No, bed bug eggs are quite soft and squishy, just like baby bed bugs, or nymphs. Bed bug eggs are smooth and are glued in place, so they can be difficult to pick up from the surface. When you try to pick it up with your fingers, it will squash and smear.
If you want to know more about bed bug eggs, just keep on reading.
Where do bed bugs lay eggs?
Adult female bed bugs lay one to five eggs each day, often in the same place where older bed bugs are found. These concentrations of bed bugs may be accompanied by traces of fecal matter, which is reddish-black in color.
The preferred places by bed bugs to hide their eggs in are in tight spaces and crevices, such as your mattress, box springs, head board, bed frames, or any of the furniture near your bed.
If you were unable to catch the infestation in its early stages, the female bed bugs can slowly start to spread away from your bed and start laying eggs on your walls, carpets, floorboards, or even the books you keep on your bedside table.
Are bed bug eggs hard?
Bed bug eggs resemble smaller grains of rice in color and shape, but when you touch them, they are not hard like rice.
If you try to squeeze a grain of rice, it will either break or shoot off under the pressure. Bed bug eggs, on the other hand, will either squish or pop and smear when you squeeze them.
Bed bug eggs do have an outer shell that has fluid inside where the bed bug will grow from. The outer shell may be strong enough to keep the fluid inside, but it is definitely not strong enough to withstand the pressure of a human squeezing it.
If you are curious, you can squish bed bug eggs by crushing it with your fingernail or by rubbing it between your fingers. Remember that squashing bed bug eggs is not an effective way of bed bug control because the dozen or so eggs you are squishing is only a small percentage of all the hidden eggs all over your house.
What do bed bug eggs feel like when you touch them?
Bed bug eggs have a glue-like fluid around them that help attach them to the surface they are laid on. So, if you try to scrape or pick one up from the surface, it will break. It is quite difficult to surmise how exactly a bed bug egg feels like when you touch them. What is certain is that they are soft and are easily squished between your fingers.
Are bed bug eggs sticky?
Bed bug eggs do have a sticky substance on them when the female bed bug lays them, but once it dries and secures the eggs to the surface, the eggs are no longer sticky to the touch. Especially since most bed bug eggs are laid on wooden or fabric materials that easily absorb water, so it takes no time for the glue-like substance to dry after the egg is laid.
Bed bug feces has the same qualities wherein it is quite runny and sticky when it first touches the surface but the wooden or fabric material quickly absorbs it.
What is the texture of bed bug eggs?
Just like most eggs, bed bug eggs feel smooth when you touch them. If you are gentle, you can run your fingers over bed bug eggs and feel their smooth texture.
If you are somehow able to pick one egg up, the texture is the same. The eggs are filled completely with liquid which keeps the shell surface taut, which gives the eggs their smooth texture.
Recently laid eggs may not be as smooth as older eggs but they will soon have a smoother surface once they settle into place.
What happens when you squash a bed bug egg?
Bed bug eggs are so small that some people may mistake dirt, dust, or food crumbs for them. They are quite easy to misidentify. Most of the things mistaken for bed bug eggs do crumble but bed bug eggs do not. This is because a bed bug egg is essentially a living creature and living tissue does not tend to be crumbly. These eggs are filled with liquid.
How do I kill bed bugs?
Because it is difficult to locate all of the eggs hidden in your home, it is advised to seek the services of professional pest exterminators to get rid of them. Bed bug eggs are also resistant to a lot of the usual chemicals used to kill bed bugs.
Multiple treatments are usually needed when dealing with eradicating bed bug infestations, because even just one bed bug left alive can restart a new infestation.
Vacuuming, even when done extensively, is not going to work for bed bug eggs because of how strongly they stick to the surface they are laid on.
If you find eggs on your sheets, machine wash them with laundry soap on the hottest setting. Then dry them in the dryer on the highest temperature setting to kill any bugs and eggs that might have survived the wash cycle.
If you can afford it, get professionals to do a heat treatment on your home. Heat treatment is done by bringing in industrial strength heaters into your house to raise the temperature until it is high enough to kill all the bugs and eggs. Unfortunately, this method can be quite expensive.
Conclusion
No, bed bugs are not hard and are actually quite soft. They have a smooth texture and can be difficult to pick up from the surface they are laid on because female bed bugs also leave a glue-like coating on the eggs to make sure they stay secure and in place.
If you apply a certain amount of pressure on top of the bed bug eggs, it can quite easy to squish and smear them, because they are filled with fluid.
Even if bed bug eggs are very vulnerable and easy to squash, it is still important to hire professionals to take care of your bed bug problem so that they are completely eradicated.
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