Bed bugs can be tricky to track down. When you hear about bug infestations, you imagine turning on the kitchen light and seeing an army of cockroaches run for cover, or finding a trail of ants running halfway across your house. This isn’t the case with bed bug. Many people only end up calling an exterminator because they keep waking up with swollen, painful bites all over their body. Unfortunately, a bed bug infestation can’t be diagnosed just by looking at your bites. Bites from mosquitoes, fleas, and scabies are often mistaken for bed bug bites, and vice versa. The same is true of hives and other allergic reactions. There are people who have suffered for months, and even ended up due to swollen bites on the neck constricting their throats, before a late night search of Google put them on the right path.
So while a trained inspector can probably find the culprits, it’s best if you can track down your attackers and make sure that you do in fact have a bed bug problem. Here are some tips for finding bed bugs in your apartment or home. For information on finding bed bugs in hotel rooms, please see our page that answers the question, “how do you get bed bugs?”
Before you start looking, you need to know how to detect bed bugs; quite often, bed bugs aren’t identified by finding an actual live bug. It’s much easier to find what they leave behind. Here are some of the types of evidence of bed bugs that you may happen across.
All right, now we know what we’re looking for. Now the question is, where do bed bugs hide? Here’s a list of ideas to get you started on your search for bed bugs. A flashlight is a must-have when you’re trying to find bed bugs. A magnifying glass is also quite handy.
Yeah, this sounds ridiculously obvious, but quite often, people don’t look closely enough. There have been cases where frequent bed bug bite victims haven’t seen a single bed bug over a period of several months, and yet it turns out their bed is crawling with the buggers.
It’s time to tear your bed apart. Pull all of the sheets and blankets off your bed. While there may be a few bed bugs in the covers or your pillow case, these are usually just strays that were on their way to or from dinner. Bed bugs love the parts of your bed that don’t go through the washer and dryer routinely, which makes sense. Look carefully along every seam running around your mattress, top and bottom. Pull your bed away from any walls and look around those areas. Next, drag your mattress off the bed and examine the bed frame. Turn the bed frame over and look at the underside of it, in every corner, joint, and joist. If the slats are screwed into place, detach them and check them over carefully.If a space or crevice is big enough to fit the edge of a credit card in, then it’s big enough for a bed bug.
It’s time to widen the search a bit. Chairs, loveseats, couches, dressers, bedside tables–bed bugs love them all. As with your bed, look carefully in the seams of upholstered furniture. Loose coverings or cushions need to be examined as well. Remove the drawers from dressers and cabinets, and use a flashlight to examine every surface and seam, both on the drawers and in the frame of the cabinet. Turn all furniture upside down and inspect the undersides. Check anything near your bed, including laptops, alarm clocks, and other personal items.
Start from the bottom. Do a careful inspection along all the baseboards. If the baseboards aren’t snug against the wall or floor, remove the baseboards. If you have carpet, then you’ve really got a job on your hands. Look along all carpet seams, as well as under any loose edges. If you have a wood floor, check spaces where floor boards don’t join together tightly. Even a screw hole or nail hole will make a lovely home for a bed bug. Move your way up the wall. If there is any furniture or fixtures against the bedroom walls, pull them out of the way and check behind them carefully. Window sills and casements need to be examined. Loose edges of wallpaper, wall hangings, picture frames, window blinds and drapes–go over all of them with a fine tooth comb. Remove all light switch plates and electrical outlet plates. Bed bugs have been known to use electrical outlets as a fast way to move through adjoining apartments. Lastly, check all corners along the ceiling, especially if you have crown molding or any other ornamentation.
Bed bugs can live the entirety of their lives just fine without ever setting foot in your bedroom. They may be biting you when you’re in the living room watching TV, or any other space where people sit down for a few minutes. Repeat the search you did in your bedroom. Carefully check bookshelves; even books can harbor bed bugs, so check the spaces between books, as well as the book bindings. Look in any light fixtures and smoke detectors.
Looking for bed bugs can be an infuriating process. Sometimes, an infestation isn’t confirmed until a lazy bed bug slips up and shows itself in a place you’ve checked a hundred times. One way to proactively seek out particularly sneaky bugs can be to use traps. Many companies make bed bug traps. There are two types that are especially popular: (1) baited traps, which use bait to lure bed bugs, and (2), passive sticky traps, which are placed under the legs of beds and couches, and trap bed bugs when they’re commuting between work (munching on you) and home (wherever they’ve been hiding). Some particularly crafty people have made their own sticky traps out of butter containers coated with tape or Vaseline.
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