HOW TO IDENTIFY BED BUGS
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. Learn about identifying bed bugs.
Bites on the skin are a poor indicator of a bed bug infestation. Bed bug bites can look like bites from other insects (such as mosquitoes or chiggers), rashes (such as eczema or fungal infections), or even hives. Some people do not react to bed bug bites at all.
WHAT CAN YOU LOOK FOR?
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, look 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 (about 1mm) and pale yellow skins that nymphs shed as they grow larger.
Live bed bugs (if you have one, it’s not alone)
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 Bugs Arizona offers a free, in-home bed bug inspection and a one-year warranty on all bed bug services. No obligation. We specialize in apartment communities. Our fast, certified technicians provide the Pro-Treat Plus method of bed bug removal to Phoenix and surrounding cities in a 100-mile plus radius including Flagstaff, Globe, and Casa Grande. Veteran and senior discounts. Call now at (602) 962-8806.
