Can Bed Bugs Be Green or Orange? Not a Bed Bug — Here’s What It Likely Is

Bed bugs cannot be green—there are no green bed bugs in any life stage. If you found a green bug in your bed, you have found a different species. Bed bugs can sometimes appear orange under warm-toned lighting, but true orange coloration in bed bugs is extremely rare and almost always a lighting artifact. This guide gives you the fast, definitive answer and helps you identify what the green or orange bug in your bedroom actually is.

Green Bed Bugs: Do They Exist?

No. The species Cimex lectularius (the common bed bug) has no green pigmentation at any life stage—not as an egg, nymph, or adult. Their exoskeleton ranges from white/translucent at hatching through various shades of brown to reddish-brown as adults. Green is not in their biological color range.

What Is the Green Bug in Your Bed?

Green insects found indoors near beds are almost always one of these:

• Stink bug nymphs (Halyomorpha halys): Green to brown striped nymphs that enter homes through windows. They do not bite but release a strong odor when disturbed.
• Green lacewing adults: Long, delicate green insects with transparent wings. They are beneficial insects that occasionally come indoors.
• Aphids: Tiny green insects associated with houseplants. If you have plants near your bed, aphids may drop onto bedding.
• Green June beetle larvae: Pale green grubs found in soil—if you have potted plants, occasionally found in substrate.

If it’s green, it has not bitten you. None of the likely green candidates bite humans in the way bed bugs do.

Orange Bed Bugs: Possible or Not?

This is more nuanced. Bed bugs themselves are not orange, but several factors can make them appear orange:

• Warm LED or incandescent lighting: The amber-straw color of 2nd and 3rd instar nymphs can appear orange-tinted under warm light sources.
• Camera white balance: Smartphone cameras often shift colors under artificial lighting—a tan nymph can appear orange in a photo.
• Clover mites: True, confirmed orange-red insects (0.75mm, round, eight legs) that enter homes from outside.

Clover mites are the most common cause of “orange bug in bedroom” reports and are definitively not bed bugs.

Have Evidence Photos?

Found a bug that appears green or orange and want to determine if it's a bed bug or something else entirely? The color alone rules out most bed bug scenarios, but upload a photo anyway—our AI will analyze body shape, leg count, wing presence, and size to make an accurate species determination regardless of color.

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Using Color as a Quick Exclusion Tool

The bed bug color range (white/translucent → straw → tan → brown → reddish-brown) is well-defined. Anything outside this range is almost certainly not a bed bug:

• Green → Not a bed bug. Stink bug nymph or plant insect.
• Bright orange → Not a bed bug. Clover mite or lighting artifact on a tan nymph.
• Yellow → Not a bed bug. Psocids, mold mites, or carpet beetle larvae.
• Pure white (moving) → Possible early nymph if 1.5mm and flat/oval. Otherwise book lice or mites.
• Black → Not a living bed bug. Carpet beetle, bat bug, or fecal spot.

For the full color range guide including all life stages and feeding transformations, see: what color are bed bugs.

Further Color Research

• Are Bed Bugs Red in Color? — The only red scenario where it might be a bed bug
• Are Bed Bugs White in Color? — Early-stage nymph identification
• Are Bed Bugs Black or Brown? — Why bed bugs are never truly black

Have Evidence Photos?

You now know that green means 'not a bed bug' and orange likely means 'lighting artifact or clover mite.' Use this exclusion knowledge and upload your photo—if the color is outside the bed bug range, our AI will identify the actual species so you know exactly what you're dealing with.

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