How Bed Bugs Grow, Feed and Multiply
Getting to Know the Bed Bug
Species: Cimex lectularius
What a Bed Bug Looks Like
Bed bugs are small insects with six legs and a flat, oval body, in shades from mahogany to rusty brown. A fully grown adult is about a quarter of an inch long, roughly the size of an apple seed. They have no wings and cannot fly or jump, but they run quickly. After a meal of blood, the body swells and becomes longer, a bit like a tiny balloon.
They are visible to the naked eye and often live in groups, yet they are surprisingly hard to find because they stay out of sight.
How and When They Feed
Bed bugs are mostly active at night. People are their preferred hosts, though they will feed on other warm blooded animals if they have to. In the daytime they stay tucked away in mattress seams, along baseboards and behind wall fixtures, then come out in the dark.
What draws them out is body heat and the carbon dioxide we breathe out, not smells. That is why they settle within four to eight feet of where someone sleeps.
Feeding takes about 5 to 10 minutes. The bug pierces the skin with two hollow tubes: one releases numbing saliva, and the other draws blood. Afterward, it goes back to its hiding spot to digest, mate, and lay eggs, a process that takes 5 to 10 days.
From Egg to Adult
Eggs: Every bed bug begins as a tiny milky white egg, about 1mm long. Females glue them down in clusters. One female can lay 200 to 500 eggs over a lifespan of 10 to 12 months, and the eggs hatch in as little as 6 to 17 days. That speed is the reason a few bugs can turn into a large infestation so quickly.
Nymphs: Newly hatched nymphs are almost invisible, and they start feeding straight away. They grow through five stages over 21 to 37 days, and they need a blood meal before each stage so they can grow and shed their skin.
Adults: Adults feed about once a week, and the body darkens and swells after each meal. With a steady supply of blood, they can live for over 300 days. Without one, they can enter a dormant state and survive for months, sometimes up to a year. In a warm home, a single colony can produce several generations in a year.
Why This Matters
Because eggs, nymphs and adults all live together in the same hiding spots, any plan to get rid of them has to deal with every stage at once. A treatment that only reaches the adults leaves the next generation behind.