Bed bugs are the most well-known species of a family of parasitic insects called Cimicidae, which includes 90 species of the blood-loving buggers. Most species within this family are very picky about the animals that they parasitize. Rodents, rabbits, pigeons, chickens, and bats are some of the animals more commonly plagued by their own particular flavors of bed bug. The main thing that bed bugs and their cousins have in common is that they’re all bloodsuckers.
Cimex lectularius, the species that we commonly refer to as “bed bugs,” has been bothering human beings for a very long time. It’s believed that they are descended from a species of “bat bug” that discovered a taste for human blood when humans began to live in caves where infested bats happened to roost. They were written about in Greece and Rome, and archaeologists have found the long-dead bodies of bed bugs in ancient Egyptian tombs dating back 3,500 years ago. While bed bugs love people most of all, they have been known to feed on furry pets, such as cats and dogs. When they have no other choices, they will also feed on mice and rats as well. This adaptability makes them very tough to get rid of, as they can persist for months and years in the absence of human beings.
While bed bugs feed on blood, they aren’t like fleas—they don’t live on the skin of the animals they feed on. In homes, they spend the majority of the time hiding in out of the way spots, including electrical outlets, cracks, the seams of couch cushions and mattresses, behind wallpaper, and in the exposed heads of screws. They only come out of hiding when it’s time to feed. They are usually nocturnal, but are flexible creatures that can readily adapt to the schedules of their victims. They’ll happily feed on day-sleepers, so night owls aren’t in the clear.
Part of what makes them so difficult to get rid of is that they don’t mind taking a long walk for a bite to eat. They’ve definitely earned the name “bed bug,” as they prefer the convenience of camping out close to their victims. However, it’s quite common for them to hide as far as five to 20 feet from the people they feed on. Additionally, bed bugs don’t even have to wait for you to sleep before they attack. This is part of what makes it so difficult to find and kill them, as this gives them an even greater choice of hiding spots. Bed bugs can live in or near couches and chairs where people commonly sit for long periods of time while watching TV, reading, or eating at the kitchen table, and come out to feed when they sense that their victims are holding still and not paying attention.
When they detect a human being who isn’t moving—they can smell the carbon dioxide we exhale—they will come out of hiding and make their move. Bed bugs are complicated and confusing pests, and we get a lot of questions about them. This is why we’ve taken the time to assemble a bed bug FAQ that addresses some of the most common questions that pop up. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you’re more than welcome to contact us directly, and we will do everything we can to help you with your bed bug problem. Now, let’s get down and dirty with some bed bug facts.
Contrary to the beliefs of many, bed bugs can be easily seen with the naked eye. However, they are easy to overlook when they’re babies. Bed bug eggs look almost identical to a grain of white rice, and are about 1/10th of an inch long (2.5 mm). The nymphs—baby bed bugs—that hatch from these eggs are only about 1/16th of an inch long (1.5 cm). When full grown, adult bed bugs can measure a fifth of an inch long (5 mm), and are often described as being about the shape and size of an apple seed.
The appearance of bed bugs can vary quite a bit. When first born, bed bug larvae are nearly transparent, making them quite difficult to see. As the nymphs become larger, their color will darken to a light brown or brownish-red, and sometimes even to black. They shed several times as they mature, and are sometimes identified by the light brown, translucent skin sheds they leave behind. When older bed bugs have recently eaten, their stomachs turn bright red—at this point, they are sometimes described as looking like a drop of blood with legs. It can be easy to mistake them for other bugs, especially when they’re moving, as they amble along like ants, termites, and other more commonly seen bugs.
Despite these changes in appearance, all bed bugs are rather distinctive once you know what you’re looking for. One of their telltale features is their legs, of which they have six (they’re insects, unlike ticks, fleas, and other common parasites). A bed bug’s front legs bend forward, while the two rear pairs bend backward. Also, look at where the legs meet the body; their legs are bunched up near their head, while the rest of the body is unsupported. This makes them look a bit ungainly, because they… well, they have a JLo booty. See the image below for more detail.
Unlike fleas and other common pests, which tend to be very narrow-bodied, bed bugs are squat and round, with very broad backs. Most of their back is segmented, similar to a pill bug or ‘roly poly.’ Most beetles and beetle larvae are noticeably longer than they are wide, and many of them have well-developed, carapace-shielded wings. If you can see a line running down the middle of the body, then it’s probably a beetle or cockroach. If it’s seed-shaped with multiple lines running from side to side, then you may well have a bed bug on your hands (and bed).
As mentioned above, bed bugs can vary in color, anywhere from light brown to dark brownish-red, or even black when they haven’t fed in a while. Young nymphs are much lighter in color, and especially young ones are translucent and milky white in color.
