If you wake up in the morning with bites all over you that you don’t remember getting, you might have been bitten by mosquitoes on your back porch – or you could have bed bugs. Sometimes it can be tough to tell the difference between bed bug bites and other kinds of parasite bites. That’s why you’ll need to keep an open eye for multiple varieties of biting insects. However, bed bugs in particular are one of the toughest biting bugs to spot, and they’re even tougher to exterminate. Let’s talk about signs you need to look for and what you need to do if you wind up with bed bugs at your Evansville home.
How Can I Spot Bed Bugs?
Contrary to popular myth, bed bugs are not invisible to the naked eye. They’re very small, so you have to look hard to spot them, but you can see them. Bed bugs have almost-round bodies that are shaped like a shield when they’re unfed and become more oblong after a blood meal. Bed bugs are normally tan to light brown. If you look closely at them, you can see they have sectional abdomens, and their legs are all attached at the front of their bodies.
Though they’re not microscopic, bed bugs are great at hiding. That means you might never see them, even though they’re living in your mattress. Normally, the first sign of a bed bug infestation is the evidence of their bites. This evidence can come in the form of tiny, brown bloodstains on your mattress and sheets or itchy welts. The red bumps from bed bug bites usually show up in clusters or straight lines where your body made contact with the mattress while you slept. If you keep finding bites on yourself in the morning or bloodstains on your sheets or mattress, you should start looking for bed bugs.
You might see shed exoskeletons, eggs, or droppings just sitting on your mattress, but you’ll have to look harder for the bugs themselves. Bed bugs are likely to hide between the folds and creases of your mattress, in its seams, and under its buttons. They can also be in your sheets, by the headboard or footboard, and in the box spring. In fact, bed bugs can be anywhere and everywhere in your house. They can hide in carpet fibers, underneath or inside appliances, and even in electronic devices! Nowhere is safe.
How Can I Avoid Bed Bugs
Your two biggest risk factors for contracting bed bugs are traveling and secondhand shopping. That means you need to be extra-vigilant whenever you do either of those things. Take measures like:
- Avoid secondhand shopping.
- If you do secondhand shop, inspect all items you purchase for bugs before bringing them into your home.
- When you stay in hotels, inspect the mattress for bugs before using it.
- Never lay clothing or luggage on hotel beds or sofas.
- Wash clothes and clean your luggage as soon as you get home.
What Do I Do If I Get Bed Bugs?
The thing about bed bugs is they’re really easy to get and really hard to get rid of. If you do wind up with an infestation, you might be tempted to try things like foggers, steam cleaning, or other over-the-counter (OTC) remedies. But as we’ve discussed, bed bugs can spread themselves throughout your house without you ever knowing, so treating your mattress won’t eradicate the infestation.
The best thing you can do if you wind up with bed bugs is call in the experts. Here at Action Pest Control, we’ve got the latest and greatest bed bug control methods – including bug-sniffing dogs that help us find bed bugs in every nook and cranny of your home or business. So give us a call or visit our contact page to set up your inspection today.