Unfortunately, sometimes you can find different insects in your house, and once that happens, it becomes a whole lot to deal with. Baby bed bugs are not welcomed guests on our sleeping schedules, and they cause very unpleasant problems. But don’t worry, you can explore ways to spot them and get rid of them further.
Baby bed bugs are the young stages of insects of the same name. They might be difficult to find and deal with, but there are certain methods that will help you while on your way to solving the matter. In this post, I will reveal the ways to identify and eliminate these pests.
What do baby bed bugs look like?
The problem with dealing with bed bugs appears in the fact that those insects are really small. Common bed bugs barely reach 4 mm in length, but they can be easily spotted by their color. Adult specimens have dark brown coloring, so you can definitely notice one crawling on your bed.
They have a defined round body, six legs, and two antennae they feel their surroundings with. Females and males look practically the same; only sometimes the female can grow bigger if it carries a lot of eggs. You won’t find them one by one but probably grouped in dark corners.
When it comes to baby bed bugs, things become more difficult. First of all, they are smaller than the adults, making them even less visible. Moreover, they don’t acquire a definite coloring until they reach the final form of metamorphosis.
They can be yellowish or white, so if you have light bedsheets, it might add more problems while you search for them. You can look up some baby bed bug pictures to understand how to spot them further.
You probably won’t find any bed bug eggs on your own as they can be less than 1 mm in length, which makes them unrecognizable among a lot of things.
Plus, female bed bugs lay their eggs in small spaces, so it makes them harder to locate. From eggs come nymphs that will eat and grow in size until they become adults. Bed bugs don’t go through complete metamorphosis because just born baby bed bugs look the same as mature organisms.
How to find baby bed bugs
Depending on what stage of bed bugs you are looking for, you might need to explore different spaces. Of course, they will be located in your sleeping or living room, but you can find them in some specific places. Regular bed bugs tend to hide in dark corners during the day, where it is hard to spot them.
They are really small, so they try to avoid encountering big enemies like humans, coming out only at night to invade your personal space. If you turn a flashlight on your phone in the bed, you might see dark spots scurrying around on the place you are lying, and that can be bed bugs.
These insects hide in small spaces; they can also get in your mattress, and in that case, you might need to get rid of it because it is hard to exterminate them from the hard foam of the thing.
In some cases, you can find baby bed bugs between your sheets or on the pillow, rarely on the mattress, because they try to get closer to their victim.
At night, you can try and see small whitish insects crawling in your bed, and it won’t probably be the best scene you would like to observe in the place where you commonly sleep. If you look at bed bug baby images, you can compare them to the ones you’ve seen and make your own conclusions.
Female bed bugs lay their eggs in the corners of the room or the drawers you usually keep your clothes and sheets in. Baby bed bugs need to get on the person for them to start feeding and developing.
You can also spot dead baby bed bugs on your sleeping place; they look like dry sesame seeds, and yes, that does sound horrible. Another way to find bed bugs in your space is by looking for the dark excrement they leave behind. You can find such trails near your headboard or around the bed.
Details on bed bug life cycle
Bed bugs have a complicated life cycle that includes eggs, five stages of nymphs, and adulthood. The average female can lay about 250 eggs in just one day, so these species are considered highly invasive.
Once they get into your house, it is better to immediately deal with the problem. The eggs hatch in 6-10 days, and from there starts their journey to become a fertile organism.
Nymphs need to start eating blood from their first day because it is their main source of energy. That’s why they crawl out at night and feed on humans to get bigger.
Regular feeding can take up to 6 minutes on average, and a bug can grow 1.5 times in size. At first, nymphs have yellowish, almost transparent coloring, but once they get their first drop of blood, they begin to acquire the brownish color of an adult organism. An unfed bed bug nymph cannot grow and start to reproduce, so their development stops until they find a source of food.
The nymph undergoes five stages of metamorphosis when they mold and acquire a more adult-like look. The lifespan of a common bed bug is about 6 to 12 months. Be careful, as adult bugs can go about a year without feeding, so it is good to take all of the precautions when moving to a new place.
Bed bugs can survive a lot of conditions, and if you travel, it is a good idea to always have your luggage closed, so they don’t get among your clothes. They will settle there for the time, waiting for you to put them on, so they can reproduce and feed on your blood while you are at home.
They can travel with you back to the house and then invade your personal spaces like couches and beds. Bed bugs mate at a high rate, and a population can grow in size in several weeks, and then it will be really hard to get rid of it.
Which dangers do bed bug nymphs bear?
Bed bugs feed on blood at all stages, so if you have them, you will notice the apparent signs of their staying in your house. Baby bed bugs bite the parts of the skin that are hard to reach and see in the mirror, such as necks, spines, skin folds on arms, and waist.
Sometimes, you might notice them near your ears or even your face. Bed bug bites are common on shoulders too. These insects feed at night, so you won’t notice them biting while you sleep, but if the infestation is too big, you might wake up accidentally.
