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Bed bugs had been the most notorious and annoying parasite or insect in the 19th to the early part of the 20th century. It is believed that during and after the World War II in the United States in the 1940s, the country had totally been declared bed-bug free.

But travelers from other countries and continents where bed bugs may have continued to thrive made their return to the US possible. Usually, baggage and travel possessions serve as traveling ground or traveling spots for bed bugs from one area to another, from one country to another.

You should know what bed bugs look like, to be able to identify them. Bed bugs of course, are insects.

Size matters.

Bed bugs are so tiny, that sometimes, one can hardly see them with just the naked eye. But when bed bugs mature, they look like other insects. They can be as long as a fourth of an inch.

Bed bugs look like other wingless insects. Hatchlings or newly hatched bed bugs are about as small as a poppy seed. Looking or viewing bed bugs, from top to bottom, they are usually flattened.

Bed bugs may sometimes look like ants or termites, except that when looked at closely, they have their own physical attributes.

What color are bed bugs?

Bed bugs, like humans, have different colors. It can be funny, but bed bugs look like they also have races! Bed bugs colors usually are deep brown.

However, there are bed bugs that look like biting ants—burnt orange, while there are those that have light tan complexion to almost white.

When bed bugs are hungry, they exhibit a different color than that when they are fully fed. Bedbugs with blood in it look like balloons, but what is inside them is not air but blood.

The host or victims precious blood may look like a black mass or dark red mass inside the bed bugs tiny body.

Bed bugs also do excrete. When they do, they produce small amounts of liquid that almost look like blood. Thus, beds or surfaces where bed bugs may have inhabited may be stained with tiny red spots. These spots most of the time have stinky smell, but sometimes, they are not sensed by our olfactory glands.

How can bed bugs be found?

Because they are so, so tiny and are always crawling at very unnoticeable speed, bed bugs can not easily be detected or seen. During daytime, they stay within their protective habitats or hiding places.

Bed bugs look like small creeping objects in crevices and small holes in the floor, the walls or even your bed.

If you are observant enough, bed bugs may look or seem as if they are vampires. They may not have the physical characteristics that may scare you the way Dracula does, but they suck your blood. And they can never survive without it.

How to exterminate bedbugs

Bed bugs, like any other pests, are so persistent. You can hardly control bedbugs in your room without the professional help of pest control operators or providers.

If you have been applying pesticides and harmful pest control substances in areas suspected of having these parasites, chances are greater that you will fail.

It is because most of the pesticides in the market are repellant to insects. It means, when you have used one, bed bugs will not be killed. But they will be repelled or they will avoid getting at or near the surfaces or areas where the pesticide is applied.

Through that, bed bugs start to wander. Thus, the spread of bed bugs is accelerated. They will start transferring from one spot to another. Or worse, from one household to another.

Thus, attempting to control bed bugs on your own may look like attempting to get rid of bed bugs in your home and ushering them into your nearest neighbor. If you have the conscience to allow that to happen, or if your neighbor will not bug or sue you, then go on.

But exterminating bed bugs can entail great responsibility and consideration to others on your part. Professionals know better, so leave the job to them.

Besides, you may not want to kill yourself through poisoning along with the bed bugs, right?

Bed bugs are tiny creatures that are scientifically named Cimex lectularius. You may be really curious how bed bugs look like.

But unfortunately, your chances of getting face to face with bed bugs is really slim. You can only that by looking at their pictures, which are published all through out in text books, magazines and Internet sites.

Pictures of bed bugs that you can actually catch in available sources are somehow enlarged. Because bed bugs are so tiny, you can never really look at their physical structure even if you hold them unto your palm.

You may need to make use of a magnifying glass or several lenses just to take a rather unclear glimpse of bed bugs.

Description from pictures

You may not want to wish to look at bed bugs face to face, or eye to eye. In a recent unpublished study in the US, it is found that most people are scared of one kind of insect, or another, or all of them.

To save you the embarrassment and awkward feeling, it is safe that you just take a look at pictures of bed bugs from available sources.

By just merely looking at bed bugs pictures, you can see that bed bugs are normally flatted when viewed from top to bottom. It is this physical attribute that enable them to penetrate to the most tiny crevices or holes around.

Pictures of bed bugs also show that the insect takes several colors. Most bed bugs appear deep brown. But there are some which also look white or creamy white. You may think, so bed bugs also have races, huh?

Look at pictures of bed bugs before and after they have consumed blood from their respective hosts. Compare. Take note that bed bugs change color after the have been nourished.

Most bed bugs appear deep red or somehow almost black after they have consumed blood.

That is because the blood will by them make up most of their body. Crashing bed bugs during these states of their lives will be somehow gross. Imagine squashing out blood from a balloon.

Somehow scientific view

Pictures of bed bugs in encyclopedias and text books also will give us a shot glimpse of their anatomy.

Looking at such pictures, take note that the bed bug has a very complex skin type that is usually covered by wax-like substance. This wax-like substance make up or provide protection to the bed bug.

That structure will protect or prevent bed bugs from getting wet or from drying out. Because bed bugs are so tiny and their internal system is not that developed, exposure to air and light will surely dry out or dehydrate them, without the protective structure.

Looking at such pictures will also help you understand hoe pesticides and insecticides work.

Pesticides and insecticides usually come in the form of sprays. Embarked in these sprays are very tiny and powderized form of glass and silica. These two materials are hard and will surely cut through any hard object in which they are forced to.

Powderized silica and glass will have to go with the spray. After the bed bugs are exposed to such spray, their protective layers or structure will then be ruined or destroyed. Powder glass and silica do that.

Imagine bed bugs physical and anatomical structure (look at the pictures more closely). After the protective layer is destroyed, that is when the chemical components of the sprays get to work.

When the protective layers of the bed bugs is ruined, harmful chemicals will get inside the skin and attack the internal system of the bed bug.

Chemicals found in spray normally act out to dehydrate or dry out insects like bed bugs.

Large bed bugs

But did you know that you have another resort or option if you want to take a close look at bed bugs?

Because most bed bugs in your room are too tiny, and pictures in textbooks can look and seem unrealistic, you can opt to capture an old, aging and mature bed bug.

Such bed bugs are usually more than a year old. These bed bugs are almost always dying or at the final stage of their life because bed bugs life span only last more than a year at most.

Very adult bed bugs usually can grow about one fourth of an itch. That is not that tiny anymore.

But doing so, looking face to face with bed bugs, can never be a worthwhile and fun experience. Just look at bed bugs pictures if you don not want those goose bumps or you do not want another throw-up session.

The common bed bug ( Cimex lectularius) is the best adapted to human environments. It is found in temperate climates throughout the world and has been known since ancient times.

Other species of bed bugs include Cimex hemipterus, found in tropical regions (including Florida), which also infests poultry and bats.

Leptocimex boueti, found in the tropics of West Africa and South America, which infests bats and humans.

Cimex pilosellus and C. pipistrella primarily infest bats.

Haematosiphon inodora, a species of North America, primarily infests poultry.

Oeciacus, while not strictly a bed bug, is a closely related genus primarily affecting birds.