How quickly do bedbugs multiply in a house? - briefly
A female can lay 200–300 eggs, which hatch in about a week, and the offspring mature in 4–6 weeks. Under favorable temperature and food availability, the infestation can double roughly every month.
How quickly do bedbugs multiply in a house? - in detail
Bedbugs reproduce rapidly under favorable indoor conditions. A single fertilized female can lay 5 – 7 eggs each day, reaching 200–300 eggs over her lifetime of about 4–6 weeks. Eggs hatch in 4–10 days, depending on temperature; at 24 °C (75 °F) development is near the lower end of this range.
The immature stages—five nymphal instars—require a blood meal before molting to the next stage. Each nymph needs 4–10 days to feed and digest, then 3–7 days to molt. At optimal temperatures (25–30 °C) a complete life cycle from egg to adult can be completed in roughly 30 days.
Population growth can be approximated with a geometric progression. Assuming an average of 200 viable offspring per female and a 30‑day generation time, the number of individuals can double every 1–2 weeks during the early exponential phase because newly emerged adults begin reproducing within a week of their final molt. In practical terms, an infestation that starts with five adults may expand to several hundred bugs within two months if unchecked.
Factors that accelerate multiplication include:
- Warm ambient temperature (above 20 °C)
- High humidity (40‑80 %)
- Constant access to hosts for blood meals
- Lack of disturbance or chemical control
Conversely, cooler temperatures slow development, extending the egg‑to‑adult period to 50 days or more, which reduces the rate of increase.
Understanding these biological parameters allows accurate estimation of how fast a colony can expand and informs timely intervention strategies.