How To Tell If You've Got Bed Bugs
You wake up two days in a row with little red marks on your arm. Have you been bitten? Have you got bed bugs? How can you tell?
Unfortunately you're unlikely to spot a bed bug unless you're actually looking for one. They grow up to about 5mm and are oval and flattish is shape until they've just feasted when they become rather more rounded. They are a reddish brown colour, although they become much redder after they've eaten.
Bed bugs only come out at night to feed taking about 5 minutes to suck out enough blood before returning to spend the rest of their time hiding away in dark nooks and crannies. This why you're unlikely to see one unless you start crawling around taking a good hard look. So really your first reason to suspect you've got bed bugs is because of the bites.
So what does a bed bug bite look like? Well, unfortunately it looks like a normal insect bite. And like any other type of bug bite what it looks like will depend very much on your individual skin reaction.
They can be small and red and look exactly like you'd expect an insect bite to look like. If the infestation is quite well advanced then sometimes you will get large clusters of these types of bites so they look like a rash. Other people's bites seem to look like blisters and still others have bites that are very raised and angry looking. The bites can occur anywhere on the body including the face.
The most obvious culprit for such bites are fleas but if they are the problem you'll see them hopping about as they feed openly during the day.
If you've ruled out fleas and you continue to develop a series of bites that appear overnight then you may very well have a bed bug problem. The first thing to look at is your bed as that's where a fair number of them will be living. If you can use a magnifying glass it will may things easier.
Have a look at the seamed edges of your mattress, you may find some bed bugs there or even some very tiny white eggs. You may also find little brown spots on your mattress. These spots are the bloody excrement of the bugs. If you can't see anything at first have a look underneath your mattress, you might find some evidence there. Bed bugs also give off a rather sickly sweet odour. Unfortunately if you can smell this you have already got a very heavy infestation.
As you can see spotting a bed bug infestation, especially in the early stages, can be extremely difficult find.
