Bed Bug Breeding

One female can lay up to 12 eggs per day, or about 500 in her lifespan and the eggs have a sticky coating which easily attaches to objects. One insemination of a female allows her to lay eggs for a month; however, she is subjected to dozens of inseminations during a month’s time. The copulation, called traumatic insemination, is brutal; the male jabs at any section of the female’s body and even jabs other males. Fertilization occurs almost anywhere in the body cavity of the female where it is injected, and she will lay eggs throughout her lifetime as long as she has regular feedings. So, one fertilized female bedbug introduced to a home can begin the infestation because she remains perpetually fertile.