What do bed bugs look like. How to identify bed bug infestations. Which pests are commonly mistaken for bed bugs. Where do bed bugs typically hide in homes. What are the signs of bed bug bites.

The Resurgence of Bed Bugs in Modern Times

Bed bugs, once eradicated in the United States during the 1940s, have made an alarming comeback in recent decades. The ban on DDT, the pesticide responsible for their initial elimination, inadvertently paved the way for their return. Over the past 20 years, these parasitic insects have proliferated, reaching population levels reminiscent of their pre-eradication era. This resurgence underscores the critical importance of understanding how to identify and manage bed bug infestations effectively.

Distinctive Features of Bed Bugs: Size, Shape, and Color

Recognizing bed bugs is crucial for early detection and control. These tiny insects share several distinctive characteristics:

• Size and shape: Comparable to apple seeds, but slightly smaller
• Color: Adult bed bugs are reddish-brown
• Nymphs: Smaller and lighter in color than adults
• Lack of unique physical features: Can be easily mistaken for other small insects

Is there a foolproof way to visually identify bed bugs. While their appearance is distinctive, the lack of unique physical characteristics can make definitive identification challenging without close inspection. Their small size and similarity to other insects often lead to misidentification.

Common Bed Bug Hideouts: Where to Look for Infestations

Bed bugs are notorious for their ability to hide in various locations throughout a home. Understanding their preferred habitats is essential for effective detection:

1. Mattresses and box springs
2. Soft furnishings (chairs, sofas)
3. Curtains and drapes
4. Carpets and rugs
5. Wallpaper and cracks in walls
6. Electrical outlets

Why do bed bugs prefer these hiding spots. These locations offer proximity to their food source (human blood), darkness, and tight spaces where they can easily conceal themselves. The insects’ flat bodies allow them to squeeze into incredibly small crevices, making detection challenging.

Mattress Inspection: Key Areas to Check

When examining a mattress for bed bugs, pay close attention to:

• Seams and piping
• Tags and labels
• Tufts and folds
• Corners and edges

These areas provide ideal hiding spots for bed bugs and are often the first places where signs of infestation become visible.

Telltale Signs of Bed Bug Presence in Your Home

Identifying a bed bug infestation early can significantly improve the chances of successful eradication. Be vigilant for these indicators:

• Itchy bites appearing overnight
• Small blood spots on bedsheets
• Musty or moldy odor (in severe infestations)
• Black and yellow specks around mattress seams
• Rusty stains on bedding or nearby walls

What causes the rusty stains associated with bed bug infestations. These stains are typically a result of crushed bed bugs or their excrement. When bed bugs feed, they may leave behind small droplets of blood that can stain fabrics. Additionally, their fecal matter often appears as dark spots or smears on surfaces.

Bed Bug Excrement and Sheddings: What to Look For

Bed bug evidence often includes:

• Dark spots (about the size of a pinhead)
• Pale yellow skins shed by nymphs as they grow
• Tiny, pale yellow eggs (about 1mm in size)
• Live bed bugs in various life stages

These signs are often found in clusters near the bugs’ hiding spots, particularly along mattress seams, headboards, and nearby furniture.

Bed Bug Behavior: Feeding Habits and Movement Patterns

Understanding bed bug behavior can aid in detection and prevention:

• Primarily nocturnal, but can adapt to feed during the day
• Cannot fly or jump, but are excellent crawlers
• Feed approximately once every 1-2 weeks
• Can survive for months without a meal
• Prefer to stay close to their food source (humans)

How long can bed bugs survive without feeding. In optimal conditions, bed bugs can survive for 2-3 months without a blood meal. However, in cooler temperatures with reduced metabolism, they may survive for up to a year without feeding. This resilience makes complete eradication challenging and often requires professional intervention.

Bed Bug Dispersal: How Infestations Spread

Bed bugs are adept hitchhikers, spreading through various means:

• Attaching to luggage and clothing
• Hiding in second-hand furniture
• Crawling through wall voids and electrical conduits
• Traveling on the belongings of visitors

Their ability to spread rapidly underscores the importance of early detection and prompt treatment of infestations.

Bed Bug Bites: Characteristics and Health Implications

Bed bug bites often exhibit distinct patterns and symptoms:

• Red, itchy welts on exposed skin
• Often appear in straight rows of three or four
• Commonly found on shoulders, arms, and legs
• May cause allergic reactions in some individuals

Can bed bug bites transmit diseases. While bed bug bites themselves are not known to transmit diseases directly, they can lead to secondary infections due to scratching. In rare cases, bed bugs have been found to carry pathogens like Chagas disease, though transmission to humans is uncommon. The primary health concern is often the psychological distress and sleep disturbances caused by infestations.

Differentiating Bed Bug Bites from Other Insect Bites

Distinguishing bed bug bites from other insect bites can be challenging. However, some characteristics may help:

• Bed bug bites often appear in clusters or lines
• They typically occur on exposed areas of skin during sleep
• Bites may not be immediately noticeable and can take days to appear
• Unlike flea bites, bed bug bites are not usually centered around the ankles

If you suspect bed bug bites, inspect your sleeping area thoroughly for other signs of infestation.

