Bed bugs are very small and white to pearl-white in color. They are barrel-shaped and are about the size of a pinhead or a grain of salt. They are covered in a sticky substance, which helps the eggs stick to the surface the female lays them on. If the eggs are more than five days old, the eggs will develop a dark mark, usually in the middle, giving it the appearance of an eye.
You can get rid of and kill bed bug eggs by cleaning your beddings, curtains, and clothing in hot water and drying them in the dryer on the highest setting. When vacuuming your mattress, use a stiff brush to dislodge the bugs and eggs.
How often are bed bug eggs laid?
A female bed bug can begin laying eggs three or more days after it has fed. As long as the female bed bug’s host is nearby, it will lay an average of three to eight eggs every week. The most fertile female bed bug will be able to lay up to 12 eggs a day.
This is why it is very easy to bring home an infestation with you when traveling.if even one female bed bug hitches a ride in your luggage, you can have a full blown infestation in your home in a matter of months.
Even though bed bugs reproduce quickly, they still need a stable environment for their eggs to hatch successfully. This is why eggs are laid in places with minimal disturbance, such as behind furniture, wall cracks, along baseboards, and within the folds of mattresses.
How long does it take for bed bug eggs to hatch?
Bed bug eggs will take five to sixteen days to hatch. After they hatch, the baby baked bugs, or nymphs, will immediately look for a host to feed on.
Adult bugs can live up to a year without feeding, but nymphs need to feed at least once every week to successfully become an adult.
The lifespan of a typical bed bug is about 12 to 18 months, which is dependent on several environmental factors.
Most bed bugs can produce three generations in a single year. This is why it is important to take action on a suspected bug case as soon as possible. The longer you allow the bugs to spread, the harder and more expensive they are to remove.
How do bed bugs reproduce?
Female and male bed bugs consummate through a process called traumatic insemination. The male bug will stab the female’s abdomen with an aedeagus, a bed bug’s equivalent to a mammal’s genitalia. The male’s gametes, or sperm cells, travel to the female’s gametes, or ovaries, for fertilization to happen.
After fertilization, the female will carry the eggs for five to seven weeks.
These bugs need a stable environment and consistent food source in order to reproduce properly.
In an environment that is too cold, the bed bugs will diapause, which is a state that is similar to hibernation. In diapause, the bugs do not develop, barely move, and do not reproduce.
In an environment that is too hot, over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the bed bugs will die in a matter of hours. This is why one of the most effective bed bug treatment methods is heat treatment. This is where they raise the temperature of an infested area for several hours until all of the bugs and their eggs are dead.
What do bed bug eggs look like?
Bed bug eggs look like little white dots. The color of the eggs vary from transparent to pearl white depending on how long it has been since it was hatched. They measure 1mm in length so it can be difficult to see an egg with the naked eye. When they are in clusters on wood furniture, they are much easier to spot.
Fresh bed bugs are more transparent but also shiny because of the sticky substance that is secreted immediately after the female bug lays its egg. If the egg does not stick to the surface it was laid on, the egg will have a lesser chance of surviving.
How do you kill bed bug eggs?
There are several methods you can use to kill bed bugs and their eggs. Whether you seek professional help with heat treatment or a DIY treatment such as diatomaceous earth, the degrees of effectiveness will depend on the severity of the infestation.
It is important that when you treat a bed bug infestation, to kill all of the life stages of the bed bug.
If your infestation has gotten to the point where multiple family members have bed bug bites every night, it is advisable to get the professional treatment method.
If you were able to catch the infestation in its earlier stages, you can try some DIY methods.
What are the methods that can kill bed bugs and their eggs?
Some of the more effective methods can be expensive and be quite disruptive to everyday living, but if your infestation is severe, it may be what you need to permanently remove the bugs from your house. Here are the different treatments you can do or have done.
Diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth is only one of the many DIY treatments you can do to kill bed bugs. It is a powdery substance that can be applied to carpets, baseboards, mattresses, or any surface you suspect might be infested. It will dry out the bed bugs and kill them two or three days after exposure. The powder does need to be removed at some point because it does not disappear on its own.
This method is widely used because it is cheap and is relatively effective.
Vacuuming
Cleaning and vacuuming are important, especially if paired with other methods. Vacuuming is easy to do and can remove bed bugs in main areas of your home. Removing clutter can help in identifying and discovering a bed bug infestation.
Early detection is the first step toward eradicating bed bugs.
Heat treatment
Industrial-sized heaters are brought into your home to help raise the temperature for a few hours. This method is highly effective but can cost a pretty penny. It can go over $5,000, depending on the size of your house.
Despite the hefty price tag, the benefits of this method include being able to penetrate the bugs in hard to reach places, it usually requires only one treatment to remove an infestation, and it is more environmentally friendly and healthy because it does not use chemicals or hazardous fumes to work.
If you are suffering from a full-blown infestation, heat treatment is the most recommended method.
Insecticide treatment
This method is much cheaper than heat treatment. A professional will spray insecticides on the affected areas. Pesticides have been used for decades to kill bed bugs and it is a proven treatment that does work over time. Although, it does have some disadvantages like requiring multiple treatments, an inability to reach the bugs hiding in hard to reach areas, and the not always safe to spray pesticides hanging in the air of your home.
Conclusion
Bed bug eggs are about 1mm in length, barrel-shaped, transparent to pearl white in color depending on how long since it was birthed. They are rarely visible to the naked eye unless they are in clusters on a dark surface like wood furniture.
Bed bug eggs can be killed by using diatomaceous earth to dry them out, heat treatment to kill them, or by spraying pesticides. To better identify and locate the bugs hiding places, vacuum and clean your home often.
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