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Fascinating Bedbug Biology

The amazing survival of bedbugs and the difficulty faced by both pest control operators and homeowners are results of bedbug biology.

They can be dormant and live without feeding for long periods of time depending on temperatures (colder--less time, warmer--more time). The nymphs (younger stages) can only live a few months without feeding because they have to have a blood feeding to go to the next life stage. Adults can go six months or longer without feeding.

They can travel up to 100 feet for feeding, although they prefer to be 10 to 20 feet from their host. Consider that a very small bedroom is 10 x10 feet. In apartment buildings and condominiums, 100 feet gives them a lot of range which they usually take advantage of by moving both outward horizontally and upward to levels above by way of the wall voids. In a single family home with at least one person, the bedbug would remain very close to their human food source by living in a mattress, box spring, headboard, bed frame, nightstand, etc. If the population increases, the pressure for more food moves them out further and further into the home. This is when the possibility of hitchhiking insects or their eggs increases, and you may spread the infestation outside of the home.

One female can lay up to 12 eggs per day, or about 500 in her lifespan and the eggs have a sticky coating which easily attaches to objects. One insemination of a female allows her to lay eggs for a month; however, she is subjected to dozens of inseminations during a month's time. The copulation, called traumatic insemination, is brutal; the male jabs at any section of the female's body and even jabs other males. Fertilization occurs almost anywhere in the body cavity of the female where it is injected, and she will lay eggs throughout her lifetime as long as she has regular feedings. So, one fertilized female bedbug introduced to a home can begin the infestation because she remains perpetually fertile.

Bedbugs are attracted to the carbon dioxide that you exhale. Bedbugs come out for feeding when they detect the presence of carbon dioxide, which humans produce upon exhaling. Since they prefer darkness, this one sensory asset is their guide to where you are. It dictates where they will live, which is usually going to be no more than 10 or 20 feet from where you sleep. It also guides their movement if they have to find other food sources.

When you consider the high rate of reproduction and the distance that bedbugs can travel, an extreme infestation of a single apartment or condo can create a domino effect. As the bedbug population grows, the pressure for more food can send insects scurrying through the wall voids or down the hallway. Before long, the infestation in one apartment can move to another, spread to a whole floor, then move between floors. Most of the time, there are no solid barriers between apartments or condos, so a light switch or outlet cover provides direct access to the next unit and conditions they favor, both darkness and the close quarters. Once in the wall void, their search is aided by carbon dioxide exhaled by the occupants in an adjoining living area. The higher the occupancy, the more attractive the new space.

Bedbugs have a food preference, humans. This preference is so strong that they are more likely to travel a good distance to seek humans than feed on a pet that is easily accessible. Women and children are generally more sensitive to bites, although men do get bitten. Two people can even sleep in the same bed, and one person will be bitten while the other is not, though it is more likely that both are being bitten, but one is more sensitive to the allergen in the bedbugs saliva than the other person.

Tasty tidbit. The most likely time for bedbugs to feed is just before sunrise.