Finding Bed Bugs In Your Home

Raymond Web of The InscriberMag posted a good article on ways to find and treat a bed bug infestation which I wanted to discuss today. According to the National Pest Management Association, there has been a 10% increase in bed bug infestations in the United States over the last decade. I think people would be surprised with the number of calls we receive in Utah for bed bug infestations. Most people think bed bugs are not a problem nowadays, but they are becoming more and more common and it’s not true that they are only in unclean places. We have seen many bed bugs in new and very clean homes. These insects aren’t picky about where they will get their next meal.

According to Web, some of the best things to look for when checking for bed bugs include:

• Reddish or rust colored stains on your sheets or mattresses

• Tiny dark excrement spots on your bed and bed sheets

• Tiny eggs and eggshells of bed bugs which are roughly 1mm in size as well as exoskeletons that female bed bugs shed

• Live bed bugs

Check out our Bed Bug Archive for some pictures of what these signs look like.

Also according to Web, here are some common places to check for bed bugs:

• Around your bed frame and in your bedroom

• Between your sofas, cushions, curtains and chairs

• Check in your electrical appliances

• Check on the heads of the screws

• Check in all the dark and tiny crevices in your home

When checking your metal or wood bed frame, there are usually crevices for bed bugs to hide where there are corners in the frame, and you should ensure you check inside any casters (wheels) on the bed frame as well.

Concerning electrical appliances, screw heads, or “all the dark and tiny crevices in your home,” there are a lot of places bed bugs could hide and it is very possible for you to have an anxiety attack while attempting to search all the potential hiding places in your home for signs of bed bugs. The advice I give is to remember bed bugs are lazy and want to travel as little as possible to get their next blood meal. That’s why they are called “bed bugs” even though they don’t live exclusively on beds; they commonly stay within a few feet of an area like a bed where they know humans will be frequently holding still. This is also why couches are a common place for an infestation (think of all the time you spend binge-watching Netflix. You can admit it here. We won’t judge!) If the prospect of searching for signs of bed bugs is too much for you to handle, give us a call for a free inspection and we’d be glad to help.