Knowing more about bed bug behavior and these creatures' habits can help you learn more about how to prevent them and protect yourself from an infestation. In this section, we'll look at how and when they feed, and their life cycle. Bed bugs will feed on any warm-blooded mammal. It's easier for them to bite humans, though, as we are not covered in thick fur like pets. Bed bugs tend to feed while we are asleep and are attracted to bodily warmth and the carbon dioxide humans exhale. This attracts them to a reliable source of blood so they can feed. Bed bugs can feed as often as once a day and need to feed before molting. It only takes them a few minutes to feed before they go back into hiding for the rest of the night. Nymph and adult bed bugs derive their food source from the blood of animals, including humans. A bed bug's life begins with a five-stage growth cycle to adulthood over about 37 days. As adults, they can live for about a year, depending on their access to food and the ambient temperature. An adult female bed bug can lay roughly 113 eggs in her lifetime. At this rate, bed bug populations can double every 16 days. With thousands of bed bugs in one location, infestations take hold quickly.