Insects Commonly Mistaken for Bed Bugs

Several insects are frequently misidentified as bed bugs due to similar appearances or behaviors:

1. Spider beetles
2. Carpet beetles
3. Booklice
4. Cockroach nymphs
5. Fleas
6. Ticks

How can you differentiate these insects from bed bugs. While visual similarities can make identification challenging, key differences exist:

• Spider beetles are more rounded and lack the flattened appearance of bed bugs
• Carpet beetles have distinct wing covers and are often found on fabric items
• Booklice are much smaller and paler than bed bugs
• Cockroach nymphs have longer antennae and lack the bed bug’s characteristic apple seed shape
• Fleas and ticks have different body shapes and are typically found on pets

When in doubt, it’s advisable to consult a pest control professional for accurate identification.

Bat Bugs: Close Relatives of Bed Bugs

Bat bugs, closely related to bed bugs, can also be mistaken for their more common cousins:

• Nearly identical in appearance to bed bugs
• Primarily feed on bats but may bite humans if bats are absent
• Often found in attics or areas where bats roost

Distinguishing between bat bugs and bed bugs typically requires microscopic examination by an entomologist.

The Impact of Bed Bugs on Human Health and Well-being

While bed bugs are not known to transmit diseases efficiently, their presence can have significant impacts on human health and quality of life:

• Psychological distress and anxiety
• Sleep deprivation
• Skin infections from scratching bites
• Allergic reactions in sensitive individuals
• Anemia in severe, prolonged infestations

How do bed bug infestations affect indoor air quality. Recent studies have shown that bed bug infestations can lead to increased histamine levels in homes. Histamines are chemicals that can trigger allergic responses and exacerbate respiratory conditions like asthma. This finding underscores the importance of prompt bed bug control, especially for individuals with allergies or respiratory sensitivities.

The Economic Impact of Bed Bug Infestations

Beyond health concerns, bed bug infestations can have significant economic repercussions:

• Cost of professional pest control treatments
• Replacement of infested furniture and belongings
• Lost wages due to time off work for dealing with infestations
• Potential legal issues in rental properties or hospitality settings

These economic factors highlight the importance of prevention and early detection in managing bed bug problems.

Bed Bug Prevention: Strategies for Avoiding Infestations

Preventing bed bug infestations is far easier and more cost-effective than treating established populations. Consider these preventive measures:

1. Regularly inspect bedding and furniture for signs of bed bugs
2. Use protective covers on mattresses and box springs
3. Be cautious when acquiring second-hand furniture
4. Inspect hotel rooms thoroughly when traveling
5. Keep luggage elevated and away from beds and walls
6. Wash and dry clothes on high heat after returning from trips

Can diatomaceous earth effectively prevent bed bug infestations. Diatomaceous earth, a natural powder made from fossilized algae, can be an effective part of a bed bug prevention strategy. When bed bugs crawl through the powder, it damages their exoskeletons, leading to dehydration and death. However, it should be used cautiously and in conjunction with other prevention methods, as it’s not a standalone solution for established infestations.

The Role of Early Detection in Bed Bug Control

Early detection is crucial for effective bed bug management:

• Conduct regular inspections of sleeping areas
• Use bed bug interceptors under furniture legs
• Be alert to unexplained bites or skin irritations
• Educate family members or employees about bed bug signs

Prompt identification of bed bug activity can significantly reduce the scope and cost of treatment.

Effective Bed Bug Treatment Options: Professional and DIY Approaches

When faced with a bed bug infestation, various treatment options are available:

Professional Treatments

• Heat treatments
• Chemical pesticides
• Fumigation
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches

DIY Methods

• Vacuuming and steam cleaning
• Washing and drying on high heat
• Using bed bug-proof encasements
• Applying diatomaceous earth or other desiccants

Are DIY methods as effective as professional treatments for bed bug control. While DIY methods can be helpful for small, localized infestations, they often fall short in addressing widespread or severe bed bug problems. Professional treatments typically offer more comprehensive and effective solutions, especially for established infestations. However, combining professional services with ongoing DIY prevention measures can provide the best long-term results.

The Importance of Follow-up in Bed Bug Eradication

Successful bed bug eradication often requires multiple treatments and ongoing vigilance:

• Schedule follow-up inspections after initial treatment
• Continue preventive measures even after apparent elimination
• Be prepared for potential re-treatments
• Maintain communication with pest control professionals

Persistence and thoroughness are key to achieving lasting bed bug control.

What Do Bed Bugs Look Like & Pests They’re Often Confused With

Many children were once sent to bed with the short rhyme, “Good night, don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

For most, it was a silly saying that meant nothing. Bedbugs were eradicated in the 1940s in the United States and no longer a concern for many generations.

Unfortunately, the pesticide DDT was the method of eradication, and a ban of the dangerous chemical in the 1970s allowed the bedbug to return.

Over the last two decades, the parasites have spread and increased in number back to their full strength. Today, it is important for everyone to understand how to identify and control bedbugs.

