Female bed bug. Male and female counterparts of certain animal species appear to be so different that they may actually be different species. In the case of bed bugs, however, they’re not that different.
There are a few differences between the male and female bed bug, even if you don’t want to get close enough to tell the difference between them (and we don’t blame you).
Keep reading to learn about the key distinctions between male and female bed bugs as well as the similarities.
REDUCING THE BED BUG REPRODUCTION CYCLE
When approached by nymphs, male bed bugs, and female bed bugs to prevent prowling males from attempting to mate, a 2010 study conducted by Vincent Harraca from Lund University in Sweden revealed an alarm pheromone.
Any bed bug that has recently fed will be sought after by mature males. Scientific study was conducted as a result of the discovery that immature nymphs and male bed bugs release a fear pheromone to deter a mating assault, which showed that male mating is non-productive in spreading the bed bug population.
Scientists aim to use this pheromone in the future to minimize sexual activity and repellent mites.
Scientists believe that a new species of bed bugs is starting to emerge based on research by Warren Booth, a biologist at the University of Tulsa and co-author of a 2015 study published in Molecular Ecology.
According to the BBC, archaeologists unearthed evidence of bed bugs dating back 3,500 years, indicating that they are as old as the first human settlements.
Bed bugs are thought to have evolved from bat caves and started feasting on people as they entered them. Bed bugs, on the other hand, followed humans when they moved to new places.
Bed bugs have changed since then. Bed bugs were virtually extinct in the 1950s. According to one theory, the high usage of a common household insecticide, DDT, was the cause.
The insecticide was phased out in the United States in the 1970s due to health and environmental concerns, but bed bugs had developed a resistance to it by that time. Bed bugs have lately made a dramatic comeback, prompting both individual and business owners to be concerned.
Because of the large number of eggs a female can lay, the bed bug reproduction cycle works effectively. The origin of bed bugs in your home or business may be determined by a pest management specialist, who can also assist with the proper treatment to get rid of them.
Female Bed Bug
If an adult female bed bug enters your luggage while you’re staying at a hotel, she’ll lay eggs and establish an infestation. If you don’t take precautions, the chances of bringing bed bugs home from a hotel are much higher.
For a bed bug specialist, the anatomy of each bug is similar to that of an untrained eye. The female bed bug has a spherical abdomen, whereas the male has a pointier and notchbed abdomen.
Depending on when they last had a blood meal, both male and female bed bugs are flat oval-shaped brownish-red insects.
On the ventral side of the head, bed bugs have piercing and sucking mouthparts that can feed on blood because they have a piercing-sucking mouthpart. More importantly, bed bugs only need blood to live as a female or male.
The female bed bug has distinct reproductive anatomy than the male bed bug, which is why they are called males and females. The sperm of a female bed bug has developed a paragenital system that transports it to its holding place in her body.
On the ventral side of the female bed bug, you’ll also see sclerotized white scars. The right side of the female bed bug is commonly scarred. The bed bug has been traumatized by traumatic insemination and is now pregnant, according to the scars.
What do female bed bugs look like?
The length of a female bed bug is between 1 and 5 millimeters, depending on the stage of development. She has a rounded abdomen and is brownish-red in color. When a bed bug begins feeding, its body flattens out and becomes bulbous as it fills up with blood.
Females of the common bed bug species typically create a single spermalege on the right side of their bodies. The female bed bug gets the sperm at a spermalege, which is a distinctive organ. The rounded abdomen distinguishes between a female bed bug and a male bed bug when trying to identify them.
Call a bed bug inspection business if you’ve discovered a female bed bug.
How to Tell if A Bed Bug is Pregnant?
Since she stores sperm in a reserve chamber, ready to fertilize her eggs, it’s difficult to tell if a bed bug is pregnant with the naked eye. A non-sclerotized membrane is visible on the underside (ventral side) of a female bed bug, which is translucent.
When feeding, the ventral membrane will stretch and grow larger for bed bug eggs.
Can Female Bed Bugs Lay Eggs On Their Own?
