Adult bed bugs are oval in shape and they are also wingless. They are ¼ to 3/8 inch long and are a rusty red or mahogany color. The Eggs are white and are about 1/25 inch long, newly hatched bed bugs are nearly colorless or even straw colored.
Bed bugs are active mainly at night; they reach peak activity right before dawn. During the daytime, they prefer to hide close to where people sleep. Their flattened bodies enable them to fit into tiny crevices, they are known for hiding in mattresses, box springs, bed frames, and headboards.
I think what makes bed bugs everyone’s worst nightmare is that they feed on humans. Bed bugs ordinarily feed within 24 hours of hatching and they take up to 10 minutes to complete a blood meal. They feed by inserting two hollow, beak-like feeding tubes into their host. The first tube injects the bug’s saliva, which contains anesthetics that will numb the feeding area. They will consume 2-5 times their own body weight in blood during that time. A bed bug can live several months without having a blood meal!
Female bed bugs usually deposit 3 to 8 eggs at a time; a total of 200-500 eggs can be produced by one female over her 10 month life span! The newly hatched nymph is almost colorless or straw-colored before feeding, and then it turns red or purple in color after it’s first blood meal.
I suppose it depends on what you consider damage. The bite of a bed bug is painless. The amount of blood loss due to bed bug feeding does not adversely affect the host. However, if your wife is anything like mine and she is bitten by a blood feeding bug, the bed bug itself would be the least of my worries!