Bed bug eggs: what they look like and where to find them
A bed bug egg is about the size of a pinhead, roughly 1 mm, and pearl-white. Finding eggs means the bed bugs are breeding in the room, so the bites will keep coming until every stage is dealt with.
If you have found them, our bed bug treatment page explains how a visit deals with the eggs as well as the bugs.
What bed bug eggs look like
- Size: about 1 mm, the size of a pinhead.
- Colour: pearl-white.
- The eye spot: an egg more than five days old has a dark eye spot, the young bug forming inside.
What hatches is a nymph: smaller than an adult, translucent or whitish-yellow, and almost invisible until it has fed. A nymph passes through five stages, from about 1.5 mm to 4.5 mm, before it is an adult.
Eggs, shed skins or droppings?
Three things turn up together in the same seams, and each one means something slightly different:
- Eggs and empty eggshells: tiny, white, about 1 mm.
- Shed skins: pale yellow, the skins nymphs leave behind as they grow. They show bugs have been growing there.
- Dark spots: about the size of a full stop, bed bug droppings that can bleed into fabric like a marker.
Rusty or reddish stains on the sheets are bed bugs that were crushed while feeding.
Where to look for them
Bed bugs are flat enough to squeeze into very small places. The EPA's test is that if a crack will hold a credit card, it can hide a bed bug. Check with a flashlight, in this order:
- the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and the box spring;
- cracks in the bed frame and the headboard;
- seams of chairs and sofas, and between the cushions;
- the folds of curtains and the joints of drawers.
What the bites look like, and why they are not enough on their own to be sure, is on bed bug bites. The adult, and the size of a bed bug at every stage, is on bed bugs.
What kills bed bug eggs at home
- The dryer on high heat for bedding, clothes and anything else that can go in it.
- The freezer, for small items that cannot be washed: sealed in a bag at -18 °C (0 °F) for three days. Check the temperature with a thermometer, since home freezers vary.
- The vacuum, on seams and cracks. Seal the bag straight after and throw it out in an outdoor bin.
- Mattress and box spring covers that seal. Bugs and eggs left inside are trapped and die there.
The full routine, room by room, is in how to get rid of bed bugs.
Itlog ng surot
Ang itlog ng surot ay mga 1 mm lang, kasinlaki ng ulo ng aspili, at puting parang perlas. Kapag lampas limang araw na, may maitim na tuldok ito. Nasa tahi ng kutson, sa bitak ng kama at sa tahi ng sofa ang mga ito. Ang buong gabay sa Tagalog ay nasa paano mawala ang surot sa higaan, at ang itsura ng kagat ay nasa kagat ng surot.
When to have the room treated
Eggs in more than one room, in a sofa as well as the bed, or new bites two weeks after you started, all mean something is still being missed. Book a visit through bed bug treatment and say which rooms and where you found the eggs. We cover Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, Tarlac and Olongapo.
Sources
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Bed bugs: appearance and life cycle, read 1 October 2026
- US Environmental Protection Agency, How to find bed bugs, read 1 October 2026
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Do-it-yourself bed bug control, read 1 October 2026
Tell us what you have found
Send the pest, the town and roughly how long it has been going on. That is enough for us to say what the treatment would involve and what it depends on.