How Many Legs Does a Baby Bed Bug Have

If you're afraid that your home might exist infested with bed bugs, don't panic. You might exist worrying over nix, as many bugs are often confused with bed bugs. If you do have an infestation, though, information technology's essential to place them and then that yous can seek out the appropriate treatment.

Bed bugs are small, reddish-brown, oval-shaped insects. They are 4mm – 7mm long, and loosely resemble apple seeds. Bed bugs take six legs, curt antennae, and segmented bodies. Their bodies are flat when unfed, and swollen after a claret meal. Nymphs are modest and pale, and eggs are tiny and white.

This article will help yous to spot a bed bug infestation. We'll discuss what bed bugs are, what they look like, and their distinguishing features. We'll also comprehend how to identify bed issues nymphs, eggs, feces, and seize with teeth marks.

Table of Contents:

1 What Are Bed Bugs?
- one.one Where Do Bed Bugs Come From?
two What Does a Bed Problems Look Like?
- 2.i How Large Are Bed Bugs?
- 2.2 What Color Are Bed Bugs?
- 2.3 Identifying Features of Bed Bugs
- ii.4 Male vs. Female Bed Bugs
- 2.v How to Identify a Bed Issues Nymph
- ii.6 Identifying Shed Bed Bug Skins
- 2.7 How to Identify a Bed Bug Egg
- 2.8 Bed Problems Egg Casings
- 2.9 How to Place Bed Bug Carrion
- 2.10 Bed Bug Carrion vs. Claret Spots
- 2.eleven How to Place a Bed Issues Bite
3 What Bugs Tin Be Mistaken for Bed Bugs?
- 3.1 Spider Beetles
- 3.ii Carpet Beetles
- 3.three Cockroaches
- 3.iv Booklice
- 3.5 Scabies
- iii.six Fleas
  - 3.6.one What Can I Do to Get Rid of Bed Bugs?
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What Are Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are insects in the order Hemiptera, or "truthful bugs." They are loosely related to stink bugs, aphids, and even cicadas.

Still, rather than innocently feeding on institute juices or sap, bed bugs accept a more sinister idea of a good meal: they simply drinkable human blood.

They are parasites, and cannot survive without feeding on warm-blooded animals, much like fleas or lice. However, bed bugs do non alive directly on or in our bodies. Instead, they live in our beds, sleeping accommodation furniture, carpets and rugs, walls, and fifty-fifty electronics. At night, while nosotros're comatose, they follow our scent and settle down to feed.

A bed problems's seize with teeth does not hurt at first, considering their saliva contains an coldhearted, which stops us from feeling information technology. All the same, a few days afterward the bite, it turns into a small, very itchy red lump.

Bed bugs brood and reproduce apace. 1 female tin can produce up to six eggs per day, according to a study in the scientific journal Insects. A small infestation can turn into a large one apace.

Where Do Bed Bugs Come up From?

Since 2004, the population of bed bugs in the The states has exploded into an epidemic. Every state in the U.Southward. is now home to bed bugs, and y'all tin pick them up almost anywhere.

Hotels, movie theaters, friends' homes, residential homes, hospitals, and even schools may be playing host to the parasitic creatures. It only takes i meaning female to sneak into your coat pocket or your purse for yous to bring a whole new generation of bed bugs home with you.

The first stride toward dealing with an infestation is being able to place bed bugs accurately.

What Does a Bed Problems Look Like?

One of the about common myths regarding bed bugs is that they are besides small to run into clearly. But can you lot run across bed bugs with the naked eye? Surprisingly, you can – they are more than than big enough, specially the adults.

If you notice a small-scale, mysterious problems in your home and yous're not sure whether it'south a bed bug, attempt to capture it in a clear drinking glass. And so, you can brainstorm examining information technology.

can you see bed bugs with the naked eye?

How Big Are Bed Bugs?

Adult bed bugs are effectually 4mm – 5mm long when unfed, and tin can abound to 7mm long when they have recently consumed a claret meal. Their bodies stretch and nifty to arrange their food.

