Bed bugs are small, nocturnal insects that primarily feed on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded animals. These pests are flat, oval-shaped, wingless, and measure about 4-7mm long, resembling an apple seed. Understanding their habits and hiding spots is helpful for identifying and managing infestations.
Daily Routines and Hiding
Bed bugs prefer dark, secluded cracks and crevices. They are nocturnal, emerging at night to feed when hosts are asleep and still. During the day, they retreat to digest their blood meal and avoid detection.
Their flat bodies allow them to squeeze into extremely narrow spaces, often thinner than a credit card. Common hiding spots include mattress seams, tufts, and folds, as well as cracks and joints in bed frames and headboards. They also inhabit upholstered furniture like couches and chairs, and can be found behind baseboards, in wall cracks, and within electrical outlets.
Feeding Habits
Bed bugs locate hosts by sensing exhaled carbon dioxide and body heat, detectable from short distances (around three feet for carbon dioxide). Once a host is found, they use elongated mouthparts to pierce the skin. They inject an anesthetic to numb the area and an anticoagulant to prevent blood clotting.
A blood meal lasts about 3 to 10 minutes, during which they become engorged and their color changes from reddish-brown to a darker red. After feeding, they return to their hiding spots to digest. Bed bugs feed every 5 to 10 days.
Reproduction and Life Cycle
Bed bugs reproduce through traumatic insemination, where the male pierces the female’s abdomen to deposit sperm. A female bed bug can lay 1 to 50 eggs daily, and up to 500 eggs in her lifetime. These tiny, pearl-white eggs, about 1mm long, are cemented into secluded cracks and crevices.
Eggs hatch within 6 to 17 days, producing translucent, small nymphs. Nymphs go through five developmental stages, each requiring a blood meal to molt and grow larger. Under optimal conditions, development from egg to adult takes about 37 days, though it can extend to several months in less ideal environments. Adult bed bugs live for four to six months, and up to a year with regular blood meals.
Movement and Spread
Bed bugs primarily move by crawling, as they lack the ability to fly or jump. Their most common method of spreading is “hitchhiking.” They cling to personal belongings such as luggage, clothing, and furniture.
This hitchhiking behavior allows them to travel unnoticed between homes, apartments in multi-unit buildings, and across countries through international travel. They can also spread through shared walls, electrical conduits, and plumbing pipes in connected living spaces.