They are blood-sucking and wingless insects. In residential areas you can find them in slits in the floor, in pillows, behind frames, in beds, in the seams of mattresses, etc. They are attracted to the carbon dioxide we produce during sleep and so they determine our position and we accept the sting.

Their body, 5-7 mm in size, is oval and flattened, a shape that allows them to move easily in the plumage or hair of the hosts they infest or hide in tight spaces such as cracks in walls and wooden surfaces.

They prefer humans as hosts while in its absence they incubate poultry, songbirds, mice, rats and bats. However, they can move from one apartment to another. They are transported with furniture and bedding and more often with clothes and hand luggage.