For bed bugs, blood intake is essential to survive.
However, studies have shown that bed bugs have great resistance in terms of lack of food, and they can remain long periods of time without eating. Most bed bugs from nymph to adult can live without food for 11 days up to 400 days depending on the life stage and the bed bug. Temperatures and other factors play a role in how long bed bugs can live without food.
Bed bugs have an average lifespan between 4 to 6 months. However, this period may vary depending on the environmental conditions in which they are, such as the temperature or resistance they have against insecticides, among others.
The temperature is very important in terms of the survival of bed bugs without food. This is because the low temperatures give bed bugs the ability to survive without food for longer.
Some specimens of bed bugs can be found that could survive up to a year without food, this depends directly on the amount of blood they manage to consume in addition to the temperature to which they are exposed.
The recently hatched bed bugs are the ones with the least resistance to fasting, so they could only survive for 11 to 37 days without food. This is because they are so small that they dehydrate more easily compared to the superior bed bugs.
The nymphs of stages 2 and 3 can survive without food for 38 days at a temperature of 27.
The nymphs of stage 3 and 5 are the ones that have more resistance, this is because these nymphs could survive 116 to 142 days without food, this means that the nymphs of stage 3 and 5 are more resistant than adult bed bugs.
Adult bed bugs, both females and males, can only survive between 73 and 92 days without food.
There have even been some studies that indicate that there have been certain cases of adult bed bugs that have survived at least 400 days without food, but in low temperatures.
There are bed bugs that have developed the ability to resist certain insecticides, but these insecticide-resistant bed bugs do not have a good ability to survive without food for a long period of time since they usually survive half the time that bed bugs that are not resistant to insecticides survive.
An important fact is that bed bugs that have a shortage of food, make the decision to start a hibernation process, which can last up to about a year.
On the other hand, bed bugs that eat more frequently, die after 9 months, which is the approximate time they live.
The life cycle of bed bugs is composed of three stages, through which these insects increase their size and also modify their behavior and organism.
In this order of ideas, the life stages of bed bugs are:
Once fertilization is done, female bed bugs will lay their eggs in a place that is safe for them, this is the first stage of the bed bug's life cycle. In this phase, the egg is approximately 1mm long and is characterized by the white color it presents.
It is important to mention that female bed bugs can lay their eggs anywhere inside the bedroom or other spaces close to humans, and the eggs will be in that place until hatching occurs.
The eggs hatch after a period of 6 to 17 days, giving way to the nymphs, which are characterized by having a slightly translucent yellowish-white color.
During this stage, the nymphs or bed bugs will go through 5 stages, at each stage, a transformation process or a molt occurs, in which the feeding will have a very important role.
Therefore, from the moment in which hatching occurs the nymphs will begin to feed on the blood of the humans around them; In this way, in each of the stages, the nymphs, in addition to acquiring a larger size, get rid of the exoskeleton that covers them.
On the other hand, the temperature will be a determining factor in the nymph stage of the bed bugs, since the temperature will determine the time of each of the nymph stages. This is why nymphs that live in cool places and that have food at their disposal, can go through these stadiums in a faster way.
The various stages of nymph are:
During this first stage, bed bugs are 1.5 mm long normally. In good conditions, the bed bug will take approximately 5 days to carry out the molting process and move on to the next stage.
When the necessary time has elapsed, the second stage nymph could measure up to 2 mm in length.
Subsequently, staying in a warm climate and maintaining a good diet, the nymph in the third stage will measure up to 2.5 mm long.
This is the penultimate stage of the nymph, in which it will undergo its last physiological changes and reach 3 mm.
Finally, in this last stage, before the nymph becomes an adult bug, it will measure between 3.5 and 4.5 mm long.
This whole process could last between 30 and 90 days, it will depend on the conditions in which it is found.
Once the bed bug has gone through all these molting processes and stages, the nymph will become an adult bed bug, which will have the maturity necessary to reproduce and thus begin the life cycle again. It should be noted that female bed bugs can lay 1 to 3 eggs per day, and throughout their life, they can lay 200 to 500 eggs (6 to 12 months, but this could be more).
