The scale and the number abed bug infestations in the United States have increased for over a decade. Bed bugs are commonly found in multi-unit housing, such as apartments, dormitories, nursing homes, and hotels, and public venues such as theaters, public transportation, and shopping malls.
While bed bugs are not known vectors of any pathogen, there is some evidence that bed bugs could act as mechanical vectors of Hepatitis B virus (Blow et al., J. Med. Entomol. 38: 694-700 (2001)). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium were recovered from bed bugs associated with a homeless shelter (Lowe et al., Emerg. Infect. Dis. 17: 1132-1134 (2011)).
Detection strategies currently in use include:                Visual detection: Personally checking mattresses and bedsprings, upholstery, and carpets for bed bugs, shed exoskeletons, or fecal droplets takes time and is often complicated by cryptic, inaccessible harborages;        Canine detection: Results with bed bug-sniffing dogs are highly variable. Success depends on the dog and trainer and type of entrainment and reward. Canine detection yields unacceptably high numbers of false positives, and its conspicuousness results in unpleasant public relations;        Active or passive monitors. Active monitors—such as Verdi® by FMC, CDC3000® by Stern Environmental, or NightWatch® by BioSensory, Inc. rely on custom pheromone blends or carbon dioxide, to attract bed bugs to a trap. Passive monitors, such as the ClimbUp® Insect interceptor, are placed near a sleeping person and use the heat and carbon dioxide of that person to attract and trap bed bugs. The efficacy of active and passive monitors depends on bed bug population density and may miss or underestimate small introductions of bugs. Most monitors also have an unacceptably large footprint, require specially trained personnel, and cost too much, in addition, both strategies involve actually handling dead bugs, which most people find unpleasant;        
Other approaches to bed bug detection include:                Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to distinguish bed bug eggs or bug fragments from human dwellings. This technique depends on physically recovering eggs or bug fragments and processing them using standard molecular biology reagents and techniques (Szalanski et al., J. Med. Entomol. 48: 937-940 (2011));        Microextraction of air samples to identify two well-characterized volatile pheromones, (E)-2-hexenal and (E)-2-oetenal, by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Eom et al., Anal Chim Acta 716: 2-10 (2012));        The use of infrared sensors, microphones, and a piezoelectric sensor to detect locomotion (Mankin et al., J. Econ. Entomol. 103: 1636-1646 (2010));        The detection of nitrophorin, a bed bug-specific salivary antigen (U.S. Pat. No. 7,743,552);        The detection of human blood antigens in bed bug excreta (U.S. Pat. No. 8,460,890): and        The detection of bed bug antigens by polyclonal antibodies (U.S. Publication No. 2015/0064727).        
The number of available detection options is limited and there is a need for a convenient, easy-to-use detection method that rapidly, reproducibly, effectively, and directly detects bed hugs. In contrast to the prior approaches, the present invention provides monoclonal antibodies that satisfy the need.