Bed Bugs and their relatives (bat bugs, swallow bugs and swift bugs) feed on the blood of humans, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, bats, poultry, birds and other warm blooded animals. These insects feed mostly at night when their host is asleep, causing small, hard, swollen, white welts on the skin that become inflamed and itch severely. An infestation can be recognized by blood stains and dark spots of excreta on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes and walls as well as a sweet, musty odor like the smell of fresh raspberries (bed bug odor).

Adult bed bugs are reddish- brown to mahogany, oval-shaped, flattened and about one-quarter to five eighths of an inch long. The upper body surface has a flimsy, crinkly appearance.

Each female bed bug can lay about 200 eggs under favorable conditions of 70 degrees F and with regular feeding on blood. Three or four eggs are laid per day over two months and are coated with a sticky substance. Often eggs and eggshells are seen singly or in clusters in crevices where bed bugs hide. Eggs hatch in 6 to 17 days or 28 days under lower temperatures. Newly hatched bed bugs feed, when possible, and molt five times before maturity. In one year, there may be three or more generations. Adult bed bugs may go two to eight weeks without food, or even up to a year. Initially bed bugs can be found about tufts, seams and folds of mattress and day bed covers, later spreading to window and door casings, pictures, posters, loosened wallpaper, cracks in plaster, baseboard, and partitions. They are spread in clothing and baggage, secondhand beds or furniture, bedding, laundry and furniture. They are found in old buildings, hotels, boarding houses, theaters and other dwellings.Bed bugs and their relatives apparently do not transmit human disease, but can cause nervous and digestive disorders in some individuals.