Blood Sucking Bed Bugs on the Rise in U.S.: Kill Bed Bugs Fast

Bed bugs have been on the prowl since ancient times.  They belong to kingdom Insecta, scientifically known as Cimex lectularius and are small nocturnal insects that are so tiny that you can hardly see them even in broad daylight.

But there are bed bugs that can grow to about one fourth of an inch, the largest these bed bugs can grow. These are the mature bed bugs that have regular source of food and good natural or conducive habitat.

Adult bed bugs are reddish brown, flattened, oval, and they have no wings.

Like most insects, beg bugs live in places that are usually neglected by people. 

You can probably find bed bugs inside tiny crevices in rooms in your house, in cracks or holes in the wall, the ceiling, the floor, some furniture or even your bed.

Bed bugs are among those kinds of insects that sleep or hide during daytime to finally come out and hunt for food at night with a peak attack period about an hour before dawn. Call these bed bugs smart, but such insects have incredible biological clocks that know when it's time to go out and look out for prospective and unsuspecting victims.

How do bed bugs eat?

Although they can can live for up to 18 months without feeding, bed bugs generally seek blood every five to ten days by piercing the skin of their victim with two hollow tubes. They use one tube to inject their saliva, which contains anticoagulants and anesthetics, while using the other tube to withdraw blood from their prey. They typically feed for about five minutes.  The victim usually cannot feel the bite but sometime later--from a few minutes to a few hours--they will usually get some kind of skin reaction.

What do bed bugs eat?

Bed bugs live on blood.  They eat nothing else. However, the blood needed by bed bugs for nourishment should come from mammals, or hot-blooded animals.  And they seem smart enough because they can tell by smelling whether a prospective victim is hot-blooded or not. So they simply suck the blood of people. But their food requirement is not limited to people’s blood. They can also suck, as alternatives, blood of dogs, cats, birds, or whatever animal they can get their mouth into.

Like most insects, bed bugs are not carnivorous. But you may have a different classification for bed bugs because of their eating habit. Because bed bugs, and similar insects, prey on and eat blood, it follows that their waste looks like blood.  So their excretion and urine are red or deep-red colored. Consequently, these may appear as tiny red stains in your bed, your bed sheet, furniture surfaces or wherever bed bugs may come in contact. Insects like that are normally detected because of their excretions.

Bed bugs and diseases

Bed bugs do suck blood but they are have not been linked to the transmission of any disease. So although they are a nuisance, they currently do not pose a medical threat to humans.  Unlike mosquitoes, which transmit and transfer diseases from one person to another, bed bugs’ bites are not that as serious. Scientists have found that bed bugs’ stomachs have linings and peptides that will not allow bacteria, fungi and viruses to thrive. However, there are some who can get skin infections and scars from scratching the bite of bed bugs.