If you've e'er seen an apple seed, then you know what to wait out for when identifying bed bugs. They are approximately the aforementioned size. They are also a similar shape – they have an oval-shaped abdomen and a small head.

What Color Are Bed Bugs?

Interestingly enough, bed bugs are about the same color as an apple seed, also. They are a deep, rich reddish-brown. The all-time manner to describe the color of a bed bug is "mahogany."

The dark-brown color comes from the layers of their tough exoskeleton, which become darker at every stage in their life wheel. The red tint comes from their foodstuff of choice – blood.

When a bed bug has recently consumed a blood meal, they will exist a brighter red colour than usual.

Identifying Features of Bed Bugs

Similar all insects, bed bugs take 3 chief parts to their body:

Head. A bed bug's caput is very pocket-sized, with i tiny heart on each side, and a precipitous "bill." They take a long proboscis for drinking blood, which they proceed tucked underneath their bodies when not in utilise. Bed bugs also take 2 antennae, which are quite brusque – most as long as their first pair of legs.
Thorax. The next department of a bed bug's body is the thorax (midsection), which is besides tiny.
Abdomen. A bed bug's abdomen is virtually 4 times as long as the thorax, and twice as wide. The abdomen is round when viewed from above. If a bed bug hasn't recently fed, its belly will appear apartment when viewed side-on. When it feeds on blood, the belly will get plump and elongated.

A bed bug's trunk is segmented. In that location are two modest, rudimentary "wing casings" nearly the thorax. These are a functionless evolutionary remnant from a fourth dimension long ago, when bed bugs could fly. Luckily, they can't anymore – and then if your bug takes off, it'south not a bed issues.

Bed bugs also have 6 legs. Viewing from above, the first pair of legs extends out from the thorax, and the second and third pairs extend out from the abdomen. Each leg has one bend, and ends in a pes with microscopic hooks, for gripping human being skin.

Male person vs. Female person Bed Bugs

It is possible to tell the departure between a male bed problems and a female bed problems, though it's quite catchy. The difference is all in the abdomen.

Female person bed bugs are much rounder than males. Males are slightly more elongated and slim, even when unfed. However, the divergence is subtle.

The obvious difference can exist constitute at the tip of the abdomen. Female person bed bugs are almost completely smooth and rounded, whereas males have a pointed tip. This is where the male sexual activity organ is.

How to Identify a Bed Bug Nymph

The give-and-take "nymph" is used to refer to bed bugs that have not yet reached the adult stage of their life wheel.

Once a bed bug hatches from the egg, it emerges as a nymph. Nymphs start extremely pocket-size – around 1.5mm long. They are off-white in color.

Their shells are quite thin, so yous tin see through to their tum quite easily. It will announced as a dark dot when unfed. After a blood meal, it will be bright blood-red and engorged.

Nymphs look very similar to adult bed bugs, other than size and color. They accept the same general body shape and number of legs. They go through 5 different stages of growth, called instars, before they reach full adulthood.

At each stage, the bed bug volition get slightly bigger and slightly darker in color: cream, then honey, then stake brown, and eventually mahogany.

Between each phase, the nymph volition molt and shed its exoskeleton ("skin"), to allow room for more growth.

Identifying Shed Bed Bug Skins

If you know how to recognize bed bugs, and then you'll besides know what shed exoskeletons look like. When a bed bug sheds its peel, the whole thing comes off in 1 go.

The shells wait almost exactly like the bugs themselves – y'all'll be able to run into the legs and the head. All the same, they are much paler in color, and of grade, they are empty. If y'all poke one, information technology won't commencement itch away.

How to Identify a Bed Problems Egg

Now that you know how to recognize the bugs themselves, you might exist wondering: can you see bed bug eggs?

Yes, yous can – but you might accept slap-up difficulty. Bed bug eggs are very modest – less than 1mm long. They are not technically microscopic, as they can be seen with the naked eye.

Withal, because they're then tiny, they're hands missed. And if you lot don't have the best eyesight, you may not be able to meet them at all.

Bed issues eggs are long and oval in shape. Film a slice of uncooked short-grain rice, only much smaller. They are whitish in colour, and slightly translucent as the shells aren't very thick.

