How to Detect a Bed Bug Infestation Around You
Do you wake up to itchy tiny red bumps on your skin? Thinking that they might be bites from bedbugs? Read further to discover some of the main signs that your fear may be confirmed!
It is incredibly crucial that you discover any existing bedbug infestations in your home before they spread to other parts. It is always best to act as fast as possible since every cycle of female bed bugs will lay up to two hundred eggs, which will hatch within an unbelievably short time frame. Before you know it, you will become infested and have a much more severe problem. Follow these ten steps to learn about some apparent signs of a bed bug infestation.
Dark Spots on Your Sheets
As the name "bed bug" implies, the first item you want to inspect for a bedbug infestation in your bed. Check your sheets for dark stains, bloodstains left behind by bugs when they feed on their hosts. These stains can also be their excreta, and you can also find them on your mattress seams, boxspring tufts, and other folded location that will offer harborage. Once you notice the dried blood spots on your sheets or bed, you will want to begin your physical search for bedbugs.
The Old Shedding Of Exoskeletons Will Also Confirm Infestations
Bloodstains are not the only signs with which you can detect a bedbug infestation in your home. Their old skin casings will also help you trace them.
During every growth cycle, bedbugs shed their old skins or casings as they transition from one stage to another. When they shed their exoskeleton, they do not carry the casing with them – they will discard them on your bed, sheets, or other adjacent locations to nesting sites.
These skin remnants will be visible to a trained eye. They are tiny, transparent reddish-brown enclosures that are oval. The moment you begin to notice these shed casings on your bed, you know it is time to look at Pest Control Companies to find one who can handle your confirmed bed bug infestation.
Your Skin Is The Next Checkpoint Of An Inspection
Generally, your skin is usually the first place to see a noticeable presence of bedbugs. Bed bugs feed on humans and live off their blood. Once bed bugs bite, in most cases, they leaving your skin bumpy with small red itchy raised bulges. This makes a skin inspection pretty crucial if you indeed suspect bed bugs.
Bed bugs feed mostly at night when they are sure a host is going to be most dormant. Nevertheless, they can also feed while you are in transit, or enjoying the fresh evening air on a sofa, in your patio, or any location you choose to stay stationary for any length of time near a nest. Bed bugs usually leave behind bite marks that are similar to those from mosquitos. Since bed bugs are social, they love to eat together; you may find several bites in a particular spot on your skin.
You may also not find yourself reacting to bites from bed bugs because not everybody physically reacts to them. Scan your bed, furniture, and entire home for signs of bedbugs.
Inspect for Bed Bug Eggs Directly
Since bed bugs reproduce, another way to detect their infestation is to directly inspect beds and boxsprings for eggs and shells casings from hatching. These eggs are usually found and look like a cluster of rice grains. Each of them has an elongated shape and can either be white or translucent in appearance.
Beds Are not The Only Place To Inspect For a Bed bug Infestation.
Your bed and furniture are not the only places bed bugs love to hide, they will also frequent the inside of walls, specially padded or wallpapered ones – also make a suitable habitat for them. So, scan your walls and wallpapers for dark stains or droppings that announce bedbugs.
Bed bugs usually discard their previous blood meal as fecal waste to make space for a fresh one. So, in your search for them, ensure to check for stains that smear when you try to wipe them off your walls.
Musty Smells On Fabric Can Also Be A Sign Of A Bed Bug Infestation?
Bed bugs are known to release pheromones, such that the odor produced by several of them will be easily detected. If your home, bed, or furniture begin to smell as though you placed damp towels in them, you may want to intensify your search for bedbugs or call professional pest control companies to assist you.
Someone Around You Has Had an Infestation
Did anyone of your friends and family members ever talk to you about a bed bug infestation? If yes, it is possible that a couple of the bed bugs accompanied them to share their predicament with you.
Bed bugs love to travel, and distance is never a hindrance to them. Provided they can latch on to an article of clothing or a briefcase while on transit, locating their host – or new hosts – is never a problem. Therefore, you may want to scan the places where your friend visited your home.
Hotel Beds Are Not Safe
Travel a lot? Find the need to spend time in hotels; you will undoubtedly want to check for bedbug infestations before parking that suitcase or laying down for that long-awaited nap. You don't want to cuddle up next to bed bugs.
So before you drift off to sleep in that soft and cozy hotel bed, follow these steps to ensure you're not snuggling up on bedbugs:
Scan the bedding, walls, and furniture for bedbug droppings and eggs.
Check the bed thoroughly for those blood spatters around tufts and seams, check around cracks, crevices, and other possible nesting sites.
Place your travel bags away from the bed and furniture, so you don't have bedbugs crawl into it while you're fast asleep.
Right before you inspect your hotel room, do the following to avoid carrying an unwanted guest into your home:
Scan your bag and clothing thoroughly for signs of these pesky bloodsuckers.
Wash and Dry your travel clothes immediately and thoroughly on high heat before putting them back into your wardrobe.
Garage Sales May Not Have The Best Deals
While you're excited about purchasing furniture at a reduced price from a garage sale next door, don't forget first to scan them for bedbugs. You definitely do not want to end up spending the dollar you managed to save from the sales on a professional pest control treatment.
The Easiest Bed Bug Of All To Spot
If you are capable of spotting the discarded casings, eggs, and fecal remnants from bed bugs, you will have no difficulty locating the adults. Mature bedbugs are usually dark brown and have an average height of around 6mm, and a body width about that of an apple seed. Bed bugs are way smaller than cockroaches and can be mistaken for ticks at times.
Since bed bugs reproduce quickly and are pretty tricky to spot, you will want to get a pest control expert to assist in the unfortunate situation.
Conclusion
Now that you have confirmed bedbugs are infesting your home, it is best to call pest control experts immediately to help you get rid of the infestation. Contact should be made promptly to prevent the bugs from spreading to other parts of your home as they can do this very quickly.