What Are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs are nuisance pests that are difficult to find and even more difficult to get rid of once they invade. The more you know about bed bugs, the better you can protect yourself from them when you are at home or when traveling.
What Do Bed Bugs Look Like?
When you see a bed bug, you probably won’t notice that you’re actually looking at a bed bug. Bed bugs look like small crumbs or apple seeds in your bed, couch, or furnishings. Bed bugs are only between 4 and 5 mm long. They have oval bodies that are flat, which allows them to slip in tight spaces. Bed bugs do have wings, but they cannot fly. A small bed bug, also called a bed bug nymph, is no bigger than the size of a pinhead. These parasitic pests can often grow undetected in your home, leading to an infestation.
Where Do Bed Bugs Hide?
The name gives them away. Bed bugs like to hide in your bed, particularly in the seams and creases in your bed. But that’s not the only place. Bed bugs squeeze into the wooden headboard, the hide in furniture, and they can be found in crevices on your cupboards, dressers, and closet. Bed bugs also hide under wallpaper and its creases.
Bed bugs are travelers, too. Because they are so good at hiding, they can slip into your luggage while you are away from home. Bed bugs can enter your home via yard sale furniture, used furnishings, bags of clothes, and your luggage.
What Do Bed Bugs Eat?
Bed bugs like to feed on you while you sleep. While you sleep at night, bed bugs can sneak undetected in your bed and eat your blood while you are asleep. While bed bugs may feed on the blood of other mammals if they need to, they prefer to feed on human blood.
How to Know if You Have Bed Bugs
A common sign that you have bed bugs is the small spots and streaks of blood in your bed when you wake up. This is because when the bed bug bites, you’ll bleed. Also, bed bugs will leave behind excrement as they feed and when you roll over and move, bed bugs can get crushed underneath your body.
Bed Bug Bites VS. Mosquito Bites
Knowing the difference between bed bug and mosquito bites can help you identify an infestation. Consider three things when you are looking at the bite.
How to Know if You Have Bed Bug Bites
- Evidence At The Scene Of The Crime – Look around when you get bit. If you see evidence in your bed, the bite is most likely from a bed bug.
- Where It Is And What It Looks Like – When you notice a bite, consider where it is located on your body and what it looks like. Bed bug bites leave small, flat bites on your skin while mosquito bites are more of a welt. Bed bugs leave bites on your body that are in a line, row, or zig-zag pattern, whereas mosquitoes leave bites all over your body in no specific pattern.
- How It Feels – If you have a mosquito bite, it will begin to itch right after you have been bitten. Bed bug bites don’t cause the same reaction, and it can take hours or days for evidence of a bite to appear.
Are Bed Bugs Dangerous?
People have different reactions to bed bug bites. Bed bugs are not considered dangerous or a significant health risk to humans, but they may cause an allergic reaction in some. In many cases, the risk of having bed bugs in your home is the loss of sleep you will experience and itching if you have a reaction.
How Does Innovative Pest Control Treat For Bed Bugs?
Innovative Pest Control offers quality bed bug control in Tyler and East Texas that involves a 3-step process to identify and get rid of bed bugs for good. Our method of bed bug elimination includes both residential and commercial bed bug inspections, implementation of a plan, and elimination. To find out how Innovative Pest Control can get rid of bed bugs in your home, call now to schedule a bed bug control visit!
How to Prevent Bed Bugs
Preventing bed bugs starts with keeping them out of your home in the first place.
- When traveling, inspect all drawers, couches, furnishings, and the bed.
- Do not leave your luggage on the floor.
- Do not bring furniture into your home from off the streets.
- Wash all yard sale clothing, bedding, and furnishings before you bring them inside. Always wash on the hottest setting.
- Inspect and wash your bedding often.
- Vacuum often, including in the seams and crevices in furniture, drapes, and rugs.
- Inspect rented or used furniture for signs of bed bug activity.
- At the first sign of bed bugs in your home, contact the trusted East Texas exterminators at Innovative Pest Control!
