How quickly bed bugs multiply in an apartment: the fertility of bed bloodsuckers
The appearance of bed bugs in the house becomes a real problem for the owners. These blood-sucking insects with their bites can pretty much ruin a person’s life, depriving him of a good sleep. Since bedbugs reproduce at a rapid rate, parasites can populate a two-room apartment in just a week. Their diet consists exclusively of human blood, which is necessary for insects for full development and viability.
Content
What are the stages in the life cycle of a bed bug?
Bed bugs belong to the group of insects with incomplete transformation, that is, they do not have a pupal stage.
How do bed bugs breed?
The reproduction of domestic bugs, like most insects, is carried out by mating, but not by mutual agreement of the partners, but by the method of traumatic insemination.
Emergence of eggs and larvae
Adults
Where do bed bugs build nests in an apartment?
Blood-sucking insects arrange their nests in the dark corners and secluded places of the dwelling, located not far from the sleeping place of a person, and with an increase in the colony, they expand their habitat. Bed bugs can hide:
- in blankets, pillows, bed linen;
- behind the battery, baseboards and peeling wallpaper;
- under the mattress and linoleum;
- in the cracks of the walls and floor;
- behind paintings, carpets, curtains;
- in sofas, beds, pouffes and other furniture;
- between books;
- in sockets, switches and electrical appliances.
Ectoparasites inhabit the back of the bed. If there are holes in the upholstery of upholstered furniture, bed bugs can hide there. Their nests are a simultaneous accumulation of adult insects, clutches and larvae. There is no structure in the nests. The eggs are simply chaotically attached between shed chitinous shells and parasite feces.
Favorable conditions for the reproduction of bedbugs
How quickly bed bugs breed in an apartment is also affected by temperature conditions. Insects are very fond of heat, stimulating the vital activity of individuals, therefore, favorable factors for them will be:
- air humidity at the level of 70%;
- no sudden temperature fluctuations;
- constant temperature in the range from +20 to +30 degrees.
All these conditions are just present in city apartments, which are considered an ideal place for ectoparasites to live. There is always a dark place for a nest, located not far from a person.
Under favorable conditions, bloodsucking insects continuously multiply until the onset of their natural death.
The bed bug population in your home is growing exponentially. One male per day fertilizes up to 150-200 females, which in turn lay up to 70 eggs within a month.
Natural enemies of insects in the apartment, as a rule, are absent, and comfortable microclimatic indicators are maintained all year round, therefore most of the larvae survive from the masonry, ready to breed in 30-35 days.
Thus, in a month, uninvited inhabitants densely populate the apartment, and at first it can be quite difficult to find them. Bedbugs take root in any living quarters, regardless of their sanitary condition, and can easily migrate to neighbors under adverse conditions.
Having appeared in the house, insects tend to quickly equip a place for breeding and feeding. Immediately after they find a nest, bed bugs begin to multiply. This process is most active in summer. The rate of spread of parasites in the apartment depends on the availability of food. With regular consumption of blood, their numbers rapidly increase. Even from one individual, the population can reach one and a half thousand in 6 months. Insects go out to fish at night and find their prey by smell, feeling a person at a distance of several meters. The amount of blood drunk depends on the age of the parasite. Adults drink about 4-5 ml of blood in one bite.
To continue the species, the individual must eat at least 1-2 times a week. Bed bugs need blood at all stages of development, from larvae to adults of both sexes. In the absence of food, the reproduction of insects stops. Since each change of cover requires significant energy consumption, it is impossible without the next portion of nutrition. So without blood, the larvae cannot develop normally, and the mortality rate among young individuals increases. Females, thanks to forced mating, in difficult hungry times feed on the seed laid in their abdomen and immature eggs. Starving bugs become passive, almost do not move and spend all their time in the nest.
Bed bugs are not capable of reproducing alone. Of course, if it is not a female that was previously fertilized. The male, on the other hand, cannot give offspring, which has been scientifically proven in the course of a series of experiments.
What factors prevent reproduction
In the natural environment, the growth of the bug population is limited by superparasites that lay eggs in their body, thereby causing the death of the insect. At home, adverse factors such as:
- air temperature below +15 degrees;
- no food source for more than two weeks;
- bright sunlight;
- low humidity combined with high temperature from +50 degrees.
Bed bug colonies are quite sensitive to any changes in the environment. Studies have shown that freezing a dwelling to -17 degrees during the day or raising the temperature to +45 degrees for 1 hour kills parasites.
Prevention of reproduction of bedbugs in the apartment
In order to prevent the dominance of the apartment with bedbugs, one should adhere to simple and effective preventive measures, including:
- daily airing of the room;
- timely cosmetic and major repairs;
- installation of fine-mesh gratings at the exits of engineering communications, niches for electrical wiring, sockets;
- periodic treatment with bleach and insecticides of potentially dangerous places where bedbugs enter the apartment (joints of building structures, cracks, ventilation holes, door and window ceilings);
- a thorough inspection of purchased used furniture, household appliances and other handicrafts;
- the use of repulsive blood-sucking insects of strongly smelling plants and aromatic oils (wormwood, rosemary, rosemary, tansy, chamomile, mint, clove and pine oils, etc.);
- cleaning the apartment with dusting, mopping, cleaning carpets and upholstered furniture;
- regular change of bed linen, followed by washing in hot water and ironing;
- looking through old books and magazines for egg clutches, rearranging things in the closet, checking upholstered furniture and mattresses.
It is recommended to prevent the reproduction of parasites upon returning home after a long absence, finding bedbugs in neighbors, moving to a new place of residence and the end of the rental period for temporary residents.
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