What do bed bugs eat?

Your blood!

Like ticks and mosquitoes, bed bugs are looking for your blood. As you sleep and dream of something far more pleasant, the bug injects its double-tubed beak into your skin. One tube delivers the bug’s saliva, which contains an anesthetic (so you don’t feel it) and an anticoagulant (so the blood won’t clot). The bug’s body becomes longer, swollen, and darker, as the other tube sucks in your blood.

Bed bugs prefer feasting on people. But if you’re not around, your warm-blooded house pet — cat or dog — will do.

The amount of blood that engorges the bed bug is not usually missed by the victim. But let’s face facts: Donating blood is a wonderful gesture that helps people. Having it taken by stealth from you or your pets, however — that has to stop.