Getting bed bugs are a lot of people’s pest control nightmare. Even worse would be flying bed bugs, but do bed bugs fly or are they just really good hitchhikers?
Some interesting bed bug origins
Over thousands of years, evolution tends to focus on survival of the fittest. Bed bugs have actually been around since ancient Egypt. Some studies seem to point to even longer ago than that.
There’s actually even some species similar to bed bugs called bat bugs that feed on bats in caves. Scientists believe that they share origins with current day bed bugs as humans used to live in caves with bats thousands of years ago.
As humans evolved and moved on out of caves, some of these bat bugs are believed to have moved with the humans as well and have since become modern day bed bugs.
Do bed bugs fly or will they in the future?
As of now, bed bugs do not fly, so that’s a good thing. They do, however have vestiges of wings, which are called wing pads. These wing pads don’t allow the bed bugs to fly since they don’t develop into full wings, but who know’s what the future will bring?!
Bed bugs might not fly, but they have developed a lot of other characteristics that make them extremely hard to get rid of. For starters, they can go for long periods without eating, can survive for a very long time and breed incredibly fast producing large numbers.
Bed bugs feed off of blood and in most cases, do that from your bed. Bed bugs do, however, live in other places around your home other than just your bed. They can be on furniture, pet beds, on clothing, luggage, in electronics, behind picture frames, and even throughout the floor boards and come out only when they feed.
These pests also inject a form of anesthetics into your body so you can’t feel it when they bite you ensuring you’ll remain asleep when they feed. This can lead to taking a while to even know if you have a bed bug problem or not – especially if you don’t react to their bites like a large portion of the population.
On top of that, these pests have developed continually over the years and in more recent times have become more and more resistant to typical means of removal such as pesticide application.
We highly recommend reaching out to a pest control service if you encounter bed bugs as they shouldn’t be removed by home remedies or on your own.
Do bed bugs fly? Not with wings, but they do make good co-pilots
Since bed bugs’ wings never do fully develop, they aren’t going to be flying around your home any time soon, but that doesn’t stop them from flying in other ways. Bed bugs and bat bugs have become incredibly good travelers over the years and while they don’t fly with wings, they certainly do take advantage of other ways of flying.
Bat bugs don’t fly either, but they do hitch rides on bats and fly along with them to new caves and feeding grounds. These bat bugs can even end up in your home if bats get in your chimneys or attics or other areas around your home.
Even as trained pest control experts, these pests need to be put under a microscope to determine whether they are bed bugs or bat bugs. The determining factor is comparing the length of the body hairs to the width of their eye. The treatments for each can vary drastically so determining this first is also very important. Again, not something most people would really be able to do on their own without the help of a pest control service.
Bed bugs also like to travel and can be found on airplanes, trains, and buses among other things. As stated above, bed bugs will climb on clothes as well as luggage and can often travel from place to place right along with you and even catch flights in your carry on or checked baggage.
Even though bed bugs don’t fly with their own wings, they are ever evolving and have found unique ways to fly around the world and cause problems. Be it using our technology against us or using other animals as flying partners, so be on the look out for “flying” bed bugs near you!
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