Bed Bug Mating and Eggs

It can be quite difficult to see bed bug eggs without a magnifying glass. They are typically the size of a grain of rice or a spec of dust, oval and whitish in colour. As is common with many insect eggs, bed bug eggs are sticky. This allows them to easily cling to surfaces like the seams of your mattresses and bed sheets.

Adult females may deposit 2 or more eggs daily – which means they can lay as many as 500 eggs in a lifetime (bed bugs can live up to a year).

Interestingly, bed bugs have an unconventional way of reproducing. They mate by “traumatic insemination”, a process in which the male bug pierces the female’s abdomen and ejaculates into it. After the process, female bed bugs can keep sperm for up to 6 weeks.

Mama Bed Bug and her Eggs in a Screw Hole

Eggs can hatch in roughly a week or so at room temperature.

When eggs hatch, immature bed bugs – also known as nymphs – emerge. Nymphs are translucent but they gradually turn reddish brown as they molt.

After nymphs hatch, they immediately seek out a blood meal before molting five times over the course of the life cycle.

Bed bug eggs are often found in mattresses, dark corners, crevices and on bedding. Because the eggs are sticky – and small – they are well hidden in hard-to-reach places. Today’s customer found bed bug eggs in the buttons on their fabric headboard.

Bed bug eggs are also found together with bed bugs, bed bug shells and droppings, as the bugs commonly nest in clusters.

I’m happy to answer all your questions.