Bed bugs do have an underdeveloped set of wings, which look like nubs located behind their heads. However, these wings are vestigial and completely useless. They are the penguins of the bug world. In fact, bed bugs can’t even jump, like fleas can. Their only means of getting around is by crawling. However, they don’t let this limitation slow them down too much; they can cruise along at four feet per minute.
Bed bugs bite (literally and figuratively). Unlike ants which will nip you with their mandibles to make you back off, or bees which will sting you to defend their hives, bed bugs go after us because they like us. Or at least, they like our blood.
Bed bugs attack by using a small, specialized beak to saw through the skin, until they reach a suitable blood vessel. They then use a thin proboscis to penetrate the blood vessel, and inject painkillers and anticoagulants, much like mosquitoes do. This allows them to feed more quickly, and without alerting their victims. They will feed for three to ten minutes, then withdraw their proboscis and escape the scene of the crime as quickly as possible.
Bed bugs are experts at being sneaky; they’re little six-legged James Bonds. For instance, they avoid walking on the skins of their victims. Instead, they crawl up and around whatever a person is sitting or lying on, until they are right next to an accessible area of the body. Only then will they crawl onto the edge of an area of exposed skin, and begin the process of feeding. This way, they minimize the chances of tipping off their victims, and can quickly get away when they’re done. If multiple bed bugs are involved, this cautious feeding behavior will result in bites forming a straight line along the back, stomach, neck or leg—the result of bugs lining up where a patch of skin meets a mattress or pillow, the edge of a blanket, or a sofa cushion. Visualize a bunch of horses lined up at a water trough; that’s pretty much how bed bugs look when they get together to feed.
Bed bugs feed infrequently, usually every five to ten days. This can make it difficult to detect small infestations of bed bugs, until the population grows to the point where bites show up on a nearly nightly basis.
This is an important question, because it’s quite common for bed bugs to be mistaken for less troublesome bugs, or for particularly alert individuals to call an exterminator in a panic, only to be informed that they are bed bug free. Bed bugs look similar to a number of insects, including carpet beetle larvae, cockroach nymphs, small beetles, fleas, and lice. Sometimes even seeds and lint can be mistaken for bed bugs.
One word: People.
For some reason, most people think that bed bugs only infest squalid, dirty homes. Bed bugs are not like cockroaches, flies, or ants. They aren’t after the trash or food that messy people leave behind. They’re after people. Bed bugs are attracted by the carbon dioxide that humans exhale, and can also track us by detecting body heat, as well as chemicals and pheromones that are excreted through the skin.
Many infestations worsen and spread because people feel ashamed by the problem, and don’t ask for help or inform those in nearby homes, apartments, or businesses. Hygiene really isn’t a major factor. Bed bugs have infested celebrity mansions, hospitals, government offices, and trendy businesses. In New York City alone, bed bugs have been found in Google’s headquarters, the 57th Street Nike store, the offices of the Wall Street Journal, multiple Broadway theatres, the Empire State Building, and even the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. Celebrities including Bradley Cooper, Renee Zellweger, Howard Stern, Mary-Louise Parker, and Maya Rudolph have all dealt with bed bug infestations in their homes.
Forget Doomsday Preppers—bed bugs are the ultimate survivalists. If a bed bug can fit in it, then a bed bug has been found in it at one point or another. But here are a few of the more common places that bed bugs hide:
In this case, we’re talking about what areas of the world they live in, rather than places where they hide. The short answer to this question is: everywhere. It’s believed that they originated somewhere in the Middle East, but thanks to thousands of years of travel and trade, their territory has gotten quite a big larger. In the past few years, bed bugs have entrenched themselves on every continent in the world. Yes, even Antarctica, where they stubbornly infested a research station, even after it was abandoned for several months.
The problem is that bed bugs are incredibly tolerant of a wide variety of environments. They can survive for more than three days of constant exposure to temperatures near zero degrees Fahrenheit, and happily inhabit areas that routinely exceed temperatures of 100 degrees in the summer, including Phoenix, Las Vegas, Riverside, Dallas, and Austin, which are widely considered to be the hottest cities in the United States (and all of these cities happen to have had skyrocketing bed bug populations in recent years).
Cimex hemipterus, commonly referred to as the tropical bed bug, likes to pinch hit for the common bed bug in geographic locations that are a little too humid for the variety we know and loathe. Tropical bed bugs love feeding on humans just as much as common bed bugs, and are currently found in the Southeastern United States, Central and South America, Australia, Asia, and Africa.
If you want to receive information and news that might be applicable to you, Sign up for our newsletter. We won't spam you with ads or sales emails, just keep you posted when we have new content that might help.
