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Dennis Kunkel's Microscopic World 2001 Calendar

Beg bugs are small (6 mm or less), nocturnal, blood-sucking insects. Flat and oval in shape, bed bugs hide by day in cracks in walls, under wallpaper, or in bedspring frames. By night, bed bugs hunt and bite their victims for food, taking small amounts of blood and­­if left undisturbed­­moving short distances and biting again. A pattern of small blood clots in a concentrated area of the skin is a sure sign of bed bug infestation. While bed bugs can live in a sort of stasis for a year or more when deprived of food, a single, well-nourished female can lay up to 300 eggs in her lifetime. In warm weather, nymphs develop into adults in about two months. Although bed bugs are thought not to carry any harmful human diseases, their bites are very irritating.