No one wants to find bed bugs in their sheets or mattress. No one wants to find their casings or any indication of their presence at all. At least if you do uncover evidence of the bug’s presence, you’ll have indisputable proof to begin exterminating them. Regardless, learning that your home is infected with any kind of invader, especially bed bugs is never a good feeling. Bed bugs are especially troubling,
Why The Presence Of Bed Bugs Is So Problematic
To start, the evidence of a bed bug infestation is overwhelming for many. Just the mere thought of a creature sneaking into your bed and feeding on you when you are at your most vulnerable is enough to drive most people batty. It is not just the fact that bed bugs feed on human blood that drives most homeowners crazy, but it is the mere fact that these are not sole travelers.
Bed bugs travel in packs and are considered social insects. Meaning, that where there is one or two, there are likely hundreds just right around the corner somewhere. They live in packs, they travel in packs, and they can reproduce at incomprehensible rates. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy with fright when you lay out all the facts. So, does this mean if you uncover the small presence of bed bugs in the home, you should automatically assume that you have a major infestation on your hands?
Evasive Natures And Adaptability
Another thing that needs to be known immediately about bed bugs is the fact that these invaders are so much smarter than people give them credit for. Most people just view a bed bug-like any other social insect. Unfortunately, this is not entirely the case at all. Bed bugs are extremely smart, witty, and evasive by nature. These are just a few of the many things that attribute to their durability.
If you consulted any previous home or property owner previously afflicted with bug bugs, they would simply tell you that bed bugs are one of the hardest invaders to eliminate completely. The reasoning for this is that they are evasive invaders. They are smart enough to go out of their way to avoid detection or interact with their hosts. Why do you think they only feed when you sleep?
They are smart enough to know that this is when you’ll be at your most vulnerable and unaware of their presence. Bed bugs are so smart that if you sleep during the day and work at night, they’ll adapt their sleeping habits so they can feed while you are asleep. Given their ability to hide in cracks and crevices and remain undetected, spotting these bugs likely spells major problems. It likely means that the population has grown so large, that they’ve begun forcing each other into the open.
Proper Bed Bug Confirmation
Along with being extremely smart and witty invaders, bed bugs are also tricky. One of the biggest reasons for this is because it can be so hard to come up with conclusive evidence that you are in fact dealing with an actual bed bug infestation. Most homeowners don’t even expect they have bed bugs until they start waking up in the middle of the night itching. Or when they wake up the next morning with welts or bite marks on their legs or neck.
While this is a pretty good indication that you are dealing with bed bugs, it doesn’t absolutely confirm your suspicions. The only real 100% way to confirm a bed bug infestation is by procuring actual proof. You’ll want to either come up with an actual living bug, an egg casing, or an exoskeleton. Just because you wake up with bite marks on your neck or legs, it doesn’t necessarily confirm you have a bed bug infestation on your hands.
What makes this whole situation even more troubling is the fact that not everyone reacts to the bites. Welts only show up on the body as a means of allergic reaction. It’s a reaction to the bug’s salvia. Not everyone has this allergy and therefore, won’t produce welts when infected with the bug’s salvia.
Learn The Signs And Symptoms
When it comes to bed bugs, several key signs could point to definitive proof of an infestation.
- Bite marks– As was stated above, bite marks are without a doubt one of the best ways to confirm an infestation, but it doesn’t always definitively point to bed bugs. Fleas bite in similar locations and leave similar welts behind. With bite marks, you might have to take your probe a little further.
- Bloodstains – Bed bugs are parasitic invaders, meaning they need human blood to survive. They can go long times between feeds, but they will have to feed at some point. Such an interaction is bound to leave behind bloodstains on the sheets. Scour your sheets closely every day, looking for blood droplets or stains.
- Exoskeletons – Unknown to most, bed bugs shed like a snake. When they go through this transformation, they leave behind an exoskeleton. Although these skins are near-translucent and hard to spot with the naked eye, you’ll see them if you look hard enough. They’ll resemble the shape and size of an actual bug.
- Eggs/Egg Casings – Discovering eggs or egg casings can be extremely troubling because it likely means your problem is so much worse than you originally thought. The presence of eggs or egg casings, unfortunately, means you are about to have more bugs on your hands, or they have just recently hatched. Either way, it doesn’t make for a good scenario.
- Fecal Matter – Like all living creatures, bed bugs defecate. And they usually do so while feeding or after feeding, which means this is something that will likely take place in the bed where feeding occurs. It sounds disgusting and it is when you lay it all at. That said, fecal matter is black and if smeared will probably look like ink spots.
- Musty, Sweet Odors – It is not always the case, but more often than not, when dealing with large infestations, you’ll catch glimpses of sweet- musty odors. The smell is unpleasant and moldy, and it will likely be foreign, so it should be something that’ll stand out right away.
Keeping A Vigilant Eye
Bed bugs are a tricky and hardy bunch. The best way to deal with them is to head the problem off as early as possible. While no one wants to uncover a bed bug infestation, the earlier you discover it, the easier it’ll be to deal with. Smaller infestations might even be successfully treated with over-the-counter pesticides and insecticides.
That said, it is usually always best to turn to the pros when dealing with bed bugs. One of the reasons for this is that they’ll know exactly where to look. Although bed bugs are extremely stealthy creatures, they must hide in the home and near their food source. If they’re in the home or on the property, a trained exterminator with previous experience will know where to look to uncover their presence.
Most of the time this will be in the sheets, in the drapes, in drawers, the cracks and crevices of mattresses, and pretty much anywhere that the residents sleep in the home. They’ll even get into electrical outlets and behind baseboards.