What do night bedbugs look like? - briefly
Night‑active bedbugs are small, reddish‑brown insects about 4–5 mm in length, with a flat, oval body and dark spots on their wings. They emerge after dark and are commonly found in mattress seams, folds, and surrounding furniture.
What do night bedbugs look like? - in detail
Night‑time bedbugs are small, wingless insects measuring approximately 4–5 mm in length when unfed and shrinking to about 2–3 mm after a blood meal. Their bodies are oval, flattened dorsally, and covered with fine, hair‑like setae that give a slightly fuzzy texture.
Color varies with feeding status: unfed specimens appear light brown to beige, while engorged individuals become a deep reddish‑brown, often described as “rusty” after digestion of blood. The abdomen expands dramatically during feeding, giving a swollen appearance that tapers toward the head.
Key morphological features include:
- A head concealed beneath the pronotum, with short, beaded antennae consisting of five segments.
- Mouthparts formed as a piercing‑sucking proboscis, adapted for penetrating skin.
- Six legs, each bearing two claws at the tip, enabling rapid movement across fabric.
- Two small, dark eyes positioned on the lateral sides of the head, visible only under magnification.
Exoskeleton coloration darkens with age and repeated feeding cycles, resulting in a uniform mahogany hue in older populations. The dorsal surface shows faint, pale markings in some species, but these are rarely distinct.
Under infrared or low‑light conditions, nocturnal activity is evident as the insects glide quickly across bedding, leaving a faint, silvery trail of excrement composed of digested blood, which appears as small, dark specks on sheets. The combination of size, color shift after feeding, and characteristic body shape enables reliable identification of night‑active bedbugs.