All You Need To Know About Bed Bugs

Behavior Of Bed Bugs

• Bed bugs hides in cracks and crevices throughout the day.
• Bedbugs becomes most active between 00:00-05:00 AM when hungry
• They stimulated by increases in Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the room.
• They travel many yards in search of their host.
• The probes human skin (several times) while searching for a capillary to feed from.
• Usually feeds for 5-10 minutes at a time (every 3-7 days).
• After feeding hides cracks and crevices with other bed bugs.

Lifespan Of Bed Bugs

• Older literature claims adults bedbugs can live up to 1 year without feeding but recent researches shows all life stages can only live up to approximately 70 days without feeding. This figure will be longer in cooler regions (i.e. <5^oC, 40 F).
• In laboratory adult bed bugs live between 99 and 300 days (at >70F).

Mating

• Mating between bed bugs occurs after feeding on blood, males particularly voracious
• Engage in traumatic insemination
• Female bugs may be mated with up to 5 males but egg quantity is reduced with successive mating, (20% fewer eggs with repeated mating than single mating).
• Female bugs are able to lay eggs from 1 day after mating.
• Female bugs can mate with her own offspring ( so a single fertilized female can start an infestation).

Egg Production

• Total number of eggs production depends on the feeding frequency, not on number of mating.
• Female bugs lay 10-30 eggs over the course of 10 days after feeding.
• Females will not reproduce again without feeding after this time but she can produce more eggs without mating a further time.

Population Growth

• Eggs may be laid singly or in clusters
• Approximately 95% of eggs hatch successfully
• Laboratory bred females start to die naturally after 9 feedings.
• On average 130 eggs are produced in a female bedbug lifetime.
• Under optimal conditions, bedbugs populations can double in 16 days.

Eggs Hatching

• Approximately 65% of eggs hatch between days 6 and 7.
• More than 85% bed bug eggs hatched between days 8-9
• Hatch rate increases with temperature increase.

Lifecycle

• First instar nymphs (newly hatched bugs) require a blood meal within approximately 3 days otherwise they will die as a result of dehydration.
• 7 life stages including 5 nymph molts: Egg, N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, Adult.
• Each life stage of bedbugs requires a blood meal to molt to next stage (except from egg to nymph). If they find no host, bed bugs will not develop to next stage.
• First instar to adult in approximately 37 days.

Treatment Options

• Chemical Pesticides treatments
• Fumigation treatment
• Freezing treatment
• Heat treatment

Researches shows that heat is the best option to deal with bed bugs infestation as they are resistant to different types of pesticides and in other treatments there are chances of re-infestations. Heat treatment is convenient and Eco friendly as well.