Bed Bug Life Cycle and Bed Bug Biology
Photo by: Rickard Ignell
Five Stages of the Bed Bug Life Cycle
The adult bed bug as well as all of its five nymphal stages, need to feed on blood meals taken from their warm-blooded hosts. Typically, and whenever a choice is available, it will certainly be human. If a human host is not available, other smaller mammals or birds will suffice in its needs to copulate, survive and flourish.
Bed Bug Life Cycle
The female will lay approximately five eggs daily and anywhere from 200 to 500 in her lifetime. The eggs are white and approximately 1mm in length. In appearance and to the naked eye, the eggs resemble a very small grain of rice. And under the right environmental conditions, the eggs will hatch in 4 – 12 days and into its first life stage. It will almost immediately seek out its first meal and cannot molt into the next life stage until doing so. It will repeat this process of feeding at least once before molting through the remainder of its nymphal life stages.
It will take five weeks or so before reaching adulthood and becoming fertile. And at this point, the male will seek out the female to reproduce through an unusual form of intercourse, otherwise known in the scientific community as ‘traumatic insemination’ (see photo above). This mating ritual will take place on its host…ugh!! Whereby, the male will penetrate the females abdominal wall to inseminate her with his fluids, eventually resulting in fertilization.
As you can see, it is crucial to eliminate the bed bug at all of the Bed Bug Life Cycle stages in order to completely eliminate them from your home or business. Eliminating the fertile adults and the five nymphal stages alone will not suffice. The eggs must be eliminated from the affected area(s) as well. As a former pest extermination professional, I can attest to you that it is imperative to break the bed bug life cycle, OR the ‘life cycle’ will continue. Unfortunately for many, if the Bed Bug Life Cycle is not broken then the sleepless nights and the bed bug bites will almost certainly follow!
Please enjoy the short video below for more on the Bed Bug Life Cycle presented by Jody L. Gangloff-Kaufmann from Cornell University and the Home and Garden Information Center.
The Bed Bug Life Cycle can be squashed with a little more Bed Bug Awareness shared in our daily lives. If you feel the same; then please feel generous and give us a Shout-Out and Like or Share with your friends!
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