Identifying Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are tiny insects that are the shape of an apple seed but slightly smaller.

The adults are reddish-brown, and nymphs are similar in appearance but even smaller and lighter in color.

The bed bug does not have any physical characteristics that make it unique, so it is easy to mistake it for other small insects like beetles and ticks.

Any place in a home can be a hiding spot for a bed bug, but they are usually found in mattresses and other soft furnishings.

Their tendency to take up residence in beds most often is how they got their name but bed bugs can hide in curtains, chairs, and carpets.

Severe infestations of the insect may even cause them to take up residence in wallpaper, cracks in walls or flooring or inside electrical outlets.

There are many insects that people commonly misidentify as bed bugs. Spider and carpet beetles, booklice, cockroach nymphs, and fleas and ticks are the pests most often mistaken as bed bugs.

The welts from a bed bug bite do not distinguish the creature either because the bites can look and feel like many other itchy bug bites. One way to rule out some lookalikes is how bed bugs move. The insect cannot fly or jump but does like to hitch rides on passers by.

Signs of Bed Bugs

The first signs many people notice of a problem are the itchy bites on their bodies that often appear overnight and small spots of blood on their bedsheets.

The blood stains may come from the bites but are usually the excrement left behind by the insects.

A musty or moldy smell may be noticeable, but this is usually not detected unless there is a large population of the insects.

A close look around the seams of the mattress may reveal black and yellow specks and more rusty stains.

The spots are excrement, shed skins and egg shells as well as the nymphs. The insects will hide in mattress seams as well as in folds of fabric on and around the bed. These are the first areas to look.

Where Bed Bugs Like to Hide

The most common place for bed bugs to hide is around a bed so they are near their food source. Bed bugs only consume mammal blood.

The bed bug type most commonly found in homes is the Cimex lectularius, and it prefers human blood, but will feed off other mammals to survive.

Bed bugs will move to another location if their current spot becomes too crowded or if their food source is not available.

The bugs can live for two months or more without a meal. If deprived of heat the metabolism of the insect will slow and allow them to survive for as long as a year without food.

Bed bugs may walk to another room in a house in search of a regular food source if their current source becomes unavailable. They can also climb into suitcases or hitch a ride on shoes or clothing to a different location.

The small size of the insect makes it simple for them to tag along unseen from hotels, on clothing in retails shops and nearly anywhere else.

Bed Bug Bites

The bites of the bed bug are usually in areas that are easy for them to access while a person is asleep.

Exposed skin like shoulders, arms and legs become the main targets. The bites are red welts that look like mosquito or flea bites.

One feature of the bites that stands out is that they tend to appear in straight rows of three or four welts.

Serious illness from a bed bug bite is rare, but it can happen. Bed bugs can spread Chagas disease.

It is a fatal illness that can affect the cardiovascular, digestive and nervous systems. The number of people infected in the United States has increased in the last few years.

A more common concern is the potential of the insect to sicken people with allergies and respiratory conditions.

Homes with bed bug infestations can have extremely high histamine levels and this can aggravate allergies and asthma.

Bed Bug Feeding

Bed bugs are mostly nocturnal, but their feeding habits can become a matter of convenience.

People that work a night shift can be bitten during the day when the insects are near. The bugs can bite several times in a night to become full but only feed about once every one or two weeks.

People that have only small numbers of the bugs in their homes may not experience new bites every night.

The bed bug finds a host through body heat as they are attracted to warmth as well as to the carbon dioxide found in exhaled air.

Carbon dioxide is an indicator of a living creature, so it attracts any parasitic insects looking for a fresh meal.

The insect finds a host, positions itself on bare skin and stabs through the skin with its beak. It will feed for approximately 3-12 minutes. If the host moves or otherwise disturbs the feeding the bug will stop, move slightly and begin to feed again.

This is one of the reasons why the bites are often in rows.

The allure of carbon dioxide to bed bugs has led to many DIY traps. The homemade traps, that typically include a yeast mixture, are not enough to lure the bugs because they don’t release more carbon dioxide than a human.

In an unoccupied room it may be sufficient to end a small infestation if the pests do not latch on to the person placing and checking the traps and move with them to a more populated area in the residence.

Stages of Bed Bugs

Females lay eggs that are about one-sixteenth of an inch in length.

The eggs are white ovals that take between 6 to 10 days to hatch. The nymphs feed on blood immediately after hatching and will molt five times before they reach adulthood.

Molting can only occur after a feeding. A female can lay eggs every day and can lay hundreds of eggs during her lifetime. Adults generally survive for about 2 to 6 months but can live a year or longer.

Favorable Conditions for Bed Bugs

Bed bugs flourish at room temperatures, around 70-degrees Fahrenheit, but can survive a wide range of temperature extremes.

Elevated temperatures of 118-degrees or higher kill adult and nymphs as well as destroy eggs. The heat must be constant for 20 minutes for adults and at least 90 minutes for eggs.

Temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit can also kill bed bugs. We use a Cryonite machine which blasts the bed bugs with far below freezing temperatures to kill them on contact.

