What do they look like?

It’s hard to find a bed bug as they are fast runners, but if you do, the adults are about .5 cm in length. Their colour changes from a light straw to reddish brown as they grow older. They are smaller than rice and apple seeds. Babies are much, much smaller with golden coloured hair.

They are classified as insects as they have 6 legs, antennae and cone-like eyes.

The males have a sharp flap on the back of their bodies, while the female of the species has a body that ends in a rounded or curved segment. The upper body of both the males and females is often described as being wrinkly like crinkled paper.

They emit a musty, sweet odor from glands located on their thorax.

The immature bedbug is called a “nymph.” Nymphs are small and must suck your blood before they can shed. They will shed five times before they become adults.

Bed bugs do not have wings but they manage to get around by hooking up with you on your clothing, luggage and purse.