Bed bugs do not impose any serious health risks. But, if you notice some signs of bed bug infestation in your residential or business property, you should act immediately. While we highly recommend hiring professionals like us to do your bed bug eradication, knowing how to find a bed bug nest might be beneficial for you.
The inspection of your room or bed for bed bugs is not complicated if you have some expert tips. To make the process easier, we compiled this comprehensive guide with all the information you need to detect bed bug nests and know when it is time to contact us.
How to Find a Bed Bug Nest
One of the many things bed bugs are good at is hiding when they are not active. Consequently, it can be quite a challenge to find a bed bug nest yourself and get rid of it.
That’s why our expert team is here for you. We offer the most effective, efficient, and eco-friendly options for bed bug treatment in Cleveland. But, for us to do our job in exterminating, you should be familiar with the best ways to determine whether you have bed bugs, so you can contact us as soon as you notice them.
Essential parts of seeking bed bug nests are understanding their behavior, looking for signs of infestation, and knowing how to do a proper room inspection for bed bugs.
Understanding bed bug behavior
Bed bugs are insects that use blood from living creatures to live, such as humans and animals. Bed bugs are small insects with flat reddish-brown bodies. A typical bed bug can be between one and seven millimeters and has an average life span of between three to 10 months.
The bed bug nests are places where bed bugs hide and breed after feeding. But what does a bed bug nest look like?
Bed bug nests typically include a cluster of bed bugs. In addition, a nest might include bed bug eggs, shed skins, and fecal spots. You can recognize them by their brownish color and white spots in between.
Bed bugs typically infest places where people sleep, it might be anything from your home bed to rooming houses, dorms, and hotels. Bed bugs spend most of their time hiding and are typically most active between midnight and 5 a.m., when people are deeply asleep.
Feeding behavior
Bed bugs find their host through the CO2 they produce from exhaling. Also, the natural body heat attracts bed bugs. Once they reach the host, bed bugs use their mouthparts to locate areas with good blood flow and start their feeding process.
One feeding of a bed bug might last from five to 10 minutes. The most common places where bed bugs feed are human’s face, neck, hands, and arms.
When they are done eating, bed bugs tend to leave trails. But what do bed bug trails look like? They are reddish-back spots that appear on the surfaces where bed bugs move.
Interesting fact: Did you know that bed bugs can live long without food compared to other insects? They might live between three and seven days without eating. The majority is in the digesting state during this period.
Mating behavior
The male bed bugs start to look for a mating partner shortly after their feeding. However, what makes the mating process of bed bugs unique is that sometimes females don’t need a male present to cause an infestation. The higher the blood access to a female bed bug, the more eggs she can produce.
The female lays the eggs in a resting nest. The nymphs (young bed bugs) need between five and 10 days to emerge from the eggs.
That means if you choose to destroy the bed bugs by yourself, the chances of you doing that effectively are low. Leaving only one female bed bug behind might result in an infestation.
Understanding the bed bug behavior is a crucial step on how to find a bed bug nest. Knowing their feeding and mating habits is crucial to identify the places where bed bugs are likely to hide.
Identifying signs of bed bug infestation
There are several signs of bed bug infestation. They are all physical signs and can be detected with visual inspection. To identify a possible infestation of bed bugs, you should look for:
- Stains on your mattress; they may be reddish or rusty and often occur when a bed bug is crushed
- Small dark spots, as big as a dot; these spots are actually bed bug feces
- Bed bug eggs or eggshells, which are around a millimeter
- Pale yellow skin marks, which represent the shedding skin of nymphs
- Live bed bugs
Besides the signs of bed bug infestation in your room, you might have some symptoms of bed bug bites. The bites might appear as small and itchy areas on your body, commonly on your arms and shoulders.
If you have light skin, your bites might look red, but if you have darker skin, the bed bug bites might appear purple. However, you should keep in mind that there are also people who don’t have any noticeable reactions from bed bugs.
Unlike other insects that leave single bites, bed bugs leave clusters of bites. You may find them in a straight row or a zigzag pattern.
Being aware of the signs is crucial for knowing how to find a bed bug nest. It will help you narrow down the potential nest locations and act accordingly.
Systematic room inspection
The room inspection for bed bugs must be done thoroughly. To ensure you are looking from top to bottom, we recommend using a flashlight or a plastic card when seeking bed bug nests.
To know how to find bed bug nest, you should be aware of their typical hiding places. Bed bug nests are commonly found on the frame or headboard cracks, on the mattress, the box spring, mattress tags, the bed seams, baseboards, carpets, etc.
Some unusual places where you can find bed bug colonies include:
- Between cushions
- The folds of the curtains
- Seams of chairs
- Drawer joints
- Electrical appliances
- Behind electrical outlet covers
- Behind wallpapers or hangings
- The junctions of wall and ceiling
- Screw heads
- Near piping
- Bed frame cracks
- Inside clothing, shoes, and linens
Use of tools and equipment
We advise you not to do bed bug eradication by yourself. The do-it-yourself bed bug control might take weeks and even months. The process itself is complicated and requires a lot of dedication.
Instead, you should leave that in the hands of skilled professionals with years of experience in pest control. At Bed Bug Extermination, we offer the latest and four most effective solutions for bed bugs in Cleveland, Ohio:
- Heat treatment
- Steam treatment
- Chemical treatment
- Cryonite
Each treatment has its benefits and is an effective treatment for dealing with bed bugs without spreading the infestation. For us, it is important to do an inspection of your property. Our experienced technicians will do an assessment and recommend the most effective treatment based on the severity of the bed bug and the infestation area.
Monitoring and Follow-up
Once you get rid of the bed bugs, you must take proper measures to protect your home or business property in the future. You can take a few simple precautions, such as:
- Use a protective cover on your mattress to limit the areas where bed bugs can hide
- Vacuum regularly
- Keep the place tidy
- Install door sweeps on your doors
- Maintain the area by sealing all cracks and crevices
- Always hire pest control professionals like us when you suspect you have bed bugs
After our initial inspection of your place and the eradication, we will give you some personal tips and tricks for post-treatment and follow-up measures. In addition, we always maintain an open communication with our clients. We will help you solve any further dilemmas and worries.
Conclusion
Everyone should know how to find a bed bug nest. Understanding the steps for determining whether you have bed bugs or not will put your mind at ease. If you don’t find any bed bugs, that is great news. But if you do, it would be the perfect time to contact us, so we can come to your property and effectively exterminate them.