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Bed bugs are not hazardous to your and your family’s health. They are, however, major causes of persistent, chronic allergies which can affect your day-to-day tasks. But worse than this, they may lead to severe skin problems like blisters and rashes.
For signs of bed bugs inside your home, here’s an expert-verified guide to help you identify which parts of your abode have them, for you to finally decide on calling in the pros to deal with these creepy-crawlers once and for all.
5 Signs Of Bed Bugs In Your Home
1. Itchy Bites
People often generally associate insect marks with that of mosquito bites. An error that everyone should avoid. When it comes to insect bites, you need to stay vigilant, especially in trying to learn if they were by bed bugs or not.
A mosquito bite and a bed bug bite may seem similar at first glance. Both have a red tincture and are raised from the dermis, giving them a “puffy” look. But what distinguishes bed bites from their mosquito bite counterparts is that they may contain fluid, more so if your skin is sensitive to insect bites.
At the same time, bed bug bites tend to surface in clusters or in widespread “patches”, whereas other insect bites are random, and may materialize on different exposed areas of your body.
2. Rusty Stains
Replace your old bed sheets and pillow covers with new ones. After doing so, observe (you may utilise a magnifying glass) if rusty stains will materialize after some time. A few days, at the most. If rust-hued stains appear even without you spilling anything on the bed, then it could be a sign that your room is a bed bug niche.
These dark-colored stains are either fecal dots, molted bed bug sheddings, and/or bed bug egg shells.
Such smears may also be found on the mattress itself. Try to flip mattresses and/or cushions over for you to inspect their underside properly.
3. The “Wet Towel” Smell
The odor which arises from wet towels that aren’t sun-dried adequately? A musty kind of stench that is likened to a strong coriander aroma, or body odor after sweating it out and not taking a shower soon after? That’s what a bed bug pestilence smells like.
And if, after you tidy up your room, change the sheets with crisp, newly washed ones, spray a disinfectant on the furniture and in the air (granting that you’ve already taken a shower yourself), and said odor lingers, you know what’s up. Bed bugs are aloft and they produce that ill-smelling “alarm pheromone”.
4. White Blotches On Furniture
Yes, bed bugs don’t only infest “beds” per se. Cushioned furniture and curtains are sweet spots for them, too. Cushions, mattresses, wood fence gate and sheets are excellent hiding places for these tiny critters. So aside from checking your bed, take a closer look at your furniture as well.
Bed bugs are on the loose if cushioned seats have white blotches on their “joints” and crevices.
These white marks are actually bed bug eggs! You can wipe them off and have your furniture scrubbed down. Yet it won’t take long for bed bugs to return to those regions to continue to propagate and increase their colony size by rising from topsoil.
5. Unpleasant Nights
During nights when all is well— you’ve completed the day’s work, had dinner with your family, and washed up to prep for some Zs— and yet you aren’t able to get a good dose of sleep because of a very uncomfortable and slight prickling feeling all over your body, it’s most probably due to the presence of bed bugs.
They are, after all, most vigilant at night, as they are considered nocturnal creatures.
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