What does a wood bedbug feed on? - briefly
Wood‑dwelling bedbugs obtain their nutrition by sucking the blood of birds and small mammals that live in timber, such as squirrels, woodpeckers, and other cavity‑nesting species. Human bites occur only when people are in direct contact with heavily infested wood.
What does a wood bedbug feed on? - in detail
The wood‑dwelling cimicid is a true blood‑sucking insect, not a detritivore. Adult females locate nests in tree cavities, wooden structures, or bird boxes, where they obtain meals from the vertebrate occupants. Primary hosts are passerine birds that breed in these environments; the bug inserts its proboscis through the thin skin of the bird’s abdomen or thigh to ingest plasma. In the absence of avian prey, the insect will also exploit mammals that occupy the same cavity, such as squirrels, raccoons, or bats, though these secondary hosts are used less frequently.
Feeding occurs at night when the host is inactive, reducing the chance of detection. The insect remains concealed in cracks of the wooden substrate, emerging only for short bouts of blood intake that last a few minutes. After a meal, the female stores the ingested blood in an enlarged abdomen, using the reserves to produce eggs. Egg development proceeds over 1–2 weeks, after which the nymphs hatch and immediately begin seeking a blood source. Nymphal stages require a blood meal at each molt, repeating the adult’s feeding pattern until the fifth instar reaches maturity.
Key aspects of the diet include:
- Host specificity: Preference for cavity‑nesting birds; occasional opportunistic feeding on mammals.
- Feeding frequency: One to three meals per week, aligned with host activity cycles.
- Blood composition: Plasma rich in proteins and lipids, providing the nutrients necessary for oogenesis and molting.
- Seasonal variation: Activity peaks during the breeding season of host birds (spring–summer), declines in winter when nests are abandoned.
Laboratory observations confirm that the insect cannot survive on plant material, fungal spores, or carrion; survival beyond a few days without a vertebrate blood source is impossible. Consequently, the species’ ecological role is tightly linked to the availability of suitable hosts within wooden habitats.