5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are peculiar. It’s not surprising these creepy creatures sparked panic among their human hosts, who found themselves fed upon in the dark of the night while seemingly safe in their beds. For a time, people felt like they could escape the pests by the light of day. That’s until bed bugs started showing up in offices. And in retail centers. And theaters. And libraries.

It sounds like a Hitchcock horror movie, but it’s just a typical day’s work for Orkin. We were early observers of the reemergence of bed bugs, and we’ve been on the frontlines of the battle against them ever since.

Here are 5 things you probably didn’t know about bed bugs:

• Bed bugs have wings, but they can’t fly. They have no hind wings, and their front vestigial wings are not large or strong enough to let them fly. They’re the penguins of the insect world. Except people like penguins.

• Bed bugs can ingest more than seven times their body weight at one time. That’s the equivalent of a 150-pound adult drinking 125 gallons of water in one sitting.

• Fossilized bed bug specimens found in Egyptian tombs date back 3,550 years. We weren’t around back then, but if we had been, King Tut might have been a client.

• The name “bed bug” is a misnomer – bed bugs aren’t only found in beds. They do prefer staying close to their host, though, and typically shelter within a 6-foot radius of the bed in the mattress, box springs, headboard, soft furniture, outlets, wallpaper and carpet.

• Bat bugs, booklice, small cockroaches, swallow bugs or carpet beetles are commonly mistaken for bed bugs. So don’t assume you have bed bugs until an expert has inspected the area and confirmed it.