How to Detect Bed Bugs | Bed Bug Infestation | Orkin (2023)

FAQs

How do you detect a bed bug infestation? ›

The first clue suggesting that you may have a bed bug infestation is often the presence of itching bites. However, bites reactions are quite variable and may not be due to bed bugs at all. Be aware of the other signs that bed bugs leave behind: fecal spots, molted skins, and aggregations.

The only way to be certain that you've killed the adult bed bugs and the eggs is to contact a professional bed bug exterminator. The best method to exterminate bed bugs is through heat treatment. In this professional service, technicians bring your home to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

The presence of only one fertile female bed bug in a friendly environment such as a single or multiple family dwelling is an infestation that is waiting to happen.

Generally it takes at least seven weeks for a bed bug to grow from an egg to an adult, so there should be no new adults from eggs during that period. Therefore, if many adult bugs are present one can reasonably assume that the infestation has been there for more than seven weeks.

Ultimately, it can take mere minutes to travel from room-to-room, with infestations growing in a matter of weeks or months. Every day, bed bugs can lay between one and 12 eggs, and anywhere from 200 to 500 eggs in a lifetime.

Don't count on bed bugs to go away on their own. In theory, they can. In practice, they don't unless several highly specific circumstances occur. Your best bet is professional bed bugs treatment.

Clean bedding, linens, curtains, and clothing in hot water and dry them on the highest dryer setting. Place stuffed animals, shoes, and other items that can't be washed in the dryer and run on high for 30 minutes. Use a stiff brush to scrub mattress seams to remove bedbugs and their eggs before vacuuming.

Plus, it only requires one treatment that can be accomplished within the same day, and usually without any further follow-up visits from a pest control company. Heat treatments are highly effective as they can get rid of 95% of bed bugs with just a single treatment.

Light Bed Bug Infestation

Minimal fecal staining (small black stains in areas of travel, feeding, and harborage). Fecal stains will be anywhere the bed bugs hide or travel and can be used to detect hot spots. Minimal cast skins (exuviae are the skins shed during the molting process).

Bed bugs are opportunists. They'll hitch a ride home with you on your coat, clothing, or luggage and quickly infest not just your bedroom, but your whole house. They will take up residence anywhere that there is someone to feed on.

Will bed bugs be in every room? ›

The short answer is that it's possible there are bed bugs in more than one room in your house. It depends on your living habits, how long the bed bugs have been there, how extensive the infestation is and how you respond to their presence once you find out about them.

This publication describes several tools that help detect the presence of bed bugs. Many commercial bed bug monitors are available for detecting bed bugs. Among them, pitfall-style traps are the most cost-effective for detecting bed bugs (Wang et al.

Of all the signs related to a bed bug infestation, bites are probably the most obvious (and most common). Bed bug bites can be flat or raised, and are characterized by itchy, red spots that tend to show up in a zigzag or cluster. They'll often appear on the chest, back, neck, feet, face, and hands.

“People may have bed bugs and not know it because many people have no physical reaction to bed bug bites,” Dr. Harrison says. “That's why it's important for people everywhere to inspect for bed bugs regularly.”

In most cases, bed bugs thrive inside a home whether it's cold or warm outside. In fact, they can be extremely active in the winter months, especially if you keep your home nice and warm to combat the cold. So if you notice bed bugs in your home, don't wait for the cold outdoors to scare them away.

You might be relieved to know that bed bugs don't actually target certain individuals in a home. These bugs aren't picky about who they bite, so you can bet that they're feeding on everyone in your home. Even though you may be the only person who seems to have bites.

Bed bugs are known to travel many yards to reach their human host. Bed bugs are attracted to CO2 pro- duced by the host exhalations, and they are also at- tracted to body heat. However, bed bugs are only able to detect these host cues over short distances (about 3 feet away for CO2 and even less for heat).

"A bed bug is an opportunist, and while their peak feeding time is between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., if you work nights they will come out and feed on you during the day," Furman says.

Bed bugs are shifty pests that typically like to hide no further than a few feet away from their hosts. Therefore, cracks in bed frames, headboards, box springs, mattress seams and even your dresser are all places bed bugs will reside during the day.

Yes! Washing your linens in a hot water wash has proven to be effective in killing bed bugs. Although this may not get rid of your infestation entirely, it will control the bed bug problem.

Can bed bugs survive if no one sleeps in bed? ›

Without a host, however, they are weaker than fully mature bed bugs, and are more likely to starve to death. In warmer temperatures, a bed bug will still survive a couple of months without a meal. That means that even if you leave your house for a couple of weeks, the bed bugs will still be there when you get back.

However, if there are not too many, then chances are that they will not bite every night. On average bed bugs feed once every 3 to 10 nights and spend the rest of the days resting and digesting their meals.

Myth. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that baking soda is a successful home remedy for bed bugs. Baking soda actually breaks down when it comes into contact with water, so the idea that it can absorb the thick fluids found on a bed bug shell is quite questionable.

These bites may be from small biting midges, often called “no-see-ums”. They are also known as punkies or sand flies.

You should treat every two weeks until activity is gone.

Bed bug infestations can take weeks or even months to wipe out. To make sure your treatment is working, check the infested area once a week for a few months.

The number of treatments needed to get control is (national average) 3 to 4 treatments. The first step to treating the problem yourself is taking your bed apart. The frame should be completely deconstructed to reach all cracks and crevices. For any unreachable areas, aerosols are useful.

Those individuals who are not sensitive to bed bug bites may not know they have an infestation. Because bed bugs are nocturnally active, it's hard to see other signs of their presence—unless you're accustomed to waking up at 3 A.M. and taking a census.

Light Bed Bug Infestation

Minimal fecal staining (small black stains in areas of travel, feeding, and harborage). Fecal stains will be anywhere the bed bugs hide or travel and can be used to detect hot spots. Minimal cast skins (exuviae are the skins shed during the molting process).

Can you have a small amount of bed bugs? ›

Can there be just one bed bug? It's impossible to say that there's never only one bed bug, but it's unlikely. Even if there is just one, if it's a pregnant female, it won't be long before there are many, many more.

Rusty or reddish stains on bed sheets or mattresses caused by bed bugs being crushed. Dark spots (about this size: •), which are bed bug excrement and may bleed on the fabric like a marker would. Eggs and eggshells, which are tiny (about 1mm) and pale yellow skins that nymphs shed as they grow larger. Live bed bugs.