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Feeding habits

Bedbugs are obligatory hematophagous (bloodsucking) insects. Most species only feed on humans when other prey are unavailable. They are normally out at night just before dawn, with a peak feeding period of about an hour before sunrise, but have been observed feeding during the day. Bedbugs are attracted to their hosts primarily by carbon dioxide, secondarily by warmth, and also by certain chemicals. They reach a detected host by crawling, or sometimes dropping from a height.

A bedbug pierces the skin of its host with two hollow feeding tubes. With one tube it injects its saliva, which contains anticoagulants and anesthetics, while with the other it withdraws the blood of its host. After feeding for about five minutes, the bug returns to its hiding place.

Although bedbugs can live for a year without feeding, they normally try to feed every five to ten days. When it's cold, bedbugs can live for about a year; at temperatures more conducive to activity and feeding, about 5 months.

At the 57th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America in 2009, it was reported that newer generations of pesticide-resistant bedbugs in Virginia could survive only two months without feeding.

Predators

Natural enemies of bedbugs include the masked hunter (AKA "masked bedbug hunter"), cockroaches, ants, spiders, mites, and centipedes. The Pharaoh ant's (Monomorium pharaonis) venom is lethal to bedbugs. Rodents eat bedbugs, but bats do not, due to their distaste for the bedbug alarm pheromone, which is released when they are attacked. Biological control is not very practical for eliminating bedbugs from human dwellings.

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