Bed bugs tend to go unnoticed until there is an infestation and the bites are impossible to ignore.

Although the pests like cluttered spaces because of the availability of hiding spaces, their presence is not an indicator of a dirty home.

Even spectacularly clean houses can become a hiding spot for bed bugs. Eradication is a challenge and common methods of removal, like the purchase of new mattresses, are rarely successful.

Professional pest control is the only effective method of removal. Now that you know what bed bugs look like, schedule an inspection as soon as possible if you’re dealing with a bed bug problem.

Things That Seems Like Bedbugs but Aren’t

Things That Seems Like Bedbugs but Aren’t

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What you think could be signs of bedbugs could actually be something else.

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• Just because you think you might have bedbugs doesn’t necessarily mean that you do.
• Though you likely have reasons for thinking that there are bedbugs in your bed or couch, you might actually be misinterpreting these signs as signs of bedbugs when, really, the problem is something else.
• However, if you have signs of bedbug bites, you might want to get your bed checked out, just in case.

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If you think you have bedbugs, chances are there’s a good reason for that. Maybe you’ve noticed strange marks on your body that you think could be bedbug bite, maybe you’ve seen what could be a bedbug in your bed, or maybe you’ve felt itchier than normal when you first wake up in the morning. But just because you think you have bedbugs doesn’t necessarily mean that you do. If you’re concerned about the potential of bedbugs, knowing what sorts of things you might be confusing for signs of bedbugs is definitely important.

You’ve found small bugs in the cracks and crevices of your home.

Other bugs are often mistaken for bedbugs.

wabeno/ iStock

Though you might think that finding bugs in other part of your house, particularly small “cylindrical-shaped insects,” might mean that you have bedbugs on your hands, that doesn’t necessarily indicate that that’s what you’re dealing with.

“German cockroach nymphs are often confused with bedbugs,” Dr. Sydney Crawley, PhD, a public health entomologist with Scotts Miracle-Gro, told INSIDER. “However, cockroach nymphs are more cylindrical in shape, and bedbugs are shorter and oval. Both of these insects are cryptic, live in harborages, and are most active at night… but cockroaches do not feed on humans and are usually found near food or moisture.”

So if they’re not in your bed or on the couch, that’s a good initial indicator that they’re likely not bedbugs, even if they look like they could be.

Your bites are around your ankles — and you also have a pet.

Bites just around the ankle is probably fleas.

anamariategzes/ iStock

It’s not necessarily super common for bedbugs to bite around your ankles, so if you really only have bites around your ankles and also have a pet, it could be another kind of insect that’s causing your problems.

Bill Horgan, the president of Debug Pest Control, told INSIDER that these are likely signs of a flea infestation, rather than an issue with bedbugs.

The bugs near your bed have wings.

Bedbugs don’t have wings.

porpeller/ iStock

If the bugs you’ve spotted have wings, that’s a good sign that you don’t have bedbugs — because bedbugs don’t have wings.

“Carpet beetles are often confused for bedbugs and may be found in the bedroom, but they have distinct wings,” Crawley said. “Additionally, their larvae look like caterpillars.”

Your bed looks completely clean.

Bedbugs leave lots of damage to your mattress.

pinkjellybeans/Shutterstock

If you suspect that you might have bedbugs, taking a closer look at your bed is typically going to be your next step. But if you take a closer look at your bed and you don’t really see much out of the ordinary, that’s another good sign that you might not have bedbugs.

“Bedbugs leave behind tiny blood stains or small black dots that look like mold or like black pepper sprinkled in the seams of your mattress or creases in the corners of your sheets,” Eric Hoffer, the owner of Hoffer Pest Solutions, told INSIDER.

If you’re itchy, but you haven’t spotted any of these sorts of things, bedbugs might not be the cause.

You’re simply itchy.

Lots of things can cause itchiness.

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There are tons of things that could cause itchiness beyond bedbugs, so while that might be an initial thought, it might not actually be the true cause. If you suspect bedbugs, however, you’re likely going to keep an eye out for actual bugs.

Hogan said that if you don’t see any bugs and haven’t traveled relatively recently, you may want to consider things like detergents, medications you may be taking, allergy issues, and more because one of those other things might be what’s actually causing the itchiness.

The bites are spread out, in places where you weren’t touching your bed, or in very small groupings.

Bedbug bites usually appear where you have touched the bed.

Wikimedia

When you’re dealing with bedbugs, you should expect large clumps of bites or bites where you were touching your bed, generally speaking. If you have bites that are spread out, in small groups, or in seemingly strange or random places, that might mean it’s not bedbugs after all.

“Although bites acquired during the night can point to a bedbug problem, it can also mean that you’re dealing with some other pests,” Karen Thompson of InsectCop.net, told INSIDER. “Anything from mosquitoes to fleas can leave bites while you’re sleeping. The trick is to pay attention to the spot where the bugs leave the bites as well as how the bites look. If the bites are near the place where your body meets the surface of your bed and they are in large clusters then you most likely have bedbugs.

