Bed Bug Life Cycle: Stages and Identification

If you have discovered bed bugs in your mattress and beddings then you need to learn how to get rid of them as quickly, cheaply, and painlessly as possible. It is important to learn the life cycle of bed bugs in order to better understand them. If you notice several generations of bed bugs around your home, then it could be a sign that the infection has been around for a while. This information will be helpful to an exterminator because of the severity of the infestation. Bed bugs have transformed from the nesting parasites, we have seen them inhabiting the nest of birds, roots of bats wherever they see an opportunity. Now they have even adapted to the human environment. 

All travels would be aware of the increase in the bed bug infestation world wide. Due to the growth in the number of people traveling to many destinations. While these parasites feed on human blood, they do not cause or transmit diseases. However, the itchy red welts caused by the saliva in their bites can be annoying. The mere idea of bed bugs is downright creepy. Knowledge, not fear is the key to defending yourself with the bed bugs. If you are going to be traveling it is a good idea to take some simple precautions, as unsuspecting travels can encounter bed bug infestation and unknowingly transmit bed bugs from one place to another including other hotels or homes. Size-wise the bed bugs are very small, adults are only about a quarter-inch long almost the size of an apple seed. Bed bugs range in color from brown to reddish-brown, are oval-shaped, flat, and paper-thin when unfed. When they have a blood meal however their bodies become fuller and more rounded. Immature bed bugs are tiny, as small as 16th of an inch and nearly colorless, except after a blood meal when they become bright red. Bed bugs are wingless and hide in tiny cracks and crevices called harborages during the day. Nighttime is their most active time when they survey around in search of a blood source. Females lay batches of oval-shaped eggs 1/16th of an inch long in protected areas in their environments. Once they start to feed they can grow to be double in size. As these insects are small in size, it becomes extremely difficult to locate them, they are often confused as flecks of dust and are mostly invisible to the naked eyes. 

After the blood feeds the immature bed bugs will shed their skin or molt 5 times before becoming adults. Both the adults and nymphs all require the blood feeds for growth and development. However immature bed bugs can live for several months without the blood meal, whereas the adults will survive for as long as 1 year without a meal. If you are looking for the signs for the bed bugs infestation in addition to bits and itchy areas in your skin, there are 4 basic signs for the bed bugs which are eggs, cast skins, fecal spots, and live bed bugs. As we know eggs are too small to be seen with the naked eye, while the cast-off skin while also small can be seen. Live bed bugs if visible are most likely to be found in hiding places in and around the bed. As they feed bed bugs disgust blood and they defecate, leaving behind small marks similar to those that might be made by the ballpoint pen. These are known as the fecal spots and can range from black to brown to red in color, although the majority will be blackish brown. Fecal spots are most likely to be found on the mattresses and sheets and usually will be slightly raised from the surrounding wood or fabric. 

Bed bugs are very quick and will run away from the light if you uncover them, so it is possible not to see them so easily. They are difficult to control because of the small size that enables them to hide almost anywhere, on mattresses and bed frames, cracks and crevices in walls, under peeling paint, or behind the wall sockets and light switches. Bed bugs only stay long enough to feed before moving away to hide and digest, so it is fairly rare to find adults on or around your body after they have a feed. In conclusion, we can say being able to identify all their life stages of bed bugs as well as being familiar with their behavior are both important factors in better understanding how to deduct, prevent, and eradicate them. In order to identify there are several generations of bed bugs in your home, you need to be aware of what each stage looks like. There are essentially 7 stages of bed bugs life cycle, to overcome every stage they have to take at least 1 meal. 

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1. EGG  

Bed bugs start their lives in eggs, which has a milky white color to them. These eggs are of 1 millimeter in length, hence they can be a little hard to see as they are comparable in size to a couple of grains of salt. When a bed bug egg image is greatly enlarged you will be able to see the red dots that are developing bed bugs eyespots. The adult female can lay between 1 to 12 eggs a day if we see the average we can say that there will be at least 5 eggs a day. They are capable of laying somewhere around 500 eggs in their lifetime. Eggs that are laid might be single or in the form, a cluster is kept in places that are tightly packed like in the cracks. The eggs begin to hatch after 2 weeks of time and the young once begin to feed immediately. Average female bed bug lives for about a year, if she is able to feed every week then she will be able to produce more eggs in that particular year compared to the ones who are able to feed once a month. At room temperature, greater than 70-degree Fahrenheit 60 % of the eggs will get hatched.  The eggs hatch time can be increased by lowering the ambient temperature to 50-degree Fahrenheit.    

2. 1ST NYMPH STAGE

There are 5 stages of growth that a nymph goes through. In the 1st stage, the nymphs are 1.5 millimeters in length. As soon as they come out of their eggs they can start their feeding quickly. Throughout these nymph stages, we can say the bed bugs are not mature, so they will not begin to breed until they are full adults. 

3. 2ND NYMPH STAGE 

Once the bed bug has gone through its 1st molt, it becomes a 2nd stage nymph, which is 2 millimeters long.

4. 3RD NYMPH STAGE    

After molting again bed bugs 3rd stage nymph, at this point they are 2.5 millimeters long. 

5. 4TH NYMPH STAGE

At this stage, the bed bugs get to be 3 millimeters long.     

6. 5TH NYMPH STAGE

This is the final nymph stage and once it is reached the bed bugs can get up to 4.5 millimeters long.   

7. ADULT

It takes about 5 weeks for the nymph to become an adult. At this point, they are able to breed. Adult bed bugs do not necessarily feed every night. Most of the people do not have a reaction to their bites, so much so even when the bed bug is biting you might not notice it. The adult bed bug life span is between 6 to 18 months.