You'll commonly find bed problems eggs stuck to surfaces around your dwelling house with a pasty, glue-like substance that bed bugs produce. Usually, bed bugs tend to lay their eggs in the smallest, about secluded spots they tin can find. Yous'll accept to go searching with a magnifying glass and a flashlight to have whatsoever hope of finding them.

Bed Bug Egg Casings

Egg casings are the shells of bed bug eggs that infant bed bugs take already escaped from. They look very similar to bed bug eggs, but they are flatter and almost completely clear. They are even harder to spot than the eggs themselves, but they tin can be institute in the same places.

If you find whatever, that'due south a sure sign that baby bed bugs are lurking somewhere nearby.

How to Identify Bed Bug Feces

Like all living things, bed bugs accept to miscarry waste from time to fourth dimension. Bed bugs consume solely blood, then they likewise poop blood.

Only the blood that makes upwards bed issues excrement has been digested, so it looks very different to the kind of blood that you'll see if you accidentally cut yourself.

Claret that has been digested by bed bugs is very dark – near black in colour. It remains liquid in texture, so if a bed problems poops on something porous (like your mattress), the feces will sink into the fabric. This leaves a mark that looks like a pocket-sized, flat blackness dot – very similar to ink spots from a pen.

These fecal spots will occur anywhere that they congregate, live and breed. Prime spots include:

In the piping along the edges of the mattress
Cracks and crevices in the headboard, box spring or bed frame
Effectually the edges of the bedroom, including in the carpet, on the wall and baseboard
Defunction, rugs or even stuffed animals.

Bed Bug Feces vs. Claret Spots

Another telltale sign of a bed bug infestation is blood spotting. This is different from bed issues feces because it is fresh blood that has not passed through a bug'due south torso.

Blood spotting occurs because bed bugs inject you with an anticoagulant when they seize with teeth. This stops your claret from clotting. A seize with teeth wound may drain for some time afterward a bed bug has drunk its fill and unlatched. Likewise, you may sometimes roll over and crush a bed bug in your sleep, causing undigested blood to leak out.

Y'all might detect blood spots on the within of your pajamas, on your bedsheet or your comforter. They'll be lighter in colour than fecal spots, and more than uneven shape.

How to Identify a Bed Problems Bite

As well as identifying the bugs, eggs, and fecal spots, in that location's one other telltale sign of an infestation: bite marks on your torso.

Bed bugs usually bite at nighttime. This is considering we are mostly motionless while we're sleeping, so at that place's less hazard of us moving around and dislodging the bed issues.

Yous may not notice bite marks straight away. This is because it can take several days for your peel to develop a reaction. The bite wounds themselves are tiny and invisible – but virtually people are allergic to bed problems saliva, which is what causes the welt. Bed bug bite marks are normally:

Roundish, sometimes with uneven edges
Raised and swollen
Pinkish or scarlet
Very itchy, or even painful

Usually, bed bug bites appear in lines. Each issues volition only take one meal per night, but sometimes the problems cannot notice a suitable capillary to feed on, so has to unlatch and bite over again. And of class, more one problems may feed per nighttime.

Bed bug bites occur nigh often on exposed skin, such as the feet, ankles, neck, and arms. However, they can clamber through gaps in your pajamas to bite the skin underneath. Bed bugs cannot seize with teeth through your article of clothing.

Be enlightened, though, that some people exercise not experience any bed bug bite symptoms. You may exist being bitten and exist completely oblivious, because your skin does not react.

What Bugs Tin Be Mistaken for Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are far from the only creepy crawlies that tin infest your home, bite you and cause a nuisance. At that place are lots of similar-looking bugs, and parasites that crusade similar reactions to bed bug bites.

Spider Beetles

Spider beetles aren't related to spiders. They are insects, and only have half-dozen legs – through their antennae are so long that they can sometimes look like an extra pair of legs.

There are many species of spider protrude, only the one that looks most similar to bed bugs is the smooth spider protrude. They are oval, red-brownish and about the same size. Spider beetles don't bite humans – they feed on constitute matter.