“However, if you wake up with a few bites here and there or there are small groups of red, itchy bites on your body (clusters of no more than three or four bites) then more likely you’re dealing with either mosquitoes or fleas.”

The bugs look like bedbugs but aren’t in or super near your bed and you’re just not sure.

Flea (L) and bed bug (R).

Flickr/gailhampshire/AP/Carolyn Kaster

Just because the bugs look like what you’re expecting bedbugs to look like doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what they are.

“Some insects look like they are small bedbugs that have fed on blood when they have not (e.g., spider beetles),” Crawley said. “It is normal to think you have bedbugs when you see something that looks so similar to a bedbug, and you maybe haven’t ever seen one in person and are basing your views on internet images.”

When in doubt, call in a professional, but if the bedbugs aren’t in or near your bed, couch, or other plush furniture, it might be something else.

Your bites are all on your lower body, backs of your knees, or inside your elbows.

Flea bites are more common on the lower half of your body.

PARNTAWAN/ iStock

Where you get bites can help you figure out if it might be bedbugs or not as well.

“If a pet has carried fleas into your home, they’re most likely living in your carpet — so they’ll bite the lower half of your body and aim for warm, moist areas like the backs of your knees or the inside of your elbows,” Hoffer said. “Bedbug bites are more common on the upper half of your body, around the face, neck, and arms.”

If you have pesky bites on your body, however, it might be a good idea to go to the doctor so that they can help determine what the cause may be.

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What house bugs look like and how to distinguish them from other insects

• By Wil Malinoshevsky
• About bedbugs

Our experience shows that a person living in the city and at least occasionally traveling abroad needs to know what bed bugs look like. If only because these insects may end up in his apartment and they must immediately be correctly identified and removed as quickly as possible. And even if the insects found in the house are not bugs, in order to understand this, you need to know what a home bug looks like.

Last instar bed bug nymph

Honestly, a person who has ever seen a house bug and knows that it is a bug will never confuse it with any other insect. Is it possible to know what, for example, an adult bug looks like, but be confused, not later identifying its own small nymph. And if you do not recognize the bug in the nymph, then you will not take the right measures in time, you will not start fighting them and give the bugs a chance to survive.

We had many cases when people mistook for bedbugs, for example, wood lice, grinder beetles, a couple of times people sent photos of larvae of kozheed beetles under the guise of domestic bugs – they do not look like bedbugs at all, but not knowing what bedbugs look like , people can even mistake such insects for them.

Therefore, it is enough to look at the video and photo of bedbugs at different stages of development in order to understand how they differ from other insects that can be found in the apartment, and then be able to recognize them at the first meeting.

What are house bugs

The most important thing and the first thing to start with: let’s define the concepts of what a house bug is in general. Strictly speaking, there is no biological species with that name. In common parlance, bed bugs are called bed bugs, the entire life cycle and reproduction of which occurs only in human housing. Of the several thousand bedbugs known to science today, only one species is capable of living and breeding in human housing in Eurasia, in particular, in Russia and Ukraine: the common bed bug, in Latin Cimex lecturarius. No other bedbugs live permanently in human housing. At least in the temperate climate of the Northern Hemisphere. Guard bugs can sometimes fly here, or soldier bugs, predatory bugs crawl in, but they are not able to live permanently and even more so breed in human housing.

So, we need to figure out exactly what bed bugs look like.

What bed bugs look like

The photo below shows a cluster of bed bugs:

You must have noticed some very characteristic features of the appearance of these insects:

1. Their body is strongly compressed dorsally, that is, from the back, but wide enough horizontally. Simply put, they seem to be flattened at the top;
2. Bed bugs do not have wings. This is a characteristic feature of domestic bed bugs – they do not need to fly, but at the same time they need the body to be as flat as possible and allow them to climb even into the narrowest cracks;
3. They have a simple and nondescript coloration. Adults are dark brown, older nymphs are also brown, but slightly lighter, and the smallest nymphs are generally pale yellow.

Here we see bedbugs in an enlarged form, with a strong approximation. Their real dimensions are 5-7 mm in length in adults and from 1 to 4 mm in length in nymphs.

Simply put, an adult bug is about the size of a small button and about the same, by the way, body shape, flat when viewed from the side and rounded when viewed from above. In the video below, you can well estimate the size of the bug relative to the finger:

The largest adult bug fits easily on the nail of the little finger of an adult. On this basis, it is easy to distinguish it from street stink bugs. They are larger and, at least, will not fit on the little finger.

This is the most general characteristic of bed bugs in general – size, body shape and color. But there are features of their appearance depending on their age and some other factors. Moreover, sometimes the same bug can differ from itself in different states so much that it can be mistaken for different insects.

Appearance of hungry and fed parasites

The most striking differences are noticeable between hungry individuals that have not fed for a long time, and individuals that have satiated.

At a minimum, bedbugs have translucent body covers, which, coupled with the lack of wings, makes the pumped blood in their abdomens very noticeable.

Simply put, a hungry bug is just brown, and a full one is already red, because this very blood is visible through the integument of its body. Moreover, if in adults the difference, although noticeable, is not so striking, then in larvae the body after saturation is greatly transformed. Before feeding, they are pale yellow, after feeding they are scarlet, similar to drops of blood with paws.

