How Do Bed Bugs Find Their Way Into Your Home?
Engorged Female Bed Bug
There’s nothing quite like the haunting feeling following a stay away from home. The nagging notion you may have brought an unwanted guest home with you. The kind of guest who will move in and take over your home if left unchallenged. In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m talking about bed bugs. These quiet stowaways are becoming more and more common, and a lot of people are asking: How exactly do these lazy little hitchhikers find their way into your home in the first place?
To understand how these opportunistic insects get around, we first need to understand a little bit about their behaviour. Bed bugs are lazy by nature. They are happiest when they find themselves in a situation where they don’t have to move very far to get want they want, and what they want is simple. Like many other members of the animal kingdom, bed bugs only need three things to keep on keeping on: They need sustenance, shelter, and reproductive opportunities. As bed bugs are simple creatures, their needs are very easy to come by.
Sustenance: Bed bugs get all their sustenance from blood meals, namely human blood. They eat nothing else, and they get all their moisture requirements from these same meals. Bed bugs will typically come out to feed once every 4 to 5 days. Wherever there are people, bed bugs can survive. New bed bug hatchlings (first instar bed bugs) need to feed within about 72 hours or they will dehydrate and die (based on average humidity levels in Calgary). As such, female bed bugs will only lay their eggs as close to a food source (sleeping person) as possible. Once a bed bug has had its first meal, it is then capable, under the right conditions and humidity, of living for about 3 months without feeding (again, based on average humidity levels in Calgary). Bed bugs require a blood meal in order to molt and grow to the next stage of development. Bed bugs need to go through 5 instar stages before reaching sexual maturity (approximately 4-5 weeks with regular feeding).
Shelter: Bed bugs require shelter to hide in where they feel safe from threat. They prefer dark, tight spaces like joints in bed frames or night stands, but can also be found hiding behind buttons or folds on headboards, pillows, comforters, bed skirts, box springs, mattresses, or behind outlet covers, switch plates, hinges, or anywhere they feel safe. Bed bugs prefer to be as close to their food source as possible without being disturbed. Bed bugs are not social insects, but they do produce pheromones which will attract other bed bugs. This means you will often find bed bugs aggregating in certain areas. Bed bugs are so good at hiding, they can be near impossible to find if you only have a couple. Once their population reaches higher levels, they can be easily seen in many areas of the home. When exposed to light, or when they detect threats, bed bugs will actively seek a hiding spot.
Male Bed Bug In A Trap
Reproductive opportunities: Like most animals, bed bugs are programmed to reproduce. They use pheromones to find each other and will often travel great distances to find another bed bug to mate with. Bed bugs copulate using a method known as traumatic insemination. The females do not have external reproductive organs, so the males will pierce the female’s abdominal wall with their aedeagus to inject sperm. Once the female has had enough, she will flee to safe area to avoid any further bombardment by the males. This is one of the ways bed bug populations will spread within a home.
Knowing the three main driving factors for bed bugs to exist and thrive, we can then determine the most common ways bed bugs might find their way into your home. The two ways bed bugs can be introduced to your home are by physical transference and through lateral migration.
Physical transference, relates to any means by which bed bugs may be carried, or brought into your home. They can be introduced through previously infested furniture, appliances, clothing, or even library books which have previously been in an infested home, and often kept close to the bed; they could be carried in on your own clothes after visiting another infested location such as another person’s home, a hotel, airplane, theatre, taxi, bus, library, etc. They can even be introduced on your own furniture when moving, if the moving truck was previously used to move furniture from an infested home. The list of possible ways for a bed bug to be physically introduced into your home are practically endless. Common sense, thorough inspections of used or perviously own items, and diligence for early detection are your best defences against an accidental introduction of bed bugs.
Lateral migration, is when bed bugs move from one area to another. This is most common in multi-unit structures such as apartments, condos, and shared living facilities where individual living quarters share common spaces and amenities with each other. Using certain sprays or pesticides can often push bed bugs into neighbouring units. Bed bugs can also be carried on furniture being moved through common areas, or on laundry as it is carried to a shared laundry room. They can also move through openings around steam heating pipes, especially those which connect bedroom spaces from two different units.