Spider beetles aren't segmented like bed bugs. They have polish, shiny, plump bodies. Their antennae are much longer than bed bugs' – almost every bit long every bit their whole trunk. Spider beetles' legs are very long, and a yellowish-tan color.

Carpet Beetles

Rug beetles come in diverse shapes, sizes, and colors. They are six-legged beetles with short antennae, similar bed bugs. Rather than biting humans, though, carpet beetles feed on cloth. They infest carpets and other soft furnishings.

You tin tell a bed bug from a rug beetle by their torso. Carpet beetles are longer and less round than bed bugs – they are more than pill-shaped. Their bodies are covered past 2 shiny wing casings, then they do not announced segmented. Most carpet beetles are pale brown or mottled with brown, black and white. Their larvae are furry, and almost look similar tiny caterpillars.

Cockroaches

You'll probably have seen an adult cockroach earlier. They are much, much larger than bed bugs at about 4cm (1.6 inches). However, cockroach nymphs are oft mistaken for bed bugs. They are minor, cherry-red-chocolate-brown, and have segmented bodies.

At that place are two master ways to tell cockroach nymphs apart from bed bugs. Firstly, they have extremely long antennae, longer than their entire bodies. Secondly, their bodies are much longer and narrower.

Cockroaches feed on any organic matter they tin find, similar starches, meats, and plants. They can even eat books! If their food supply runs short, they may seize with teeth humans, though this is rare.

Booklice

Booklice, besides chosen barklice, are not true lice. They aren't parasites – they feed on fungus, mold, and starches (such equally the mucilage used to bind books). Booklice don't bite humans or pets, but they tin be a nuisance.

Similar bed bugs, booklice take segmented bodies and six legs. They are non as dark equally bed bugs, though – they are cream to stake brown in color. They have long antennae and much larger heads and thoraxes than bed bugs. Their abdomens are narrower and non every bit large.

Scabies

You lot can't come across scabies mites with the naked center – they are much, much too small. The largest males look similar tiny white pinpricks. However, their bites do produce very similar symptoms to bed bugs.

Scabies mites are parasites that alive and feed on human skin. A scabies rash comprises many tiny bumps that expect like pimples, and are itchy. Sometimes, you tin even run across the "tunnels" that they dig through the skin. A doc will be able to identify a scabies rash and recommend handling.

Fleas

Finally, fleas are oft mistaken for bed bugs. In detail, their bite marks are mistaken for bed issues bites. They produce similar looking crimson, swollen welts that itch and sting.

Fleas are very easy to tell apart from bed bugs, though. They are much, much smaller, with very long back legs and no antennae. A flea viewed from above is very skinny, rather than round like a bed issues. Most importantly, they jump, whereas bed bugs don't.

It's rare that fleas will live on humans, then if you have them, you probably have a cat or dog that needs to see a veterinarian.

What Tin I Do to Get Rid of Bed Bugs?

By now, you should be an adept at identifying bed bugs and spotting signs of an infestation. You should be able to tell bed bugs apart from similar insects and parasites with ease.

If you lot have discovered bed bugs in your habitation, call a professional exterminator for a consultation. Exist certain to select a visitor experienced with bed bugs.

Some exterminators offering the initial exam for free, or deduct its cost from whatsoever future treatment. Withal, most charge a fee.

It'south worth information technology, though. An exterminator will be able to estimate the size of the population, and a quote for the price of treatment.

There's only one guaranteed way to deal with an infestation: heat handling. This can only exist carried out by a professional. Information technology involves warming your entire home to over 140 degrees Fahrenheit – a fatal temperature for bed bugs, co-ordinate to research by the University of Minnesota. This temperature kills all bugs, nymphs, and eggs. It'southward expensive, but necessary, particularly for larger infestations.

In the meantime, regularly wash and dry all soft furnishings – including bedding, rugs, stuffed animals, defunction, couch cushions, and covers – in as high heat as possible. This may not get rid of every problems, but information technology volition assist keep numbers down.

Y'all can also purchase a mattress encasement to foreclose bed bugs from getting to your mattress. Regular vacuuming as well helps. Just exist sure to dispose of the vacuum contents in a sealed plastic bag, in an outside trash can.