I answer this question: what happens when you squish a bed bug? A dead bed bug is the only guarantee that you’ve won the war against the bugs. Options include home remedies, traps, steamers, or mechanical squashing.
When you squash a bed bug, it leaves bed bug eggs, a bloodstain plus a terrible odor. Bed bugs, like cooked pea or beans, will be easy to squash. But baby bed bugs will be easier to crash – when they’ve sucked blood.
You may squash or burst bed bugs with your fingers or shoe leaving behind a red stain from the host’s blood.
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When you squash a bed bug that has freshly fed from its host, it’ll leave blood and bloodstains on your finger. Any bed bug that hasn’t sucked blood for some time will have a hard shell – this means that it won’t squash easily.
But the nymph’s exoskeleton is soft and thus makes it easy to squash. Bed bugs only have wing pads, and you can use Ammonia to kill bed bugs.
You can squash bed bugs unconsciously. For example, when you’re sleeping, you can quickly squash some bed bugs that will bite you. Therefore, you’ll see some large blood smears on your body – besides bed bug bites, clothes, and bed sheets when you wake up.
Are Bed Bug Shells Soft or Hard?
The bed bug’s exoskeleton (outer part of its body) is a hard casing that’s rigid to give the insect its body structure. Bed bugs will also shed or molt their exoskeleton as they grow.
However, the bug’s exoskeleton can’t prevent you from squashing the bug at will. Further, the back part of the bed bug is highly flexible – this allows an easy busting when you crush the bug.
Bed bugs feed, and their backside tends to expand, allowing the insect to take in more. Therefore, the bed bug’s rear side will expand to hold more blood, food, and water.
The bugs will pop easily when they’ve sucked blood – particularly when their backside has expanded. Notably, before sucking blood, bed bugs’ exoskeleton will be hard to crash like a raw pea or bean.
Is it Easy to Squash Bed Bug Eggs?
Well, just like the nymphs, bed bug eggs are soft, and thus, you’ll find them equally easy to squash – they have a soft exoskeleton. But crashing eggs will only leave a clear fluid as opposed to red stains.
However, you’ll find that bed bug eggs will be challenging to lift or scrape off the ground or mattress encasements – they’ll be hidden off in dark places or small cracks.
But when in hidden areas, bed bug eggs are covered in the glue-type liquid that allows them to hide in wood or fabric. Thus, it’ll be hard to pick up eggs and squash them. But bed bug spray will be the only sure weapon against bed bug eggs.
However, it’ll be challenging to scrape off or pick bed bugs eggs from most surfaces. The eggs will mainly be hidden in crevices and cracks to avoid unnecessary disturbance.
What about Stains from Squashed Bed Bug?
Squashing bed bugs will leave blood-stained drops on your fabric, fingers, and clothes. The blood will be from the blood-meal from human beings.
Further, the bloodstains left behind will also come from any digested blood already in the bed bug’s body – bust such blood will be thicker and darker.
Therefore, don’t squash bed bugs, particularly if they’re on fabrics, leaving hard stains. If not, you can clean the material to remove the bloodstain, as shown below:
- For a fresh bloodstain, pour cold water on the stain as this will allow easier scrubbing and removal.
- Next, now use some soap on the blood stain to create some lather, some little salt, and wash thoroughly.
- However, for a dry blood stain, use a stain remover to pre-treatment the area and thoroughly sprinkle some ammonia and launder.
Do Bed Bugs Smell When Squashed?
Bed bugs will smell around to realize what’s in the surrounding. For example, bed bugs will sense the human skin’s smell and hide under the mattress – you’ll feel the strong, pungent odor.
The bugs have ‘alarm pheromones,’ particularly when they are exposed or sense some danger. This mainly happens when the mattress is flipped – to avoid being eaten or caught.
Other smells like moldy and coriander in clothes will also attract the bed bugs. Further, bugs fed on blood will have some metallic and sweet smell – due to having iron and sugars.
Bugs Causing Blood Stains when Smashed?
Can you pop a bed bug bite? The simple answer is No. You can’t pop a bed bug bite. The bite doesn’t build pressure since their pores are not blocked – and hence can’t pop.
The bites are allergic reaction sites that lead to swelling mainly due to the bed bug saliva and histamine, causing the concentration of white blood cells.
So, which bugs will cause blood stains like bed bugs if squashed? So, here’s the bugs; flies, mites, lice, ticks, midges, mosquito, and fleas-check flea foggers.
Bugs that Can Be Mistaken for Bed Bugs
For effective bed bug control, appropriate identification of the bugs is a requirement. Several bugs have a similar small size, and insectoid look like bed bugs.
Bed bugs’ body measures about the size of an apple seed and its non-segmented with a characteristic pale-brown or red-brown appearance, but you can see them with your naked eye.
So, here’re the bugs that you may mistake for bed bugs? – these include Booklice, Bat Bugs, and Carpet Beetles.
1. Cockroach Nymphs – They are bright-white colored (3mm in length) but will darken and harden in a short while – including nymphs by German cockroaches found in dark crevices and cracks.
2. Fleas – Fleas are reddish-brown with round heads and long legs. You’ll find the cat fleas when combing the cats.
They’ll be difficult to catch. They can jump – and hence a flat and long body (1/8 inch).
3. Spider Beetles – With a 1-5 mm body length and a round-oval shape, spider beetles may be confused with bed bugs.
But they have antennae plus thin and long legs and are red-brown or pale brown-yellow in color. They mainly hide in wooden structures.
4. Swallow Bugs -, swallow bug have a key distinguishing feature: its grayish-brown color and an antenna.
You’ll find the swallow bugs in cliff swallow nests and barn or other human structures – they could also bite humans.
5. Ticks – If you have cats and tend to sit around in outdoor spaces – ticks could invade and bite you and other humans.
Ticks may cause Ehrlichiosis and Lyme Disease. They’ll mainly glue to dense woods, tall grass, shrubs, and leaves.
For protection, put on protective clothing like and tuck the pant legs plus avoid tick-infested areas.
Conclusion
Bed bug eggs will be cemented into the crevices and cracks using glue-like substances, including inside wood and fabric. Therefore, it’ll be difficult to pick or squash the bed bugs.
Squashing the bed bugs will work great when you do it on the location where they’re laid. Pinch the eggs using some tissue paper. So, spray the bugs as it’ll be more effective than squashing.