http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug
I'll have to take issue with Wiki's last statement there. I find that biological control works very well on all prey, so I'm including bedbugs, which thankfully I've never had. Biological as in a couple of the critters mentioned. I keep a healthy number of various spiders and thousand leggers in the house. Thousand leggers especially are your friend. Poor buggers, they're so stereotyped. Predator bugs don't carry disease, don't wantonly bite humans, and eat the bugs that do pose multiple threats. I've yet to be tagged by a single wolf spider or thousand legger, having these sentinels patrolling around for the last 40 years. Those two excellent creatures alone are worth their weight in gold, or at least in chemicals and meds.

It's ironic that houses can be besieged by dangerous parasitic bugs that humans don't but should fear, whilst the predator bugs that wander in - bugs that are not interested in you, only in the vermin that are interested in you - are immediately dealt with out of learned fear. I'm not talking about the giant hornet that accidentally flies in and obviously needs to be outside, but the gentle predators that are comfortable inside. They don't have to look benign to be benign. Sometimes I have to gently help a thousand legger out of the kitchen sink. Never would it bite; they can't breach the skin anyway, but why it's in the sink makes it worthwhile. They go down drains looking for silverfish. That's after the crickets, their favorite food, are dealt with. All I have around here are trees and boulders and shade - perfect conditions for a lot of life. These creatures are my DDT.
For the Cincinnati problem, if I was there, I'd have no issue with dumping about 3 dozen thousand leggers in my bedroom. They'll soon get hungry, and what do you think they'll do?


btw I've been reading for a while on the stinkbug from China that has exploded over eastern U.S. in spots over the last 10 years or so. One of the issues is that this creature is not at all recognized by our predators and so these stinkbugs are not being hunted, there is far less attrition, and the creatures are all living full length breeding lives. The result is an explosion of these things in many areas.

Well I have seen some hopeful news. I have seen 3 outside webs now that have the stinkbugs in them. I looked close to make sure that 1) it was indeed the Chinese variety, and 2) the spider was actively feeding on it, not abandoning it. I would extrapolate this out to say these species of spider (Theridiidae - the typical corner of the window cobweb spider) is having a go at them, which is a very good thing.

Do you know of any other predators that will eat bed bugs? I could live with spiders but not fire ants, cockroaches, or centipedes. It looks like the masked hunter also bites.


Is there an insect that will eat bed bugs?

Thousand leggers can't sting. It has no stinger. It does not have mandibles like the outside centipede, which can bite you badly. The thousand legger has a mouth more like the harvestman (daddy longlegs) and it will not bite you. But it will eat all parasitic insects and even mites and lice in your home. Think of them as leukocytes that keep at bay things you didn't even know you had. I've kept a thousand legger trapped in my hand for several minutes. Basically they go to sleep until you open your hand. There is nothing to fear. They are your friend. The predators that aren't friends are the black widow, the brown recluse, and the hobo spiders. The outside red centipede won't live indoors. I'm not exactly advocating this as a remedial treatment after the fact, but as a preventer.

My hamster (RIP ) was an excellent bedbug magnet. Once he alerted us to the problem - (I didn't know hamsters could swear quite like that ) we got most of them with a hoover and the rest he dealt with himself .
-C2.