How quickly do bed bugs spread?
Identifying bed bugs
Week 1
Bed bug infestations typically start with just a couple of bed bugs who have been brought into a hotel room via one of your guest’s luggage. Once they are in the room, mated female bed bugs lay around 3-5 eggs a day (about 500 eggs within one lifetime) and feed every couple of days. After 10 days the eggs hatch and bed bug nymphs (young bed bugs) begin immediately to feed.
Week 2
Within two weeks, what started as a couple of bed bugs has become an infestation of 20+ nymph bed bugs with 50 eggs about to hatch within the next few days. These are still almost invisible to the human eye.
Week 4-6
Nymphs pass through five stages before reaching maturity and require a blood meal in between each stage to level up. Within six weeks of the introduction of the first couple of bed bugs, the infestation will have developed into 20+ adult bed bugs, 150 nymph bed bugs, and 50 eggs about to hatch within the next 10 days.
By this time two dramatic things have happened:
- On the one hand, the first bed bug nest has become too small for all the bed bugs and they’ve started to spread in the room and between rooms in search for more space.
- On the other hand, the new adults will start mating with each other and laying eggs: the population growth becomes exponential. At this point, the infestation has also affected the stay of tens of guests. This is why first-night protection matters: a Valpas-certified room stops the first bed bug the night it arrives, before this timeline ever starts.