Bed Bugs Life Cycle Days
This is thought to be the cause for why bed bugs hitchhike so much onto our personal belongings such as backpacks and luggage.
Bed bugs life cycle days. The females need food for laying eggs and for proper egg development. A bed bug life cycle includes multiple stages. Bed bugs need to feed at least once before each molt although they could feed as often as once a day.
Each nymph stage usually lasts about a week longer if a bed bug can t find a live host to feed on. They can go weeks or months without feeding. For example if the temperature is less than 65 degrees the bed bug life cycle may take 120 days instead of 21 days for completion.
How to check for bed bugs. Eggs hatch in about 4 12 days into first instar nymphs which must take a blood meal before molting to the next stage. Bed bug life cycle.
Young nymphs can survive without a blood meal for days up to several months. The growth cycle can take longer if the food source is limited. Female bed bugs lay about five eggs daily throughout their adult lives in a sheltered location mattress seams crevices in box springs spaces under baseboards etc.
Bed bug life cycle below you ll see the bed bug life cycle which typically takes about 40 days when well fed. Under normal circumstances adult bed bugs will live for about 2 to 4 months. The whole bed bug life cycle is very fast and they reach adulthood within a month.
By the time she dies a female will have laid hundreds of eggs. The life cycle of a bed bug is shown in the photograph below. The eggs are small about 1 millimeter in size according to the environmental protection agency.
In the photo of the life cycle below you can see the beginning stage starts with the egg which looks like rice and is approximately 1 4 mm in length. Marked by an eye spot if more than five days old. During its lifetime a bed bug will go through the following stages starting from the top left moving counterclockwise.
However some bed bugs may live up to a year under cool conditions and with no food. The lower the ambient temperatures the more time they can spend without feeding but studies have shown most starved bed bugs will die of dehydration within 70 days. The life span of a bed bug most commonly ranges from four to six months.
Food as stated before food is also necessary for the development of the bed bug life cycle. Feeding from a host is absolutely necessary for bed bugs to grow and survive. When a female bed bug is pregnant it tends to be very traumatic for her and she will most likely isolate herself and hide.
Photo courtesy of stephen doggett department of medical entomology westmead hospital sydney australia.