For example, look at a nymph who is just starting to drink blood – here she is yellow and translucent:

. ..and on her a few minutes later, after her entire intestines were filled with blood:

She is bright scarlet, not at all like herself a few minutes ago.

You probably noticed that after saturation, the belly of the bug stretched out a little in length. This is not an illusion, the way it is: due to the elasticity of the joints of the segments, the abdomen stretches when the intestines are filled with blood, which allows the bug to get the maximum amount of food in one bloodsucking. Since we are lucky to find a victim, we must take everything from it. As a result, a short, round and flat bug after saturation becomes long, elongated and swollen.

On the left – a hungry bug, on the right – full

By the way, it is very easy to crush him in this state, since such a blood-filled body is less durable than a flat and emaciated one. Therefore, sometimes people can crush bed bugs while tossing and turning in their sleep. And in the morning, noticing small blood stains on the sheets, they can understand that bedbugs live in their sleeping place or near it. And in general, if you simultaneously found some unfamiliar insects in the bedroom and a blood stain on the bed, then most likely these insects are bedbugs.

By the way, in hungry bugs that have not eaten for several weeks, the body becomes so flat that it looks like some kind of dry crust. In general, it does not seem that any organs can work normally in this torso. But normally, it rarely comes to such depletion: usually bedbugs have the opportunity to eat at a normal frequency for them, once every 2-3 days.

Mating hungry bed bugs

What bed bugs look like at different ages

The smallest nymphs differ slightly from adult bugs and from older nymphs. In an enlarged view, in a photo or video, with a strong approximation, they look like small yellow bugs, and when viewed with the naked eye, they look like small yellow spiders.

By the way, it is the nymphs of the first age that people with poor eyesight may not be able to see with the naked eye. The length of these nymphs is about a millimeter, and due to the yellow color of the body covers, they actually merge with the boards of the bed frame or with light bedding. But in any case, they are very different from adult, broad brown bugs.

Look at a hungry young nymph – you can see that her body is translucent and not at all as dark as that of an adult bug. In general, it is not very similar to a bug, and therefore it is precisely when such nymphs are found that people do not always recognize bugs in them.

That is, we have already found out that bedbugs can look somewhat different in different states and at different stages of their development. Let’s make such a subtotal of those shapes, sizes and colors of bedbugs that you may see in your house:

1. Adult hungry bug – flat, wide, brown, 5-7 mm long, similar to a dark button;
2. An adult well-fed bug is slightly swollen, wide, burgundy in color, the color of thick blood, elongated, its body has a slightly worm-like shape;
3. Older hungry nymph – similar to an adult hungry bug, only slightly smaller and lighter, light brown. After saturation, it looks like an adult well-fed bug;
4. Hungry nymph 2-3 instar – small, 2-3 mm long, flat, translucent, inconspicuous, pale yellow;
5. Well-fed nymph 2-3 ages, similar to a drop of blood with a head and paws, quite elongated in length;
6. The smallest nymphs of the first age, just emerging from the eggs. They are generally extremely small, hardly visible to the naked eye, although in principle they are noticeable, the shape of the body of which is generally difficult to identify.

If you see any of these insects in your apartment, then you should know that this is a house bed bug.

What is the difference between female bedbugs and males?

It is possible to distinguish between a female and a male only at the adult stage, that is, in adult insects. Nymphs of bedbugs are not children of people in whom all systems are formed and only grow as they grow up. Their reproductive system is fully formed only after the last molt, and only then it is possible to consider the differences between males and females.

Left is male, right is female

In females, the end of the abdomen is rounded and symmetrical, while in males, on the last segment of the abdomen, a copulatory organ is visible, which is turned to the left and looks like a kind of tip on the abdomen, which, due to its curvature, violates the symmetry of the abdomen. But in general, bedbugs do not have any radical differences between the sexes, if you do not specifically look closely, then these differences are not striking.

By the way, we are sometimes asked what the queen bee looks like. It doesn’t look like it because bed bugs don’t have a uterus. They do not have a social structure and some kind of hierarchy in which there would be a uterus, as the main breeding female, by analogy with ants and bees. All females of domestic bugs are the same, all teem in a common nest, all reproduce with the same intensity.

What a bedbug nest looks like

You can also see what the nest of house bugs looks like. The video below shows several of these nests on a sofa:

Again, a nest is not quite the right word to describe their places of accumulation, since a nest is more often understood as some kind of organized and to some extent equipped dwelling, if not as complex as a wasp nest or an anthill, then at least resembling a hole in crickets. Bedbugs do not have this, because they do not show themselves with any creative activity. But nevertheless, in the most suitable places they accumulate in large quantities, live here for a long time and such accumulations of them are clearly visible.

At a minimum, in these shelters there are a lot of bed bugs of different ages, and due to the large number of them, it is easy to notice them here. Here, in large quantities, there are skins shed during molting, the remains of dead insects, eggs and excrement. That is, all this accumulation is rather motley, nasty, and it is impossible to confuse it with anything else, since no other insects in such quantities accumulate in sleeping places and near them.

