Check your room for signs of Bed Bug Infestation

Check your Room for Signs of Bed Bug Infestation

It is pretty easy to check for bed bugs when you know exactly how to. Some of the signs of bed bug infestation include bites, bed bug droppings and shed skin. In this post, you will be learning how to check your living room for bed bug.

The problem with bed bugs is that they are hard to spot. Worse, their bites look pretty much like that of a mosquito bite.

Below are some pretty simple ways of checking for bed bug

Identification

When fully grown, bed bugs can be seen with the unaided eyes. They mostly live in headboards, loose wallpapers and paneling, under tables, crevices ceilings and beddings. You will also find them in mattress seams, luggage and baseboard. Adult bed bugs have size and shape of an apple seed. They have a red to brown coloration; with their lower back swelling up after filling their tank with blood. After feeding, their body color will remain red for days, until they are ready to feed.

They pass through 5 different stages before getting to adulthood from babyhood. At baby stage (nymph), it is difficult to spot them with the naked eyes. While being hard to spot, the presence of bed bug eggs is a clear sign of bed bug presence. The eggs of bed bugs have a whitish color, measuring 1 millimeter in length, and are mostly found in clusters.

Aggregation

To make feeding easy, bed bugs form an aggregation by congregating close to their host. Host here means whoever lies in bed. Before reaching adulthood, the nymph will have to pass through 5 stages, changing its shape and size all along. When they move from one stage to the other, they will shed off their feces, egg castings and exoskeleton. Certain external stimuli can cause them to aggregate; humidity, temperature, light, chemical stimuli, smells. They aggregate mostly under wood frames, curtain rods, luggage, baseboards, paint indentions, and closet doors.

Molted Skins

Bed bugs often leave off their empty shells around areas where they feed and aggregate. They require blood meals to grow as they move from one stage to the other. When they leave each stage, they will shed their shells and exoskeletons, as only then can they get bigger. This process is known as molting. They molt as much as five times before becoming a fully realized adult. A large number of molted skins are indicative of heavy bed bug infestation. They shed shells are of the same shape and size as the actual bed bug, only that they have a translucent skin color. The size of the shed skin depends on the stage of the bug.

Fecal Spots

Bed bugs leave liquid waste wherever they visit. Being parasitic in nature, they are always looking for unsuspecting victims to feed on. They feed once in 5 to 7 days. One easy way of checking for bed bug infestation is to look for fecal spots which consist of excess water they draw from the blood of their host. The blood they digest will then be deposited on the skin of the host they feed on. Always bear in mind that fecal spots have a black color, not red as with undigested blood, and they are mostly found in groups, not single units. If you find just a few fecal spots, it means bed bug infestation hasn’t grown so large.