How do house bedbugs move? - briefly
House bedbugs relocate by walking, using their six legs to crawl across walls, furniture, bedding and other fabrics. They may also spread passively when infested items are carried to new locations.
How do house bedbugs move? - in detail
Bedbugs are wing‑less insects that travel exclusively by crawling. Each adult possesses six legs, each divided into coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia and tarsus. The tarsal segments end in tiny claws that grip irregular surfaces, while adhesive pads on the ventral side provide limited traction on smooth substrates. This combination enables the insect to scale walls, ceilings and vertical fabrics despite a body mass of only 5–7 mg.
Locomotion proceeds in short, deliberate strides. Typical forward speed ranges from 0.2 m h⁻¹ in a resting state to 0.5 m h⁻¹ after a blood meal, when metabolic activity and muscular tone increase. Over a year an individual can cover several kilometres by moving intermittently between host‑occupied rooms, cracks, and furniture.
Movement is guided by a suite of sensory inputs:
- Thermal receptors detect warm bodies, directing the bug toward a host’s skin temperature (≈ 33 °C).
- CO₂ chemoreceptors sense exhaled carbon dioxide, providing a gradient that the insect follows.
- Odorant receptors respond to human skin volatiles and pheromonal cues that signal aggregation sites.
- Mechanoreceptors on the antennae and legs register surface texture, allowing the bug to adjust claw pressure and pad adhesion for optimal grip.
Bedbugs can also be transported passively. When an individual attaches to clothing, luggage, or furniture, it may be carried over distances far beyond its own crawling capability. This “hitch‑hiking” mechanism explains rapid spread within multi‑unit dwellings.
In summary, domestic bedbugs move by coordinated leg‑driven crawling, employing claws and pads for traction, and rely on heat, CO₂, and chemical signals to locate hosts. Their modest speed is offset by the ability to climb diverse surfaces and to be inadvertently relocated by human activity.