Bedbugs also known as Cimicidae are tiny
and wingless insects that feeds only on blood. The newborns known as nymphs or
hatchlings are tiny but visible. The adult grow to about 0.25 inches long.
Their shape is oval and flattened. The eggs, Nymphs and adults can be seen with
the naked eyes.
The female bedbug lays about 500 eggs in
their life time and lays about five eggs a day. Reproduction in bedbugs is by
hypodermic insemination which means that, the male bug pierce the female with
their genitalia anywhere around the abdomen and releasing sperm into the body
cavity.
The sperm released into the female body
travels through the female tissues till it gets into the ovaries where
fertilization takes place. They can only reproduce when the reach maturity. It
takes about 2 weeks for an egg to hatch and at room temperature the hatched
eggs reach maturity at 5 weeks and at each molting stage they need to feed at
least once.
They mostly feed on their hosts when they
are asleep. Bedbugs feed for about an hour before sunrise. They prefer to feed
night times that day time but can feed anything if the opportunity arise. Bedbug
Feeding take about 2-5 minutes and feed every 5 to 10 days, after which they
return to their hiding place. The bugs can last for several months without
feeding. They can remain dormant for 1 year if there is no food around and a
well fed bug can have a life span of about 6 to 9 months. Bites are not noticeable
by the host until at least a few minutes or some hours afterward. Bites can
take up to 9 days to become visible.
During feeding the bedbug inject small
amount of saliva into the host skin making it painless without the host
knowing. If the bug feed on a particular host for several weeks the person or
host becomes sensitive to the bugs saliva. People who become sensitive to
bedbug bit and saliva will sometimes mistake it to mosquito or flea bite.
Bedbug bites usually don’t have red dot in
the center and sometimes takes several days before it becomes visible which
also depends on how much you scratch the affected area. During feeding, if the
bedbugs are disturbed they tend to come back half an inch further to the
previous bite causing a row of two or three bites.
Almost 50 percent of individuals who are
bitten show no symptoms at all and do not know it happened. This makes it very
difficult to identify or prevent potential infestations. Some people, however,
may become sick and nauseous. There is all possibility that a person can get
skin scars and infections from scratching the bites.
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