A typical scenario in a multi-unit facility is someone with an infested unit gets up in the morning, still wearing their night clothes, gathers a load of dirty laundry from their floor around their bed, carries it out into the hallway, walks by several other units on their way to the elevator or stairs, goes down to the laundry room, passing several more units. They start a load of laundry, then, still carrying their laundry basket, they go to the lobby/main entry to check their mail, then they stop at a friend’s place for a quick hello, before going back to their unit. One, or several, bed bugs may have fallen off that person’s night clothes, laundry, or basket anywhere along their journey. Those fallen bed bugs will immediately hide, and will slowly seek out the nearest sleeping person where they will then establish a nearby hiding spot, and the process begins again. Remember, bed bugs can live for 3 months without feeding. This is why early detection and monitoring, along with proper elimination protocols are vital in multi-unit structures.
As you can see, there are large number of ways bed bugs can find their way into your home. I’d also like to share some myths and misinformation around how bed bugs might get into homes.
Myth #1: Bed bugs are living inside my neighbour’s walls.
Bed bugs do not live inside walls. They may hide in holes or gaps in walls, but they will only be as far out of sight as they need to be to remain unseen. Usually no more than 1 inch. They are attracted to body heat, and expelled carbon dioxide, neither of which exists inside walls, there is also no light inside walls, no air flow, and the dust found inside most walls from construction, drywall, and insulation is often toxic to them. There is nothing attractive to bed bugs about the inside of walls. People will often see bed bugs hiding in holes, under baseboards, behind electrical or switch plates and they mistakingly assume the bugs are coming from somewhere deep inside those places when the bugs have simply been hiding there, just out of sight.
Myth #2: The bed bugs are coming through the tub drain, or ceiling fan.
Similar to myth #1, bed bugs may hide around the edges of a ceiling fan cover, but they will not have come from there. Bed bugs (and many other insects) will get attracted to water if they start to dehydrate. This can happen when they are exposed to certain pesticides, or when they have gone too long without feeding. This attraction can lead them to sinks and bathtubs seeking water where they can climb up the walls and get into the sink or tub, but they are unable to get out again. They are trapped there. Sometimes, this will lead them to try and hide in the drain opening for shelter, and the next time you run the water, they run out, causing some people to believe they originated from inside the drain.
Myth #3: The bed bugs must have come from outside.
Bed bugs cannot survive very long outside. Because of the way they move, they are easy prey for birds and other insects, and their sensitivity to smells and airflow gets completely overwhelmed when they are outside. They cannot easily navigate in exterior spaces. As such, bed bugs do not live or lay eggs outside. However, some cases of transference can happen by way of the exterior of your home. If you live in a duplex, or town house, and your adjoining neighbour has a bed bug infestation and they drag an infested mattress into their yard, there is a small chance bed bugs may find their way into your home before they die depending on the time of day, temperature, and humidity.
It’s also worth noting there is an insect called a bat bug which looks and behaves very similarly to a bed bug. They can be virtually indistinguishable. Bat bugs will mainly feed off bats and birds, and are found in bird nests, and attics where birds or bats may roost. They are often found in old swallow nests stuck to the sides of homes and buildings. Bat bugs will typically not stray far from their food source, but if their food source suddenly moves away, or gets evicted, bat bugs have been known to find their way inside homes to feed off pets and people in the absence of their usual food source. It’s always best to consult a professional if you think you have bed bugs or bat bugs.
Myth #4: Bed bugs are only found in dirty homes or living spaces.
This is not true at all. Bed bugs feed on human blood. This means anywhere there are sleeping people, bed bugs will be attracted to, regardless of how dirty or messy it is. This myth is likely born of two facts: One, it is more difficult to spot bed bugs if the home is dirty or messy, meaning an infestation can sometimes be quite bad before it is detected in a dirty or messy home. Two, there is a large amount of negative social stigma surrounding having bed bugs, and in areas of lower income, there is often an indirect under current of blame (sometimes more direct from unscrupulous landlords) which can cause some people not to report bed bugs for fear they will be blamed or have to endure costs or penalties.
It should be noted, dealing with bed bugs in Calgary, or anywhere in Alberta, is the landlord’s responsibility, not the tenant’s. Early detection and reporting can make a world of difference in the time it takes to eliminate bed bugs from your home.