Understanding how bed bugs eat, live, and reproduce will help you find an infestation before it has a chance to spread and to monitor for the presence of the bed bugs after your home has been treated.
Feeding:
- Appear to prefer to feed on humans, but will feed on other mammals and birds
- Will readily travel 5-20 feet from hiding places to feed on host
- Even though they are primarily active at night, if hungry they will seek hosts in daylight
- Feeding can take 3-12 minutes
- The rusty or tarry spots found on bed sheets or in bug hiding places are because 20% of the time adults and large nymphs will void remains of earlier blood meals while still feeding
Life Stages/mating:
- Bed bugs need at least one blood meal before the bug can develop to the next life stage
- Each stage requires the molting of skin
- To continue to mate and produce eggs, both males and females must feed at least once every 14 days
- Each female may lay 1-3 eggs per day and 200-500 eggs per her lifetime (6-12 months)
- Egg to egg life cycle may take 4 to 5 weeks under favorable conditions
Living conditions:
- Bed bugs can survive and remain active at temperatures as low as 46 F, but they die when their body temperatures reach 113 F. To kill bed bugs with heat, the room must be even hotter to ensure sustained heat reaches the bugs no matter where they are hiding
- Common bed bugs are found almost anywhere their host can live
No comments:
Post a Comment