Since they are gonochoristic, which means they have two separate sexes, bed bugs have a male and female reproductive system. A man must therefore fertilize a woman in order for her to reproduce.
However, one way in which bed bugs are different is. The female may store the male’s sperm for a long period of time following mating and use it multiple times to create many eggs rather than just one.
Male Vs Female Bed Bugs
Male and female bed bugs have a few differences, but there are many ways to identify them more generally.
Bed bugs are a well-known but almost-invisible bug that is notorious for its mythical invisibility. Bed bugs are mostly quiet at night, hiding in niches and corners at home, and they can be dormant for lengthy periods of time before they are detected. Nonetheless, bed bugs are rarely unseen.
Bed bugs that are adults are about the size of an apple seed and may be seen with the naked eye.
During their various life cycle phases, bed bugs go through a variety of physical forms. The key stages and what a bed bug will look like at each one are listed below.
Bed bug eggs are white in color and roughly one sixteenth of an inch in size. They’re frequently found in clusters, where they hide behind things.
Bed bug nymphs are much smaller than adult bed bug nymphs and resemble them. Depending on whether or not they have fed, they will frequently be almost completely transparent.
Adult bed bugs are approximately the size of an apple seed. After a blood meal, they’ll darken and expand slightly, becoming brownish-red in color.
When it comes to identifying bed bugs, signs that you may have a bed bug infestation are extremely valuable, and there are a few more than what appears to be a bed bug bite.
A professional can thoroughly inspect if you have a strong suspicion of bed bug infestation. That said, here are some indicators that will help you determine whether or not you have bed bugs.
Small blood stains on your sheets, as well as dark fecal specking, are possible stains.
Bed bug clusters, particularly in the corners and crevices of your bed or mattress, may also be found.
Some people may have apparent bite marks that seem to be from bed bugs, although this isn’t the ideal approach to distinguish between bed bug and other insect bites or perhaps a skin condition. If you notice a mark on your skin, it is always a good idea to see a doctor.
Scientific Study on the Male VS Female Bed Bug
The male enters the female abdomen on the right, rather than the left, according to a scientific laboratory experiment. Traumatic insemination only occurs on the right side of the female bed bug, despite the fact that it has the same reproductive organs on both sides.
How did the scientists discover this? Those females remained unfertilized after they covered the right side of their abdomen.
The left side of the female bed bug bed bugs were then inseminated with artificial insemination, and they were able to become pregnant and lay eggs. As a result, the researchers were able to conclude that the female bed bug’s two sides are identical.
Male bed bugs have a favored hand or handedness, according to the bed bug research. Some people are right-handed or left-handed, just like me. The majority of the bed bugs went for the good side.
Male vs. Female Bed Bug: Fertility
Because females are the only ones who lay eggs and spread infestations, they are considered a greater nuisance than males. Over her lifetime, a single female can produce 200 to 250 eggs. Male bed bugs, on the other hand, are unable to create eggs since they lack ovaries.
Can One Bed Bug Reproduce on its Own?
Bed bugs are not asexual, and if the female is impregnated, she stores fertilized eggs. You’ll figure out if you have one of the bed bug species that is comparable to a bed bug or if you have an actual bed bug by learning the anatomy and physiology of a bed bug.
Are bed bugs asexual?
The answer is no, it isn’t so. Nonetheless, without a male present, a female bed bug may lay eggs. Additionally, bed bugs may spread from room to room in this manner. The female is more likely to walk away from the harborage area.
How Do Bed Bugs Reproduce? (Male vs female bed bug)
The term “traumatic insemination” refers to how bed bugs reproduce. The female abdominal cuticle of a male bed bug will be pierced, and he will directly inseminate her. The female bed bug’s body has a piercing site that is most commonly found on the right side.
A paragenital tract is a unique secondary genital system found in female bed bugs. The sperm then travel to the seminal conceptacles, which are located in the male reproductive organs.
Bed bugs have an open circulatory system.
