Bedbugs - Pest Control
The bed bug is found worldwide, and throughout Britain. It still occurs surprisingly frequently, it is a bug associated with human habitation hiding in furniture and structural cracks, emerging at night when hungry to search for blood meals.
Mating takes place off the host, the female attaching up to 200 eggs to the structure in small numbers of 4 or 5 a day glued in crevices and harbourages.
The resultant nymphs resemble in miniature the adults and develop through a series of moults (usually 5) to reach full development. This takes from as little as a few weeks to several months (averaging about 4 months).
All nymph stages feed on mammalian blood (including other animals in domestic situations: dogs, cats, and rodents), emerging at night to search for prey. They can digest up to 7 times their own body weight in blood at any one meal.