Bed Bugs
The Problems Bed Bugs Cause
Bed bugs are a distressing pest to deal with, feeding on human blood while people sleep and leaving itchy, red bite marks that often appear in lines or clusters on exposed skin. While they aren't known to transmit disease, their bites can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, and the psychological toll of an infestation is often just as significant — many people experience anxiety, poor sleep, and stress once bed bugs are discovered in the home. They're also notoriously good hitchhikers, spreading easily via luggage, clothing, and second-hand furniture, which means infestations can appear even in the cleanest of homes. Left untreated, a small infestation can spread rapidly from a single mattress seam to multiple rooms, making early identification and professional treatment essential.
How We Treat Bed Bug Infestations
Bed bugs hide deep in mattress seams, bed frames, and skirting boards, so treatment needs to be thorough and is often repeated over multiple visits. Our trained technicians start with a detailed inspection to confirm the infestation and assess how far it's spread, then combine targeted insecticide with steam treatment to kill bugs and eggs on contact.
We'll advise on preparation beforehand — hot-washing bedding, decluttering, and vacuuming — as this greatly improves results. A follow-up visit is usually needed to catch any newly hatched bugs and fully break the cycle.
Get in touch with Kent Pest and Wildlife Management for a professional assessment.
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The Lifecycle of a Bed Bug
Bed bugs go through a simple but remarkably efficient lifecycle. Like cockroaches, they develop through incomplete metamorphosis — meaning there's no pupal stage, and young bed bugs (nymphs) look like smaller, paler versions of adults from the moment they hatch.
It starts with the egg. A single female can lay around one to five eggs a day, and several hundred over her lifetime, tucking them into cracks, seams, and crevices close to where she feeds. The eggs are tiny — barely a millimetre long — and hatch within about a week to ten days in warm conditions. From there, nymphs pass through five growth stages, and crucially, they need a blood meal before each moult to progress to the next. Under warm, favourable conditions, a bed bug can go from egg to breeding adult in around five weeks, though this slows considerably in cooler temperatures. Adults can then live for several months, sometimes close to a year, continuing to feed and breed throughout.
A Few Interesting (and Slightly Unsettling) Facts
Bed bugs are remarkably resilient. They can survive for several months without feeding by slowing their metabolism right down, which is part of why they can lie dormant in an empty property and still be waiting when new occupants move in. They can't fly and don't jump either — instead, they're expert hitchhikers, spreading via luggage, clothing, and second-hand furniture rather than moving far under their own steam.
Their mating process is also unusual: rather than conventional mating, males use a process called traumatic insemination, piercing the female's abdomen directly to inseminate her — one of the more unusual reproductive strategies found in the insect world.
Bed bugs are also nothing new. Evidence of bed bugs living alongside humans dates back thousands of years, with remains found in ancient settlements — making them one of humanity's longest-running unwanted house guests. Combined with growing resistance to certain insecticides in modern populations, it's easy to see why they remain such a persistent pest today — and why professional treatment, rather than DIY solutions, is usually needed to deal with them effectively.