A heavily infested room makes searching and identifying bed bugs easier since the signs of their presence will easily be seen on their hiding spots or where they travelled. They can be hiding in seams of couches, chair, beds, cushions, and even curtain folds. You can also easily see them hiding in loose wallpapers, wall hangings, drawer joints, electrical appliances, receptacles, and more.
It’s either you find live adult bed bugs crawling, eggs, or nymphs. Also, if there are several colonies in a certain place, you may notice a musty odour coming from their hiding areas.
When you are just suspecting an infestation and probably have a low-level infestation, it is necessary that you know how you can look for bed bugs in any part of your home. It is also advisable that you know how they look like as they are frequently mistaken for other bugs. Confirming the presence of these bugs should be treated immediately to avoid making your bed bug problems from getting uncontrollable.
Guide to Looking for Bed Bugs at Home
You can potentially find bed bugs anywhere in your home as you follow the guide below:
Start with Searching Your Bed
As you inspect the room, start with the bed. Since it is the most common area where bed bugs are hiding, look for them by following these steps:
- Carefully pull the bedding and look for any signs of bed bugs such as fecal stains and blood stains.
- Check both your mattress and box spring thoroughly while paying attention to the seams, air holes, and edges. If you have someone to help you, turn it over to check the sides and underside. Though they are most likely hiding near the head area, you should also check the foot end just to make sure.
It is highly recommended that you spend more time with the box spring. This is because it is among the common hiding spots of bed bugs where they can either hide for the time being or even build their colony.
- Inspect the bed frame and headboard while taking a good look at the grooves, joints, and corners. Make sure that you check for bed bugs in these areas, move the entire bed away from the wall to check the backside.
You can also do these tips in hotel rooms if you can. Just make sure that you put your luggage and all other belongings in the bathroom first. This will make sure that none of these bugs latch on your items as you try detecting their presence.
Checking your Upholstered Furniture
The next common bed bugs hiding area that you should check are pieces of upholstered furniture in your room. These pieces include love seats, easy chairs, sofas, ottomans, chaise lounges, and recliners. The following are steps to find dead or live bed bugs in these areas:
- Remove the pillows and cushions from chairs carefully and inspect each one. Pay attention to the tufts, seams, and piping. Don’t forget to check the zippers as these are areas where bed bugs don’t only hide but also lay eggs.
- Look around and in between seams of the chair or couch. Make sure that you lift up the skirting if there are any and also the underside of each item. Check the pleats as bed bugs can hide in these areas as well.
- Similar to what you did with the bed, pull each inspected piece away from the wall so you can also check the back part of each item.
- If an item is heavy, you can ask for the help of a friend to lay the item on its back and check inside or underneath the item similar to what you did with inspecting the box spring.
Inspecting Dressers and Nightstands
You have a growing bed bug infestation if you find bed bugs even in your dressers and nightstands. It is possible that you find shed skins or even eggs in these areas, especially in spots that you don’t really touch or move often. More steps in checking these pieces below:
- Take out everything in the dressers and nightstands and put them in a garbage bag or a large plastic container. Put these items where everything can fit. This will prevent the bugs from spreading and keeping the items inside.
- Pull out all the drawers and inspect each thoroughly. Don’t forget to check underneath and look at the screw heads, joints, grooves, and corners.
- Now, proceed to check behind, inside and also underneath the furniture. Same with the other parts, check every nook and cranny of the item.
