Bed bugs are literally a worst nightmare—they are tiny creatures that feed on peoples’ blood in the middle of the night. A single bed bug can quickly escalate into a huge infestation. Worst of all, people normally have a very hard time actually seeing bed bugs. They are very tiny and their measurements depend on their age.
Experts usually compare the size of baby bed bugs to a speck of dirt and adult bed bugs to an apple-seed. Baby bed bugs who have not fed on blood tend to be light in color while adults who have recently sucked blood appear brown or rusty. They also love to hide, making it even harder to see them. They are paper-thin and enjoy to hide in cracks, box springs, and the insides of the edges on your mattress. Finally, bed bugs like to feed at night or during the early dawn, when most people are asleep.
By the time their victims wake up, the bed bugs have gone back into hiding. Most of the time, people need a professional bed bug exterminator to kill off their infestation. However, before they call an exterminator, many people like to confirm that bed bugs are infesting their home.
Although bed bugs are experts at hiding and going unnoticed, there are still ways for people to determine if bed bugs are infesting their personal space. Anyone can conduct their own bed bug investigation but a professional bed bug exterminator will know exactly what to look for and where to look for it. They might even use the aid of a bed bug-sniffing dog.
One of the easiest ways for anyone to look for bed bugs is to conduct a visual inspection of mattresses and other sleeping areas. The most common area to find bed bugs is to look along the edges of mattresses. Those areas make great hiding places for bed bugs. They also tend to hide in baseboards, around door and window casings, in electrical outlets, behind lose wallpaper, under carpets, or anywhere that is dark.
If a room shows no physical evidence of bed bugs, there are several other ways to look for signs of them. While inspecting all mattresses, look for dark spots that closely resemble ink stains. These stains are usually the bugs’ dried fecal matter. Fecal stains are also commonly found on mattress tags, on the frame of box springs, and near electrical outlets. Baby bed bugs that are growing will also shed their skin after a blood meal.
Every bed bug goes through five shedding processes before it becomes an adult. The shed skin looks almost identical to the actual bug except that it’s immobile. Bed bugs commonly leave shed skin along mattress seams and around head boards. Large infestations will leave behind more shed skins than smaller infestations, making them easier to spot. Finally, sometimes a bed bug infestation can give off a musty, sweet odor.
If a house has an official bed bug infestation, there are some steps that people can take to get rid of them. If only a mattress or sleeping area has a bed bug infestation, people can buy mattress covers to put over their beds. These mattress covers will trap the bed bugs and will kill them after a year, provided that they have no access to blood. Exposure to heat will kill bed bugs on sheets, blankets, and clothing. Exposing bed bugs to a high temperature (between 104 and 122 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes will get the job done. Freezing bed bugs for two hours or more will also kill them. Do-it-yourself methods generally just provide a temporary solution and is not guaranteed to get rid of the entire infestation. A professional bed bug exterminator, Heat n Go Pest Control.com, can properly get rid of the infestation by performing a special treatment method.