It’s important to know your enemy: the bed bugs. The chart of their life cycle shows that they begin as eggs which are off white in color and roughly the size of a pin head. They hatch in approximately 10 days. They go though 5 stages of nymphs to evolve into an adult. At each stage they must eat-have a “blood meal” of human blood and molt or shed their exoskeleton. After approximately 35 days so they become an adult and can then reproduce. A bed bug will live about 7 to 12 months. The adult female will lay 5 to 10 eggs a day until she reaches approximately 500 eggs.