During its lifetime, a bed bug will go through three distinct stages. The first stage is the egg. A bed bug egg measures roughly one millimeter which is approximately the size of two grains of salt next to each other. The egg itself is oval and is opaque white in color. This stage lasts from ten days to approximately two weeks.
The next stage of the bed bug’s life is the nymph stage. In the nymph stage the bed bug begins to feed. In fact, a bed bug must feed on blood at least once before it is able to molt and go on to its next nymph phase. The nymph stage can be broken into five phases because the nymph will molt five times before reaching maturity. In each of these phases the bed bug will grow approximately a half of a millimeter. At the first nymph phase they will be one and a half millimeters long, growing to four and a half millimeters long by the fifth stage. The nymph stage of the bed bugs life cycle takes from five to six weeks.
The last stage of the bed bug’s life is the mature bed bug stage. At this point a bed bug will both feed on human blood as well as have the ability to reproduce.