bedbug For as long as humans have existed, bedbugs have been feeding on our blood. Mentions of bedbugs were found in writings from 400 BC. But just because they’ve been around for so long, doesn’t mean you have to have them around. Give us a call and allow us to come up with a solution for your problem.

ID:

Bedbugs are light brown and turn reddish brown after feeding. Adults are 5.5 mm long and feature an oval shaped abdomen that swells after feeding.

Life cycle:

Bedbugs mate by traumatic insemination, where the male pierces the female’s abdomen and injects sperm into her. Sperm travels through her blood to sperm storage structures, called seminal conceptacles and conception takes place in ovaries. Females lay multiple eggs per day until in excess of 200 eggs have been laid. Eggs hatch in 6-17 days, depending on the temperature of the room. Immature bedbugs feed as soon as possible, going through six molts, each after a blood feeding and start to breed as soon as they reach the adult stage. It takes as few as 32 days for a bedbug to become a full breeding adult.

Feeding habits:

Bedbugs are attracted to us by the co2 that we exhale naturally. They possess heat sensors in their antennae that allow them to find the warmest parts of our body where the veins are. Bedbugs can live up to a year without feeding, but will feed every 5-10 days if able to. They generally feed for 3-5 minutes but can feed up to 10 minutes to become engorged. A bedbug can consume three times its own weight in a single feeding.

Bites and Causes of infestation:

Bedbugs are wingless and mainly relay on hitchhiking to spread around. They can be brought in on visiting people’s clothing, luggage or pets, infested furniture or other items, or your own luggage from going on a trip somewhere. They can also spread from nearby dwellings. Reactions to bites range from prominent blisters to no reaction at all. In some cases, reaction to bites can be delayed up to 21 days. If a serious enough infestation exists you can be bitten 500 times per night.