Bed Bug Identification
What Are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs are small, oval-shaped insects that feed exclusively on the blood of humans and warm-blooded animals. They begin their lives in the nymph stage as a creamy white color and darken as they grow into adults, becoming reddish-brown over time.
Bed bugs are tiny, growing only to around five to seven millimeters - about the size of an apple seed - making infestations difficult to see with the naked eye, especially in the nymph stage of growth.
Bed bugs can live in many different parts of your home and usually gravitate to small fabric areas like the cracks between cushions, mattresses, box springs, and any other upholstered furniture. They will also hide behind electrical outlets and picture frames and even in popcorn ceilings.
What Does A Bed Bug Bite Look Like?
Bed bugs are most active at night, feeding on the blood of unsuspecting homeowners as they sleep. Since bed bugs usually only come out at night, most people don't realize they have bed bugs until bites show up on their bodies.
Since not everyone reacts to bed bug bites, it's possible not to know you have a bed bug problem until someone else in your family starts complaining about bug bites.
Bed bug bites may take anywhere from a few hours to as long as nine days to show up. Some people will have a sensitivity to bed bug saliva, which will cause them to develop lesions that may closely resemble mosquito bites. However, bed bug bites usually do not have a red dot in the center.
Bed bug bites are often mistaken for flea bites, but there are a couple of differences. First, fleas tend to bite around the ankles and extremities while bed bugs prefer to bite on the trunk of your body. Second, fleas tend to bite in random patterns, while bed bug bites tend to be in linear patterns.
How To Determine If You Have Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs prefer to hide near where you spend most of your time sleeping or resting. They are attracted to us by our warmth and by the CO2 (carbon dioxide) produced when we exhale.
To determine if your home is infested with bed bugs, it is best to begin by carefully searching along the seams of your bed and box spring with a flashlight. We recommend thoroughly inspecting your headboard and any furniture where you or your family spend a significant amount of time resting. You'll find approximately 80% of bed bugs within three to five feet of your bed's headboard.
Besides looking for bed bugs themselves, there are several signs of their presence that can alert you to an infestation. Small red dots of blood on your sheets or blankets, brown or tan streaks of fecal matter, and discarded skins and egg casings are all signs of a bed bug infestation.
Call Native Pest Management today to schedule your FREE same day bed bug inspection - servicing all of Broward, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.