If you have an infestation, it is best to find it early, before the infestation becomes established or spreads. Treating a minor infestation, while an inconvenience, is far less costly and easier than treating the same infestation after it becomes more widespread.
However, low-level infestations are also much more challenging to find and correctly identify.
Other insects, such as carpet beetles, can be easily mistaken for bed bugs. If you misidentify a bed bug infestation, it gives the bugs more time to spread to other areas of the house or hitchhike a ride to someone else’s house to start a new infestation.
Bites on the skin are a poor indicator of a bed bug infestation. Bed bug bites can look like bites from other insects, rashes, or even hives. Some people do not react to bed bug bites at all.
How to Find Bed Bugs – Quick Tips
If you want to know how to find bed bugs then you will need to take the time to learn about this particular problem and how you can help to prevent it from happening.
These insects are not only a nuisance but they can also be very harmful to your health if they are allowed to grow and spread.
So, if you do happen to catch these bugs in your home then you have to remove them as quickly as possible.
If you have not noticed them yet then chances are that you will in the future so it is important to keep a close eye on what is going on in your home.
Once you do notice the appearance of them then you should start looking for signs that you may have the problem.
- One of the signs that you should look for are bugs that are running around in areas where you may be sleeping.
- Since these insects are small, you should be able to see them as they crawl around your house.
- If you find that you cannot find any then you should get rid of any hiding spots that you may have in your home such as under furniture and walls.
How Can You Detect Bed Bugs?
There are several ways on how to detect bed bugs, and some of them are very simple and some are not so simple.
How can you detect bed bugs?
- They can be found in numerous places such as furniture, luggage, in the house, under beds, clothes, mattresses, and the furniture itself.
- Most people will find bed bugs on mattresses or beds, but sometimes these little critters can hide in luggage.
They can be a health hazard for the human body, if they bite an individual.
So how can you detect bed bugs?
- You can check for these bugs during the day time by searching the bedrooms and the bathrooms.
- Check the furniture and determine whether the bugs are hiding under it or have already eaten.
- You can also inspect the mattresses and determine if they are dirty.
- You may also want to conduct the sweep of the whole house once or twice a year.
- This will help you know how to detect bed bugs.
- Usually, they are very hard to detect during the night time when the temperature is cooler.
How can you detect bed bugs?
If you know how to recognize a bug, you can be sure that you have detected them.
- A common sign of these pests is the red spots that appear on the skin.
This does not mean that the bugs are dead yet; it only means that the damage has already been done.
It is important that you remove these red spots immediately.
After identifying the presence of bugs, it is recommended that you throw away the belongings that might be infected and clean the bedding, clothing, furniture, luggage, etc.
The results will show how to detect bed bugs.
What is the first sign of Bed Bugs?
Many people who have gotten into the habit of living in areas where bed bugs are prevalent don’t even know what is the first sign of bed bugs.
It is just too easy to ignore it when it happens that way.
However, as the bugs continue to reproduce at a rapid rate, it will soon become clear that something is not right and the situation is not right.
In most cases, when the bug you found has multiplied to the point where it is eating your belongings, you will be the first to know about it.
As you take precautionary measures against the growth of the bugs, you can avoid having your possessions attacked by these pests.
What is the first sign of bed bugs?
- The first sign is the appearance of red welts, small dabs or skin eruptions all over your stuff.
As you can see, these are little bites and this will be the first sign of bed bugs that you will be able to detect.
This can happen when the bugs start to eat the fabric of your bed but there may be other places where the bites are visible, like on your bed sheets or on your mattresses.
What is the first sign of bed bugs?
- The second sign is the formation of small discolored spots that are hardly visible to the naked eye.
These spots will give the first indication that there might be some way that the bedbugs have managed to penetrate the fabrics of your mattress.
- You should also look for red marks on your pillows or other furniture.
There is the chance that these are made by the bugs themselves, and they will eat these marks in order to get to your belongings.
Can You See Bed Bugs With the Naked Eye?
Are you wondering if you can see bed bugs with the naked eye?
If so, then you have come to the right place. We are going to be talking about what to look for when checking out a house that is infested with bed bugs.
This is a topic that many people want to know about.
Most people do not even know how to tell if they have bed bugs in their home or apartment.
- If you take a good look around the bedroom, you will find bed bugs hiding underneath your pillows, comforters, and more.
- If you see any of these things, do not waste any time, call a pest control expert right away!
- We live in a world today where our homes are being invaded by this type of life form.
- You do not want to be the next person to be infected with bed bugs in your home.
- There are different methods that you can use to locate the bugs and kill them.
We are going to discuss how to use these methods here.
First, you will want to buy a simple device that can be used to help check for bed bugs.
These devices use infrared technology to identify the bugs before you actually see them.
They are so small that they will not be seen with the naked eye.
Once you see them, they will be bigger and there will be thousands of them.
These tiny bugs will hide in the creases of your couch, or even under your box spring.
They will come out at night and bite you.
We strongly suggest that you get a device like this if you suspect you have bed bugs.
Looking for Signs of Bed Bugs
A more accurate way to identify a possible infestation is to look for physical signs of bed bugs. When cleaning, changing bedding, or staying away from home, looks for:
- Rusty or reddish stains on bed sheets or mattresses caused by bed bugs being crushed.
- Dark spots, which are bed bug excrement and may bleed on the fabric like a marker would.
- Eggs and eggshells, which are tiny and pale yellow skins that nymphs shed as they grow larger.
- Live bed bugs.
Where Bed Bugs Hide
When not feeding, bed bugs hide in a variety of places. Around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard.
If the room is heavily infested, you may find bed bugs:
- In the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains.
- In drawer joints.
- In electrical receptacles and appliances.
- Under loose wall paper and wall hangings.
- At the junction where the wall and the ceiling meet.
- Even in the head of a screw.
Since bed bugs are only about the width of a credit card, they can squeeze into really small hiding spots. If a crack will hold a credit card, it could hide a bed bug.
Bed Bug Behavior and Habit
Understanding the behavior of bed bugs (how they eat, live, and reproduce) will help you to find an infestation before it becomes established and to monitor for the presence of bed bugs after your home has been treated.
Feeding:
- Appear to prefer to feed on humans, but will feed on other mammals and birds as well.
- Will readily travel 5-20 feet from established hiding places (called harborage) to feed on a host.
- Even though they are primarily active at night, if hungry they will seek hosts in full daylight.
- Feeding can take 3-12 minutes.
- The rusty or tarry spots found on bed sheets or in bug hiding places are because most of the time adults and large nymphs will void remains of earlier blood meals while still feeding.
Life stages/mating:
- Bed bugs need at least one blood meal before the individual bug can develop to the next of the six life stages.
- They can feed more than once.
- Each stage also requires the molting of skin.
- To continue to mate and produce eggs, both males and females must feed at least once every 14 days.
- Each female may lay 1 to 3 eggs per day and 200-500 eggs per her lifetime (6-12 months but could be longer).
- Egg-to-egg life cycle may take four to five weeks under favorable conditions.
Living conditions:
- Bed bugs can survive and remain active at temperatures as low as 7?C (46?F), but they die when their body temperatures reaches 45?C (113?F).
- To kill bed bugs with heat, the room must be even hotter to ensure sustained heat reaches the bugs no matter where they are hiding.
- Common bed bugs are found almost anywhere their host can live.
- Tropical bed bugs (Cimex hemipterus) require a higher average temperature than the common bed bug and are found in tropical and subtropical areas.