The visible symptoms of baby beg bugs in your place are red marks with a darker spot in the center. It appears after the bug has bitten you and sucked some blood out.
The bites are usually extremely itchy, but specialists warn you not to scratch them down too much because that might leave scars. The itching appears because bed bugs have poison that causes a mild allergic reaction in your body, much like common mosquitos.
Usually, bed bug bites appear on children as, with their curiosity and desire to explore, they tend to bring different bugs into the house. You should remember that their bites can cause severe allergies if your children are prone to them.
The symptoms might include large swelling and trouble breathing. It is essential to immediately contact your family doctor if you notice uncommon reactions to the bug bites.
Bed bugs can be mistaken for other organisms such as ticks, booklice, fleas, and lice. It is very important to analyze all of the symptoms you have from their bites. It is better to always pay attention to your living environment so that you don’t have to deal with any pests in your house. Bed bugs are hard to exterminate, and the bites you might encounter are pretty annoying.
How to get rid of baby bed bugs
Usually, bed bugs are carried inside your living place if you have been staying in a dirty hotel, where they don’t excel the sanitary rules of cleaning the sleeping space.
So your first step in getting rid of these bugs is to always check your surroundings if you are traveling somewhere. Keep your clothes in the luggage; you don’t need to transfer them to the drawers because the cleaners might not reach all of the spaces where these parasites live.
If you are moving to a place where no one lived for a long time, you should not worry about getting infested with bed bugs, as they don’t survive for more than half a year without food. However, it is better to follow all precautions and clean the space beforehand, just in case so that you don’t need to deal with bed bugs later.
When such a problem occurs, and you find the adult forms of the species in your bed, then they might have already laid eggs somewhere in your room.
Specialists recommend immediately contacting your local pest control because dealing with bed bugs on your own can be harmful. Usually, to exterminate the colony, they use strong pesticides that can be dangerous to humans as they have damaging fumes.
You can use Diatomaceous Earth while you deal with bed bugs. It is a common pesticide with which you can decontaminate the clothes you think might be infested with insects. You should leave them with two cups of the mixture for about 72 hours in a hot place to make sure that all of the bugs are dead.
After that, you need to thoroughly wash the clothes so that the pesticide doesn’t come in contact with your skin because it can cause some severe allergic reactions. Please, remember that any DIY methods of killing insects can be dangerous, and your best call would be to contact pest control.
Another way of getting rid of bed bugs is by vacuuming and heat cleaning the infested place. Insects cannot survive in high temperatures, so if you have a steam generator, this thing would be really helpful while having the general cleaning in a new place. First of all, you need to check all beds and couches, as people spend most of their time sitting or sleeping on such furniture.
Take your time to get rid of all of the dust in the drawers or just replace them with new ones so that you completely eliminate the chance of any bed bugs hiding in there.
FAQ About Baby Bed Bugs
There are a number of things that everyone who has a bed bug infestation should know. Below, I would like to answer some of the most popular questions that people ask me when dealing with bed bugs.
Where do baby bed bugs hide?
They hide in the folds of your sheets, under the pillows, and sometimes, in the mattress.
How fast do bed bugs crawl?
Bed bugs are sleek creatures that can move four feet in just one minute.
What do nymph bed bug bites look like?
Bed bug bites appear on the skin in the form of itching red spots with a dark circle in the middle.
Are baby bed bugs easy to squish?
Yes, they are easy to kill, but eliminating them one by one won’t help you exterminate the whole colony.
Don’t Make Friends With Bed Bugs
All in all, it is helpful to know more about baby bed bugs, as they can be quite annoying neighbors. Pay attention to your luggage when you are traveling so that you don’t bring any unwanted guests into your house. It is better to prevent any encounters with these biting insects.
Have you ever dealt with bed bugs? What methods did you use? Please, share your opinion in the comments below.
Also read:
- Best Bed Bug Mattress Cover
- Harris Bed Bug Killer Review
- Can Bed Bugs Live In Your Hair
- What Temperature Kills Bed Bugs
- Can Bed Bugs Live in Clothes
- Can Bed Bugs Survive in Water
- Bed Bugs in Walls
References
- ENTFACT-649 – MYSTERY BITES: Insect and Non-Insect Causes (by Michael F. Potter, Extension Entomologist University of Kentucky College of Agriculture)
https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef649 - Physician Management of Anaphylaxis and Systemic Reactions (NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE STUDENT HEALTH SERVICE EVANSTON)
https://www.northwestern.edu/healthservice-evanston/medical-services/allergy-shots/physician-management-of-anaphylaxis-and-systemic-reactions/ - Bed Bugs Appearance and Life Cycle (United States Environmental Protection Agency)
https://swap.stanford.edu/20151016075053/https://www2.epa.gov/bedbugs/bed-bugs-appearance-and-life-cycle
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