What Are Bed Bugs?

Bedbugs are tiny, evasive little parasitic insects that come from the family of Cimicidae.

Their main source of survival is by sucking human blood. Other warm-blooded animals can also fall victim to these tiny vampires. It got its name since it prefers to stay in houses, especially beds.

Bedbugs are not fully nocturnal creatures but they are usually active in the night. When the come out at night, they can feed on human blood and go unnoticed.

The most common type of bedbug is called Cimex Lectularius because it is able to easily adapt to human’s living environments. It can be found in climates with mild temperatures, without extremities in coldness or heat.

The way adult bedbugs look like is they are flattened and oval in shape, have no wings and are red-brownish in color. Lots of people think that bed bugs are not visible to the naked eye, that is not true because the adult bed bugs can grow to 0.5cm in length.

They can’t move quick enough for the sake of their lives, and that’s why they are more active in the night. Baby bedbugs are almost transparent in color and grow browner as they mature.

Bed bugs release pheromones and other type of hormones to communicate with one another about nest locations, attacks and mating activities. The life of a bedbug varies from species to species and are largely dependent on their feeding habits.

Bedbugs suck blood as a way of living. They are attracted to heat source of their hosts. The way it feeds on a human is by piercing the skin with its hollow feeding tubes. One of the tube releases saliva into the blood stream and the other sucks out the human’s blood.

It only feeds for around 5 minutes, then it will quickly return back to its hiding place. Because of the agents contained within its saliva, the bite cannot be felt until a period of time has passed.

Bed bugs bites usually result in a raised red bump and comes with a powerful itchy feeling. The red color comes from a reaction of human body towards the agents contained in the bug’s saliva. It is hard to differentiate a mosquito bite from a bed bug’s bite, but a bug’s bite usually lasts longer.