How do you know if you have bedbugs?

Answer 1

Here's the rundown:AppearanceAdult bed bugs area approximately 3/16 inch long and reddish-brown in color. They are generally flat with an oval shape. Although once fed, they become plump and red. HabitsThey generally hide during the day, coming out at night to feed on their hosts, such as humans, birds, and family pets. Feeding only takes about 10 minutes and is usually unnoticed by the host. Afterwards, the bite may become inflamed and itch, but many people never react. If no food source is available, this pest can lay waiting for 500 or more days. DietBed bugs feed mostly on human blood, but they will also feed on the blood of poultry, mice, rats, canaries, dogs and cats when necessary. ReproductionFemales typically lay 1 to 5 eggs per day, and 200 - 500 in their lifetime. The eggs hatch in approximately 7 days and reach adulthood in about 21 days.

The following are some basic suggestions of things to do or look for to help determine if there are bed bugs in your home.

1. Bites - One of the most common reasons people suspect bed bug infestations are the appearance of bug bites. Bed bugs will usually feed while people are sleeping, so check over your body in the mornings for any small red bites, or unexplainable marks. **Note that not all individuals will have a reaction to bed bug bites, some can go on being bitten for months and never know.
2. Waste - Bed bugs generally leave behind a sufficient amount of waste. Things to look for include dark spots on your mattress or box spring, skin castings and of course dead bugs.
3. Traps - There are numerous passive bed bug monitors and traps available on the market. Two of these that are carried by our store, ProFlyControl (available here) are ClimbUp Interceptors, and BDS's. Both of these items will trap bed bugs attempting to get onto or off of furniture, and will allow them to be identified. You can also make a somewhat effective trap by using double-sided tape (try carpet tape).
4. Hunting - Bed bugs are known to be most active around dawn. If you are searching for live bugs, this is the best time to look. An untrained eye is much more likely to find bugs at this time of day, with the assistance of a flashlight.
5. Know Where To Look - Bed bugs are excellent at hiding, so when attempting a game of bed bug hide-and-seek, you must know their favorite spots. The smaller the space, the better, be sure to search seams, folds, creases in all furniture in the room. Bed bugs are small and can hide in some very unlikely places.

Answer 2

When bedbugs first set up a base in or near your bed, their presence will not be apparent. They may be feeding off you at night for some weeks without you realising it but as they increase in numbers their presence becomes more and more apparent. The most obvious way of discovering you have a bug problem in your bed is you will see the bites or scabs on your body which look quitelike mosquito or flea bites, but a distinctive feature is they very often appear in lines of 3 little marks apparently neatly in line on you, whereas a flea bite or mosquito bite will just be on its own. Bedbug bite marks are most likely to be seen on your arms or legs. If you notice such marks on you when you first get up every morning this may well indicate your bed has bedbugs and they have been feeding off you while you are asleep. If you turn over your mattress and move your bedding around, you might well see the little creatures hurrying away to their hiding place. They will appear flat and about the size of a small ant. If you distiurb them they may be quite visibleas they hiurry to find a hiding place. Also look in the seams of your mattress as that is often a favourite hiding place they go to.If you ever see any such creatures on your sheets or duvet or anywhere near your bed, then you know you have got an infestation. But because bedbugs most usually only come out of their hiding place to feed on you at night in darkness, they often may not be seen during the earliest periods of you having becoming their nightly meal. They usually come out to feast of you in the later part of the night, perhaps while you are in your deepest sleep period and when they are on you it will be dark and you will not feel them. This is because before starting their meal they inject an anaesthetic into you to make it numb. So you feel nothing until after they have left on completion of their meal off you. Only then will it start to itch madly. So if you find you get this need to scratch yourself a lot during the night or early in the morning before you get up, this too could indicate you have bedbugs and you need look closer to see if there are little bite marks on your arms or legs or you are bleeding anywhere. If you do suspect your bed might be infested but are not sure, you need to have a torch very near to where you sleep and set your alarm clock to wake you up about an hour before sunrise, as that is the time when bedbugs are most likely to be on you or close to you in the bed. Discretely and with moinimum movement switch on and shine the torch on to where you are lying and you may then easily see some bedbugs hurrying away as the light frightens them. If you move yourself too rapidly in the darkness such as to turn on an electric light however you are quite likely to miss them, so a torch is best if you want to use that check. Another way you can tell is if you see dirty looking small red marks on the walls near your bed, or on your bedlinen and if you see very tiny little loose black stuff on your sheets. This is the result of the bedbugs going to the lavatory on their way back after their meal, and it will also cause an unpleasant musty smell in your bed which may or may not be very apparent depending on your sense of smell.

Answer 3

you will know that you have bed bugs when you see little dark spots on your sheets that wasn't there before...these dark spots are your blood...most likely where you see the spot there may be a bed bug underneath your sheets

Answer 4

Assume you are talking aboutBedbugs and not about dustmites? There seems to be a lot of confusion on WikiAnswers and elsewhere on the net between the two? You can not see dustmites, but you can see bedbugs with the naked eye Bedbugs are flat looking insects about a centimetre or less long and you may see them on your sheets, and also bedbug nymphs which are smaller but still can be clearly seen with the naked eye if it is light. So have a good look in the bed on your mattress, and particularly in the seams of your mattress which is often their hiding place and also on floor near walls and in furniture near your bed and look to see if you can spot any such insects. Also look around for any blood marks on walls or on your sheets. If you see any that could have been left there by a bedbug after feeding on you. But if you do not see any, do not assume that necessarily means you have not got a bedbug problem because in the earliest stages of a bed's infestation you may not see them as they stay in their hiding places and only come out at night while you are asleep to get their meal of your blood. If when you wake up in the morning you feel a need to scratch yourself due to maddening itching and there are little red marks there, that could well be as a result of one or more bedbugs having bitten you while you were fast asleep. Bedbug bites look different from flea bits because bedbug bite wounds on your body tend to be in groups of three in neat looking rows or columns. Flea or mosquito bites are just single wounds. Also bedbugs usually bite you on your legs or arms rather than on your body like fleas and mosquitoes tend to Be aware also that they come out when it is dark and time bedbugs are most likely to be feeding on you is just before dawn. By switching on a torch that is when you are most likely to spot them feeding on either your arms or legs.

Answer 5

if you have a bed, theres bedbugs. although they are too small to cause any harm. if you see fleas, you probably have fleas.

Answer 6

if you're itchy when yoju wake up, you got fleas.