From experience, we say that most often they either do not notice at all, or they discover, but do not mistake the smallest nymphs for bedbugs. Firstly, they can literally hide in the narrowest fold or near the seam on the fabric, and secondly, they are so different from adult bugs that they are not considered bugs.

We often have clients who see these larvae and say they are not bed bugs because the bugs are supposed to be wide, round and brown. You need to understand that there should not be any insects in the room in general and especially on the bed, no matter how they look. And most likely it will be bugs that will live in a sleeping place, for which it is important to get to a sleeping person as quickly as possible. Therefore, if you find any insects on the sofa or bed, you must get rid of them as soon as possible.

Differences between different types of bugs

It is interesting that there are quite a few types of bed bugs, more than a hundred, and all of them are very similar in appearance and without special knowledge and special equipment, that is, it is almost impossible for a non-entomologist without a microscope to distinguish them. Of these more than a hundred species, only two can constantly live in a person’s housing, near his bed, and bite him, and almost a hundred others do not live near the bed and do not bite a person.

They are called bed bugs simply because the common bed bug was described as the first species in this family as a companion of man and a synanthropic species, and it got its name for its characteristic lifestyle and unique habitats. And he was singled out in a separate family, since he was noticeably different from other hemipterans.

Then, when scientists began to describe other species of the same family, but living in bird nests, in colonies of bats in caves, in rodent burrows, they were forced to call them bed bugs simply because of their biological relationship. It so happened that there are many types of bed bugs, they look similar, but most of them are not bed bugs in their way of life.

So, for example, the swallow bug that lives in the nests of swallows looks like:

And so – Cimex hemipterus, the second species in the family, which feeds mainly on human blood, but is found mainly in the tropics:

In fact, no one except entomologists needs to be able to distinguish between types of bed bugs. If bugs live in your house, it doesn’t matter what species they belong to – they must be destroyed immediately. But being able to distinguish them from other insects is sometimes useful, just in time to take the right measures to destroy them. Plus, in most cases, people want to know what bed bugs look like when they meet some kind of insect in the house, but they can’t figure out if it’s a bug or not. So, with whom can you really confuse bed bugs?

How to distinguish bed bugs from other insects?

Most of all, in terms of size and shape of the body, 3 types of synanthropic insects are similar to bugs, more precisely, to their nymphs, especially those that have been fed:

1. Book louse
2. Simple clothes louse
3. Red cockroach nymphs

But in fact, it is very easy to distinguish them from bedbugs.

The book louse is about the same size as 3rd-4th instar bedbug nymphs, about the same straw-yellow color as a hungry bedbug nymph, but has a slightly different body shape. The body of the book louse itself is elongated, spindle-shaped, not wide and not flat.

Book lice on paper

In shape, it may be somewhat similar to the body of a well-fed bug nymph, whose body is stretched in length from the blood, but such a nymph will be scarlet, and book lice are always yellowish. That is, a bedbug nymph cannot be yellow and elongated in length, the same as a book louse. It is either yellow and wide, or long, but red.

Plus, the book louse has a fairly large head relative to the entire body – larger than that of a bug nymph of the same size. That is, if you know what a bug larva looks like, it will be quite easy to distinguish it from a book louse.

We were sent photos of hay-eaters a couple of times asking if they were bed bugs. Hay eaters are similar to book lice, but differ in an even lighter color. And they differ from bedbugs in the same way as book lice.

Photo of a hay eater sent by a viewer of our channel

The body louse has an even more elongated body, almost white. When she sucks blood, she becomes somewhat similar to a small bug nymph, but she can be distinguished by the fact that she bites, usually under clothing, when a person is awake. Bed bugs rarely bite an awake person and do not get under his clothes.

Nymphs of red cockroaches are similar to adult bugs in body shape – they are also wide. But that’s where the similarity ends. Cockroach nymphs are almost black, darker than bedbugs, while lighter adult cockroaches are much larger than bedbugs, more slender and have wings. Plus, red cockroaches have a very characteristic recognizable pattern on the pronotum of two black stripes on a red background. Bed bugs don’t have them.

The bug cannot be confused with black cockroaches due to the significant difference in size.

Sometimes people confuse bedbugs with fleas. But this happens only when it is fleas that bite a person and he does not see them because of his poor eyesight. They often call or write to us and ask about bedbugs, and when we start asking how and when these alleged bedbugs bite, the person describes situations in which he sits on the couch, an insect climbs on his feet and bites, or gets into a car and they begin to bite him, sometimes even people call and tell how they are bitten on the legs in the garden. In all these cases, fleas are confused with bedbugs simply because fleas bite, and people know only bedbugs of all the insects that bite in the house.

In fact, if you consider an insect, then it is almost impossible to confuse a bug with a flea. They have absolutely nothing in common in appearance. Fleas are very small, 2-3 mm long, black, shiny, jumping very well. The bugs are larger, lighter in color, and cannot jump.

