How to Spot the Signs of a Bedbug Infestation
The evidence of bedbugs is relatively easy to spot but you may not know you have an infestation if you or your family don’t react to their bites.
Most people suspect they have a bedbug problem when they get bitten or when they notice red marks, caused by blood, on sheets and bed linen.
The first thing to check is the area around beds, particularly any wooden furniture, skirting boards or the frame of the bed itself if it is made of wood.
Look in the joints, cracks, holes and any nooks and crannies in the wood. These are favorite bedbug nesting places.
Carefully check the seams of your mattress, as this is also a favorite daytime hiding place for bedbugs.
You can use a magnifying glass if you wish but you should still see evidence of any bedbug infestation with the naked eye.
Check for bedbug litter and bedbug waste
You are looking for ‘bedbug litter' or 'bedbug waste' in these areas, made up of the bodies of dead bedbugs; their skins (moults/sheds); their offspring (nymphs); their faeces; or bedbug eggs.
Fully grown bedbugs are wingless; have a flattened oval shape; and are a rusty, reddish brown in colour. They can grow up to about 5mm in length, 2mm wide and have tiny hairs which give them a sort of unpleasant segmented look.
bedbug nymphs are much smaller and translucent/transparent, often with a tiny red dot in the centre of their abdomen.
bedbugs shed their skins quite frequently and these moults look like small, semi-transparent brownish flakes, in the shape of the bug itself.
bedbug faeces will be seen as small black dots, usually on the woodwork. Also look out for small blood spots on your sheets.
bedbug eggs are an opaque, pale shade and they resemble elongated grains of rice. Check behind your bedstead or bed headboard for bedbug eggs, as this is often a favorite bedbug egg laying zone.
On to how bedbugs spread >.
