Bed Bugs
Belonging to the Cimex lectularius L. family, bed bugs are parasitic pests that feed on the blood of warm-blooded animals. Human blood is their favorite food supply, and therefore, they take every opportunity they get to hitchhike their way into our homes and businesses.
Bed bugs are most active at night, right before dawn, feeding on the blood of their sleeping hosts. While bed bugs initially take up residence in sleeping areas, as an infestation grows, they will become adventurous and move throughout a home, invading multiple rooms. Bed bugs move throughout homes and multi-unit buildings through walls and floors using wires and pipes as a highway system.
Adult bed bugs are about 1/4 of an inch long and have a broad, flat, oval shape. They are a reddish-brown color before they feed and turn a deep reddish-purple color after. Like other pests, bed bugs want to live near their food source; this means bed bugs live where people live or spend a lot of time. Houses, apartment buildings, hotels, movie theaters, libraries, office buildings, hospitals, dormitories, and other public places are where bed bugs live and come into contact with people.
Because bed bugs are wingless, they crawl onto people or our belongings in order to move around and eventually end up hitchhiking their way into our homes. In addition to hiding in the seams of our mattresses and box springs, bed bugs hide inside of upholstered furniture, behind wall voids, in electronics, and under piles of dirty laundry.
