ABOUT BED BUGS:

Bed bugs are tiny, wingless, parasitic insects that feed exclusively on blood. They are mainly active at night, but are not exclusively nocturnal. They usually feed on their sleeping hosts without being noticed. No bigger than an apple seed, they can live and breed in any and all human environments, usually undetected early on in the infestation.

They spread from infested places by hitchhiking on humans, animals, innate objects, and by crawling between dwellings. Their eggs are sticky and are about the size of a pinhead. Their spread occurs by people unknowingly transporting them home on one’s own person and/or any of one’s belongings: furniture, luggage, handbags, backpacks, clothes, shoes, etc...

Cimex lectularius

Photo from Wikipedia

Bed bug life cycle:  Newly hatched nymphs are translucent to very light in color. They become brownish-red after feeding as they molt and reach maturity. They have 5 immature nymph life stages and a final sexually mature adult stage. They shed their skins at each stage, discarding their outer shells (clear exoskeletons). They must molt 6 times before becoming fertile adults and must feed before each molt. Each immature stage lasts ~ 1 week, depending on temperature and availability of blood.
Fertilized females can lay 3 to 4 eggs daily continually during their life-span (2 - 9 months), generating as many as 200-500 eggs in her lifetime. A single female bug - (possibly a single survivor of eradication) - can be responsible for an entire infestation over a matter of weeks, rapidly producing generations of offspring. Under certain cool conditions, adults can live for over a year without feeding -- laboratory observation; in nature, this is debatable.

In warm conditions, nymphs feed at 5 to 10 day intervals; adults can survive for about 5 months without feeding.  So adults spend much of their life-cycle in hiding, thus the challenge to rid them quickly. 

Life cycle of the bed bug. Photo Courtesy of Stephen Doggett, Department of Medical Entomology, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Photo from  www2.epa.gov/bedbugs/

When starved, they leave their shelter, search for a host, feed, and return to their shelter. Nymphs can’t survive as long without feeding, but can last for weeks without a blood meal. This is the reason why bed bug infestations can be a daunting challenge to eradicate them.
CU! Bug Spray leaves a residue that keeps on killing them slowly as they crawl on it.

History & Resurgence

Bed bugs have been around for over 2,000 years. The first documentation of these pests dates back to about 400 BC in Greece. They have persisted throughout the centuries. Their decreased incidence in the 20th century is credited to newly developed potent pesticides and improved housing conditions. The reasons for their resurgence since the 1980s are debatable. Possible factors for this may be increased human travel, bans on effective but highly toxic pesticides, and their development of resistance to the pesticides.

  - For more information about bed bugs visit Wikipedia.com & EPA.gov -

Adults are light brown to reddish-brown with flattened, oval-shaped segmented abdomens with a banded appearance. They grow to ~ 0.2” long and ~ 0.1” wide.