Bed Bugs: How To Spot Them and What to Do

When it comes to bugs that are unwelcome tenants in your home, bed bugs are definitely among the worst. These destructive pests are elusive and super tough to get rid of. For many people, the experience of dealing with them is long and costly one.

Bed bugs can be found anywhere, though they’re most commonly spotted in single-family homes, apartments, and hotel/motel rooms. Other sneaky sites include office buildings, daycares, dorm rooms, public transportation, and hospitals. They’re quick to hitch a ride on things like luggage and clothing to spread to additional locations. And while they’re easy to confuse with other pests (fleas and cockroaches in particular), a survey by the National Pest Management Association reported that the opposite is true too. People often call pest professionals to complain about one pest and find out they have a bed bug infestation.

Unfortunately, bed bugs can and do happen—especially among those living in population-dense areas. Here’s how to tell if you have a bed bug infestation and what to do about it. We also include answers to some of the most common questions and concerns.

How Do You Know if You Have Bed Bugs?

Bed bugs are small, brown, and flat oval-shaped insects that live on the blood of humans and animals. They’re about the size of an apple seed, but well-fed bed bugs may appear larger and more red in color. Though it’s usually not by sight that you notice these pests in your home.

In many cases, the first sign of a bed bug infestation is red and itchy bites on your skin when you wake up, generally on your arms or shoulders. These bites tend to be clustered. You’ll usually find several of them in the same area, sometimes in a straight line.

Other signs that bed bugs might be at play include:

• Small bloodstains on your bedding, mattress, clothes, or the wall by the bed
• Little, dust-like bed bug fecal spots on your bedding and/or mattress
• Shed bed bug skin, shells, or exoskeletons on your bedding and/or mattress
• Bed bug eggs, which are small, pearly white, and found in clusters

These little guys are good at hiding. If you suspect you’ve got them, you can usually find them congregating between your mattress and box spring. You might also find them in your mattress seams, as well as around your headboard, baseboard, or bedside table. It’s not just beds either—other pieces of furniture can also harbor infestations. Check in between couch and chair cushions, around furniture joints, and around outlets, artwork, and wallpaper seams.

If you find bed bugs—or even highly suspect their presence—take action right away. The longer you wait to deal with them, the more serious the infestation can become.

How to Get Rid of Them

One of the biggest bummers about bed bugs is how difficult they are to remove from homes. While many pest problems can be solved with a bug bomb or quick fumigation, these creatures are incredibly resilient. Effective treatment requires tackling everywhere in your home that they could proliferate—including not just your bed but the clothes and other belongings that you keep in your room. If you leave any behind, you can easily find yourself facing the same problem all over again. They can live up to a year without feeding, and females lay hundreds of eggs at a time.

Here’s what to do.

Grab the vacuum

Seal up bedding, clothes, and belongings

Launder everything

Prevent future infestations

When to Call in a Professional

Bed bugs are finicky, and even with serious diligence, there is never a guarantee that you’ll be able to get rid of them on your own. After taking all of the steps above, it’s time to call in pest control if you find them again. These guys are pros at beating bed bugs at their own game, though it will set you back about $500 to $1,500, plus the cost of a consultation. While it’s certainly not cheap, it can save you a lot of time and money in cleaning and item replacements.

Bed Bug FAQs

Here are a few more things to know about these annoying insects.

What is the main cause of bed bugs?

It’s hard to point to one specific thing; however, bed bugs don’t exactly show up out of thin air either. These guys are good at traveling unnoticed. In a lot of cases, if they’re in your home, it’s because they hopped onto your luggage or clothing when you unknowingly came into contact with them in another location (a good reason as any not to put your luggage on your bed when you’re unpacking after a trip).

Do they spread disease?

While scientists have located 27 different human diseases in bed bug blood, there is no evidence that these diseases can be transmitted from their bites. That’s good news, though they can still take an emotional and mental toll, if not a physical one.

Do they bite pets?

Fortunately, bed bugs aren’t fond of our pets, likely because of their fur. They may climb over them or use them as a way to get inside your house, but you usually won’t have to worry about bites.

If you’re renting, are bed bugs your landlord’s responsibility?

This is a tricky one. Bed bug treatment doesn’t usually fall under necessary landlord maintenance since it’s not legally considered to make a unit uninhabitable. And in cases where the tenant is found to be responsible for bringing the infestation in, the responsibility often falls on them to remedy the situation. However, if your infestation is caused by something else—such as bed bugs traveling into your apartment through other units—you may have cause to turn to your landlord for a remedy.

Do you always need to throw out your mattress?

Not necessarily. If you don’t want to get rid of your mattress, invest in a zippered mattress cover and keep it on for at least a year. If you do toss your mattress (or any other piece of infested furniture), put a sign on it letting people know about the bed bugs, so they don’t accidentally take the item—and the bugs—home with them.