And once we had a situation where a person called and consulted about the fight against bedbugs, because he found small dark brown insects in the sofa. He has no bites, but he regularly finds insects in the sofa.

It seems to be a typical picture for infestation with bedbugs, when a person is insensitive to their bites.

But then, when they sent us a photo, it turned out that these were not bugs, but grinder beetles. They can be of different sizes depending on the species, with some being as brown as bed bugs, while others can be grey, green or even black. These beetles have a body that is not as wide as that of bedbugs, and they have wings and hard elytra. Bed bugs do not have wings.

furniture grinder

We are also regularly sent photos of larvae of kozheed beetles, which outwardly have nothing to do with bedbugs. It’s enough just to see once what a bug looks like, so that you never confuse it with such a larva.

Kozheed larva

Once we were sent a photo of a fake beetle for identification, asking if it was a bug. And the photo was sent from New York. A very interesting situation, because according to the main features, this beetle is really similar to a well-fed bug – it is dark brown, swollen, with a wide abdomen. But its main difference is the wings, which hide the segmentation of the body. That is, in a well-fed bug, transverse constrictions on the abdomen are clearly visible, but this beetle does not have them.

pretend beetle

It happens that people bring ticks on their clothes or on their bodies from a walk on the street, and do not know if it is a tick or a house bug. Everything is simple here: count his legs. If there are 8 of them, then this is a tick, if 6, then some kind of insect, perhaps just a bug.

And one more characteristic situation: in late summer and early autumn, street bugs often fly into apartments. These are stink bugs. They are not dangerous except for the fact that they smell very unpleasant when frightened. They differ very well from domestic bugs in the first place in size – they are 2-3 times larger than bed bugs, while they have normally developed wings and fly well. They do not hide in sleeping places, but on the contrary, they usually sit in plain sight, on windows and on curtains, crawl well and confidently along the walls. Moreover, they are not able to reproduce at home. Their coloration is not very noticeable, but clearly different from the brown color of the body of bed bugs. That is, it is quite simple to distinguish these species even for an uninitiated person.

So if you see some kind of insect at home, then look at it carefully, preferably through a magnifying glass, and if it is a bed bug, call the exterminators and call them right away so as not to delay their destruction and prevent significant reproduction.

If these are not bed bugs, you need to find out who they are, because in addition to bed bugs, many other extremely undesirable insects can settle in the house, and if this is exactly what happened, then you should also start exterminating them as soon as possible.

If you find any harmless aliens – calmly open the window and give them into the hands of gravity so that you don’t have any insects at home.

Order the destruction of bedbugs!

Bed bugs

Bed bugs are long-term companions of man. They are mentioned both in historical and fiction literature of different countries and peoples. So what are these insects? Understanding!

Bed bug (lat. Cimex lectularius ) is a common blood-sucking insect.

Most often, bed bugs live in heated residential areas with a high density of people living in them.

The bed bug and its larvae feed exclusively on the blood of humans and domestic animals. The size of adults is on average 5-7 mm, males are slightly smaller than females. On average, the female lays about 5 eggs per day. During her life, the female can lay about 500 eggs. The development of the larva to an adult occurs in a month, and the total life span of the bug is 12 months. At low temperatures and the absence of a power source, the bugs fall into a state similar to suspended animation. In this state, without food, bedbugs can live up to one year. At temperatures above 50 ° C, the bugs and their larvae die instantly.

Bedbugs are predominantly nocturnal, during the day they usually hide in furniture, under wallpaper, in clothes, and other furnishings.

With a prolonged lack of food, bed bugs can attack a person during the day.

Under adverse conditions, bedbugs are able to migrate between rooms through ventilation ducts, and in summer – along the outer walls of houses. An adult bug can crawl from 25 cm to 1 m in one minute, and a nymph up to 20 cm.

Bed bugs deliver the greatest harm to people with their bites, depriving them of normal rest and sleep, and thereby reducing their working capacity.

In addition, in some cases, bites can lead to allergies or become a traumatic factor – at night, bedbugs can interfere with sleep, and during the day, itching from bedbug bites interferes with work or study. Secondary infection is also possible when scratching the bite site. The ability of bed bugs to transmit pathogens directly through a bite has not been established.

Children are especially sensitive to bedbug bites.

During the attack, the bug, moving along the skin, leaves a “path” of bites. But in most people, bite marks are practically invisible. In this case, a person learns about the presence of bedbugs in the house by brown marks on the bed, which are formed when the bedbug is accidentally crushed during sleep.

Bed bugs can be dealt with mechanically – searching for and destroying bed bug nests. Physical method – exposure to high temperatures on the affected room. Chemical method – treatment with special preparations, to which bugs, larvae and their eggs are sensitive. The chemical method is the most effective.

To combat bed bugs, disinfectants intended for this purpose, which have passed state registration, are used.

These funds are sold in specialized departments of stores and can be used by citizens on their own.

In the case of a high population of premises with bed bugs, it is recommended to use the services of specialized organizations that carry out pest control work.

To prevent the appearance of bed bugs in your home, you must follow these rules:

• Clean your house systematically with a vacuum cleaner.