In this last phase, bed bugs usually reach an average size of about 5 mm in length.
In conclusion, in a period of fewer than two months, bed bugs can grow and be prepared to reproduce again.
Bed bugs cannot reproduce without food, this is because the female bed bug that does not have access to regular blood-feeding, will not be able to lay her eggs.
Female bed bugs need nutrients to be able to create their eggs and the offspring inside them. This is because insects do not naturally have fat reserves such as mammals, so it is essential that they feed constantly to achieve the creation of their offspring. This is why if the female bed bug is deprived of food, it could not reproduce effectively.
Like the female bed bug, males also require nutrients from the diet to have the ability to create their sperm.
On average, in normal conditions, bed bugs only feed once a week or once every three or four days, since this is the time it takes to digest their food before they are hungry again.
Bed bugs feed much more than us in terms of volume of food for body size. Bed bugs that have been fed recently are much longer than bed bugs that have not yet been fed.
Bed bugs do not have a regular schedule for eating. They usually require feeding more frequently than that, this is usually due to temperature changes.
While the temperature is warmer, they will need to feed more frequently. Due to the heat in the summer season, bed bugs will feed once every two days. As for winter, due to the cold, they could feed once a week.
For bed bugs, it is essential to feed before reproduction.
The bed bug nymphs require feeding before moving on to the next stage towards adulthood, this means that before each change they must feed, therefore they could often get to feed once a day.
The bed bug feeding cycle is directly related to its life cycle. Therefore, the frequency with which they feed in addition to the amount will depend on their age.
Bed bugs have a very rigid aging process that goes through each insect.
It begins at the moment when female bed bugs lay their eggs. Those eggs will take about a week to incubate. The nymphs that hatch will seek to feed immediately, as they are hungry.
During the following month, the nymphs will grow slowly. These will go through stages called “instars”. They will not change shape, but they will get much bigger every time they throw their shell. They will need to feed in order to grow, so they will feed once every three to four days and shed their shells between each meal.
Once they have grown completely, they will continue to feed as they need to mate.
With the passage of time, they slow down and die, usually because of old age instead of predation.
Bed bugs cannot feed on anything other than blood. This is because the mouthpieces that have bed bugs have a special shape just like those of mosquitoes.
These have a small scraper, similar to a claw, on the chin. With that scraper, scratch the surface of the skin to make a hole. Also, they have a long tube that they insert in the hole that they have made to manage to drink from the blood.
However, bed bugs do not carry fangs, lips, teeth or gums, or anything they can use to break food. But bed bugs don't need it since they can get all their nutrients from the blood; they don't even feed on food scraps or crumbs just like cockroaches do.
Therefore, bed bugs need blood to survive, but they feed directly on the extraction of blood, not blood found outside their host.
Mainly, bed bugs feed on the blood of humans, but they could also feed on the blood of pets such as dogs and cats. That is because bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide and heat, which is emitted by both humans and pets when breathing.
Nymphs have the same feeding apparatus as adult bed bugs, but with the difference that their feeding apparatus is slightly smaller.
The nymphs have a small claw that is close to their mouth, which they use to scratch the skin and create a hole, besides, like adult bed bugs, they also have a separate tube that they insert into the wound. They use their saliva, in the same way as adult bed bugs, to anesthetize the area, thus preventing their guests from noticing.
Studies in New Jersey have shown that blood intake causes bed bugs to have a stimulating effect on detoxification enzymes that helps them fight the stress caused by insecticides.
Ingesting blood after having been exposed to insecticides causes a great impact, because this significantly reduces the mortality of bed bugs, thus giving them the opportunity to reproduce.
Therefore, feeding after insecticide exposure will have an important effect on the mortality of bed bugs, because this diet will stimulate the detoxification enzymes that bed bugs possess, which are responsible for insecticide resistance.
If you have bed bugs infesting your home then it is time that you check out our "Get Rid of Bed Bugs" guide so that you can get rid of bed bugs infesting your home.
