Bed Bug Reproduction

Trigger warning: You might not want to watch this video before you go to sleep, or bed

I would have liked better music to go with the ambiance in this video. Just kidding, this is a little hard to watch but a lot of you ask how bed bugs reproduce or mate. If you’ve done your internet research you already know it is through a process called traumatic insemination. Even though the female does have reproductive lady parts, they will never be used, and you won’t find any sympathy coming from this direction.

In an impressive display of biological evolution, the male will pierce the female with his weird pointy penis on her back or side to enter her main body cavity and inseminate her. Researchers have observed that males prefer to inseminate females who have recently fed and believe this is because their outer membrane is stretched and thinner making it easier to puncture through. You can learn more about the bed bug life cycle here.

The mating procedure is through the ectospermalege which is the structure on the cuticle through which the paramere is inserted. This structure and an internal mesospermalege evolved to assist with the physical traumatic insemination process. It’s not just haphazard piercing in any membrane of the female’s body by the male. Louis Sorkin

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4R5-2w0yB88s55fq6ZLm8A

How many bed bugs is an infestation?

If you have only one pregnant female, she will be laying 1-5 eggs every day, up to 500 eggs over her lifetime. When those eggs hatch they will seek an immediate meal of blood. After a few weeks, the recently hatched bugs will begin mating and laying eggs. Female bed bugs may be inseminated by any male bed bug including children from eggs she has laid. Once her male babies mature through feeding (on you) they will attempt to mate with her and other females that are also evolving.

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