How to tell if you have bedbugs?
If you’re lying down in bed and you feel itchy for no good reason, you may think that’s a sign that you have bedbugs – and it can be, but these small bites from bedbugs can look the same as bites from other small insects. It can also look like hives, or even rashes. There are also a lot of people that don’t even show any physical reaction to bites from bedbugs at all.
To really tell if you have bedbugs, it would go a long way to regularly check your mattress (and bedframe) as part of your cleaning routine. This way, you can surely spot signs that you have bedbugs living with you.
Unexplained stains
If you find stains on your mattress, sheets and pillowcases and you don’t know where or how these stains could have come from, then one possible explanation is that these could be blood from bedbugs that have been unknowingly crushed by anyone sleeping on your bed – or, even a more unpleasant thought, these stains may even be fecal matter from bedbugs.
Make sure you thoroughly check your mattress, the sides, any lining, any zipper area or tags, any nooks and crannies they could squeeze into. You’ll also want to check the bedframe itself including the headboard.
Bedbugs are tiny, no more than the size of an apple seed. They’re brown in color, which changes to a reddish hue when they’ve fed, and they also look swollen – the more blood they’ve fed on, the more swollen they get.
If you see what looks to be tiny cracks from eggshells on your bed, that could be from their eggs, and small yellow flakes may be shed skin from bedbugs.
Bedbugs are not only found on your bed – as mentioned, they can be found on the actual bed frame, and they especially like hiding in cracks in wooden frames. Aside from the bed area, they can be on couches and cushions, chairs, even curtains. In heavily infested rooms, they can even be found in electrical receptacles and various appliances, even in wall hangings and loose wallpaper – where they’ll have to travel from to feed off of you.
While bedbugs like human blood, they have been known to feed on other smaller animals like dogs and cats too.
If you travel a lot and stay in different hotels and motels, you may want to check for signs of bedbugs there too, because then you’ll carry a risk of bringing them with you when you leave.
Contributed by: Watchdog Pest Control – Foremost Experts in Bed Bug Remediation and Pest Management.
Watchdog Pest Control
3542 East Altadena Avenue
Phoenix, Az. 85028
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