defeating for these BBs.
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But your name and deeds will be known in every bedbug hamlet. They shall know fear, NotSoSnug.
No more bedbugs for you, sir, I sincerely hope.
Nice to hear tentative good news!
(Edit: have you been acquainted with Mr Ezekiel Rivnay? Shudder.)
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Wow, that was fun reading. Thanks!
Well, I saw canabalism, or at least interpreted it as such. The adults were inactive and the newly hatched nymphs were always seen on the adtuls and when disturbed would run frantically all over the adult but not leave it. Additionally, and oddly, they would grasp a molted skin that I put in the jar and wave it frantically at my disturbance as well.
My presumption of canabalism comes from the hatchling surviving for 3 weeks, the accelerated deterioration of the adult corpses from inert and somewhat dessicated to broken apart in just a few days. The latter observation includes a nymph waving an adult leg around as it did with the molted skin.
But these are presumptions as I did not have a magnifying glass nor a microscope to see exactly what the nymlhs were doing on the adults.
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Mourning, they were mourning.
Or exercising.
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lil_bit_obsessed
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Posted 1 year ago
Sun Jan 6 2008 17:38:01
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cannibalism huh? that would explain how they survived post-treatment when i was away traveling for three weeks. well, that or dormancy i suppose. *sigh*
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lil_bit_obsessed
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Posts: 495
Posted 1 year ago
Sun Jan 6 2008 17:40:00
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hopeless, re: exercising, i just had a mental image of a nymph using the adult bb leg as a mini barbell. weightlifting nymphs! huh, that's all we need! lol
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hopelessnomo: You kill me.
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tisIsaidthefly
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Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 91
Posted 1 year ago
Thu Sep 11 2008 21:27:07
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little black things
little black things
crawling up and down my arm
if I wait till they have babies
I can start a black thing farm.cough
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Newbeebugger
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Posted 1 year ago
Thu Sep 11 2008 23:57:59
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Wow...this is some Edgar Allen Poe stuff going on here! Spooky yet interesting!
Newbeebugger
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i'm not sure how it's possible that i loathe the little blood-sucking monsters so much, and yet manage to be endlessly fascinated by them... talk about a contradiction.
@lil_bit_obsessed I'm the exact same way... I was just talking about this last night with one of my roomies. He's kind of sick of hearing about my theories, experiments, and hunting expeditions! I told him (and didn't really realize it until I said it to him) that it's because I feel like it gives me more control. I'd much rather be bitten by something I understand than by some amorphous creepy-crawly. And the more I know about them the more I feel like I know how to kill them. Know thy enemy and all that... :)
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