Photo by CDC

• Body broadly oval shape
• Body flattened when unfed
• Wingless
• 4-segmented antenna
• Piercing/suckinng beak on underside
• adult is 1/4-inch long (6 mm)

• Unfed bed bug is straw colored
• Engorged bed bug is reddish-brown
• Covered with short, golden hairs

Bat bugs (Cimex adjunctus, C. pilosellus)

• Both adult and nymph suck blood; humans are the preferred host
• Hides during the day, usually near sleeping areas in cracks in walls, behind baseboards, under mattresses, in box springs, in furniture, under wallpaper or pictures, in drapes, under rugs, under window or door frames
• At one time, bed bugs were primarily found most often in barracks, camps, jails, rooming houses, homeless shelters, old hotels, other shared sleeping quarters.
• Today, found in hotels, apartments, schools, private homes, and other sites
• Also can infest hospitals, nursing homes, trains, planes, buses, cruise ships, theaters, moving vans, etc.

• Leaves dark fecal spots on mattresses, bed clothes, clothing, and even walls, ceiling, and other surfaces
• Scent glands emit a "sickly sweet" odor
• Feeds mainly at night, hides during day
• Bed bugs travel up to twenty feet to feed, and occasionally much further.
• Can go for months between feedings
• Often transported to new locations in luggage, used beds or bedding, secondhand furniture, or clothing
• Can migrate from one room or apartment unit to the next through pipe and wiring runs, and in wall and ceiling voids, much as cockroaches move
• Painless bite can leave an itchy welt
• Feeding does not spread any diseases.