SIZE: Bedbugs are as little as 2.5mm to 4.5mm once adults.
DESCRIPTION: Bed bugs can look a lot like an apple seed due to their oval body shape and rusty brown color. Bedbugs also have brown bands running across their body. A fully fed bedbug can grow longer and fuller in shape. Identification of bedbugs can also be seen by looking for reddish brown stains in the folds of mattresses and other furniture or by identifying their eggs on your bedsheets or other areas.
BIOLOGY: Most bedbugs live as much as 4 to 6 months however some are known to live as long as 5 years and can live on for months without feeding. In the life of a female bedbug they can lay up to 200 to 500 eggs which means they can be laying as much as 5 eggs a day, bedbugs lay their eggs in cracks, crevices and rough surfaces during the day. Eggs can hatch within 7 days and molts 5 times taking blood from a host each time it molts. The development of an egg to adult takes around 21 days.
BEHAVIOUR: bedbugs hide in cracks and crevices such as baseboards, under the folds of mattresses, and even in electrical outlets all during the day and come out at night to feed. Once they start their feeding it takes about 3 to 10 minutes to complete and usually the host will not even notice it, they feed by inserting 2 tube like beaks into the host where the first tube is used as an anesthetic to numb the feeding area and the second is used to suck the blood. Bedbugs are attracted to carbon dioxide emitted from the hosts which is why the host will not realize he or she is being bite due to the fact that most the time they are asleep when it happens. After the feeding has been completed the bite will become inflamed and can be itchy similar to a mosquito bite. Once a bed bug is fed it will rest and digest their meal, mate and lay eggs.
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