In contrast to a mammal’s closed circulatory system, the blood and lymph circulated inside the body cavity unenclosed. Before moving into the oviducts to fertilize the eggs, the sperm stays in this storage region.
A female bed bug will have enough sperm in her seminal conceptacles to lay eggs for up to 50 days after sexual isolation, according to the textbook Modern Bed Bugs by Dini Miller, Stephen Doggett, and Chow-Yang Lee. A single pregnant female may assist establish a new bed bug colony because the offspring can interbreed.
Do Male and Female Bed Bugs Bite? Female Bed Bug vs Male Bed Bug.
Bed bugs both bite males and females. They insert the feeding tube after cutting our skin with their mouthparts.
Male vs. Female Bed Bug: Which is Worse?
If you already have a significant infestation, it is irrelevant to discriminate between men and women. That might be a minor or serious problem if you just found one bed bug.
This will be determined by whether the bug is a male or a female. If it is a female, the bug may have been laying eggs nearby. Nevertheless, it’s still worth noting that both sexes are equally damaging to the species’ survival and reproduction, so they’re both needed.
What You Should Know About Female Bed Bugs And Bed Bug Eggs
Mating Biology.
Depending on access to a host for feeding, bed bugs can’t mate until they’ve eaten five times and molted five times – this takes around 37 days.
The adult male bed bug is quite interested in mating once he has been fed.
The male stabs through the female’s abdominal wall to deposit sperm that travel to her ovaries and fertilize her eggs, which is called traumatic insemination.
Bed Bug Egg Biology.
A rice grain-infested adult bed bug sits on either side of a rice grain-infested adult bed bug egg.
If the female bed bug has recently eaten, she may lay 5 to 20 bed bug eggs over ten days.
The eggs of a meandering female bed bug may be placed singly or in clusters.
To continue egg production, she will eventually run out of sperm and have to breed again. She will need frequent feedings to keep her eggs viable.
The average female bed bug will lay 131 bed bug eggs throughout her lifetime, if she feeds regularly.
Around 97% of the 131 bed bug eggs will develop into live and hatch insects.
On day 6, 60% of the bed bug eggs will hatch, with less than 90% by day 9 if the egg incubation conditions are optimal at 70°F/21°C or higher. The bed bug egg hatch timeline will be extended by lowering the temperature to 50°F/10°C.
The number of male and female eggs produced is roughly equal, at 1:1.
A bed bug population may double in just 16 days under ideal circumstances. With frequent feeds, ideal conditions are between 70°F/21°C and 90°F/32°C.
1 Bed Bug May Become An Infestation.
According to Dini Miller, a single breeding female may be the source of an infestation, as seen by these population figures:
This indicates that, as long as the female has access to regular blood meals, a single mated female introduced into a home might cause an infestation without the presence of a male.
After her offspring becomes adults, she can readily mate with them to keep the cycle going.”
What to Do if You Find One Female Bed Bug on A Random Wall in your Apartment
First, get a picture of the bug and capture it; getting the bug correctly identified is step one.
Otherwise, a fuzzy picture of a bug is difficult to identify using an image. You must zoom in and get the best shot feasible; otherwise, you will miss it. You may submit a photograph of your specimen to either text or email.
Save the bug and bring it to a pest control expert in your neighborhood if you can’t get a decent picture.
We can visit your property to do a complete bed bug inspection if you discover one female bed bug and reside in the New York City area.
Have you already determined if the bed bug is a female? Begin by slowly and gently scanning your furniture with a bright flashlight if you think so. Don’t forget to look at all angles of a subject. Bed bugs may be discovered under a bed frame or behind a headboard, and they aren’t just found along mattress seams.
What to Do if You Find One Female Bed Bug on your Bed
You may have a bed bug problem that you didn’t realize about because 30% of the human population does not react to bed bug bites. When people observe a bed bug, they often think that those who don’t react to the bites have an infestation.
Try looking around your home if you have one female bed bug to see if you can find more. A bed bug specialist or a bed bug dog may also be hired to inspect your home; they can assist you determine if you have a bed bug problem.