Bed bugs are one of those tiny insects which nobody really wants to ever meet. At least not at home. They are super-small and have developed master hiding skills over the years, so it can sometimes be pretty hard to spot them. Their eggs, on the other side, may be a good point of reference when detecting their presence, and we are answering all of the most frequently asked questions below, to help you with your bed bug research.
What do Bed Bug Eggs Look Like?
To begin, it is first necessary to understand how the eggs of these little pests look like. Well, if bed bugs are small, then their eggs have to be even smaller. Indeed, they rarely exceed one millimeter in length, and they somehow resemble to pearly white poppy seeds. Additionally, if they are more than five days old, you will be able of noticing tiny blackish eye spots as well.
An adult female specimen can produce up to even 250 eggs during her lifespan (around a year of time), so you can easily expect to notice several tiny eggs around the same area of your home.
They are usually accompanied with tiny fecal excrements from the adult bed bugs, which seem as brown or black irregular spots.
What do Bed Bug Eggs Look Like on Clothes?
Bed bugs are big fans of fabrics (along with wood materials), so they can be found quite often among various clothes of their hosts, as well as across their bedding. Therefore, depending on the coloration of your clothes, you should be able of noticing them with more or less trouble.
With bed bug eggs being white, they are obviously much easier to spot across clothes of darker colors. However, if you are wearing the infested clothes on a regular basis, you should be able of noticing some bloody stains, too. Indeed, these tiny pests do feed on blood, so these should be pretty visible if they manage to feed.
These little insects love hiding, so please make sure to thoroughly check your pockets or sleeves or any similar openings among your clothes in order to find their egg nests.
What do Bed Bug Eggs Look Like on Furniture?
The eggs of bed bugs are extremely small-sized and white-colored, meaning that they can often be quite hard to detect. However, with a few tricks on mind, it is not a mission impossible.
If you have furniture in lighter colors, try looking for the feces excrements instead of the eggs, as these will probably be much easier to notice. If you see tiny brown or dark spots across your pale furniture pieces, it is preferable to examine these a bit further as this is already a good sign of a possible infestation happening. Oppositely, if you have some dark-colored furniture across your home, the eggs will be less complicated to spot as there will be a fair amount of contrast.
- Related: Where do Bed Bugs Hide?
Adult bugs are often the most difficult to spot as they are great at playing hide and seek with their hosts. Therefore, make sure to carefully examine any openings or cracks across your furniture, as they will most likely decide to lay their precious eggs there instead of on a fully visible area. And finally, a magnifying glass can become a quite handy tool when searching for bug eggs.
What do Hatched Bed Bug Eggs Look Like?
Bed bug eggs usually require from 6 to 10 days only to hatch. Once they do, they will leave their eggs behind and they will basically head into their next development stage- the larvae stage. This stage is furthermore divided into five different cycles, developing as they manage to find some blood to feed and are able to start molting, only to grow more and being able of entering into the next larvae stage.
When they are larvae, they basically look as tiny and lighter-colored variations of their adult selves. As they grow more and more, they will start obtaining darker coloration and a cleared body contour. They mostly manage to grow around half millimeter in length with each feeding. As they grow by molting, you will be able to additionally notice several empty skin castings as they leave them behind. These usually feature yellowish coloration and literally look like dry skin.
What do Bed Bug Egg Shells Look Like?
Once that a baby bed bug decides to leave its egg to start its life independently, its egg will remain empty but still visible to the naked eye. It basically looks as an empty egg, still remaining visible in a pearly white color. The eye dots, however, should not be noticeable anymore, once that the larvae leave the eggs.
As they start to grow, they will leave several shells behind after molting, as they move into the next larvae stage. The empty case that stays behind basically seems as a tiny bed bug, but without any body material on the inside.
What do Dead Bed Bug Eggs Look Like?
Dead bed bug eggs can sometimes be even more difficult to spot when compared to live ones. Indeed, as they die, they will most likely dry out and consequentially shrink, becoming even smaller than they were while alive. On the other side, however, they may change their coloration and become slightly greyish, meaning that they could be easier to detect on white surfaces such as matrasses.
Wrapping Up
With female adults being able of producing anywhere from five to ten eggs each day, imagining how quickly a bed bug issue could develop into a serious infestation is no difficult task. Therefore, noticing their presence at the earliest stage possible is crucial.
Bed bugs are not big fans of plastic surfaces or sunny spots around the house, but they rather prefer hiding around indentations of wooden furniture as well as on various fabric materials and even clothes. They are usually quite hard to spot during the day, so looking for their eggs is sometimes the best option to find them.
Make sure to equip yourself with patience and a magnifying glass and let the egg hunting games begin.
