Rafiki Pest Control LTD
Waking up with itchy skin and a reddish rash does not guarantee bed bug presence in your home. You may have developed an allergic reaction, infection, or mosquito bite. Bed bug bites come with varying symptoms, some of which include sores, irritation, and itchiness. You must be highly keen to identify a possible bug invasion because they are typically tiny, move exceedingly fast, and are skilled at the game of hide-and-seek.
Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to notice, and unfortunately, many of their victims hardly notice their presence in their homes until the infestation is huge. Closely watch out for each of the signs below to accurately identify an early risk of invasion.
Unexplained Stains of Blood on Your Pillow or other Bed Clothing.
Once bed bugs have infested, they will often leave behind blood stains on your bed clothing: mattresses, pillows, comforters, blankets, and sheets. This is so because bed bugs usually feast on your blood once you are fast asleep. Blood may continue to ooze from the bitten area for some time, or you may even squash a bedbug as you roll over, leaving behind blood spots.
Stains resulting from these bites are noticeable on light-colored bedclothes. Often, these stains appear tan or brown, and in rare instances, they may appear red. This is one of the highest characteristic signs of bed bugs.
Bed Bug Dropping or Fecal Spots
Bed bug drooping is very distinguishable from that of other insects. It is composed of digested blood, which is impossible to pick as it soaks into the sheets. This insect is fond of leaving its poop everywhere, from your bedding to your sofa cushions. These spots are tiny (the size of a small ink stain), round-shaped, and flat.
This poop appears as a rusty dark or sometimes brown stain that is easy to confuse with dirt. It is also easy to smear it while wet. Mostly, you will encounter their poop nearby where they have harbored either under the mattresses, folded corners of the mattress, or in the splits on your bed frame and headboard.
Bed Bug Shell
Bed Bugs are bloodsucking insects with an exoskeleton. Like many other insects, the exoskeleton does not grow, and it has to be shed off for the insect's body to grow. The skin that has been shed off is called a shell. Usually, these shells look precisely like a living bed bug. These empty shells or casings may be a positive signal of bed bugs in your home.
Bed Bug Eggs
Bed bug eggs, as well as their empty egg shells, are a huge sign of a growing generation of the bug population in your home. Usually, the eggs have an outer shell, while their inside has a fluid-like form. It is a soft shell that you can easily crush with your hands. Identifying a bed bug egg is accessible on a colored surface or material. They are tiny, sticky, and white.
Musty and Coriander Odor from Bed Bug Scent Gland
The scent glands of a bed bug produce a stale odor often characterized as smelling like coriander. A potential sign of bed bug invasion in your home would be the presence of a very unpleasant and musty smell like that of unclean or damp shoes or clothes. During the early phases of bed bug invasion, this smell may be mild, but the smell becomes increasingly unpleasant as it continues to increase.
Inspect Your Home to See an 'Annoying' Bed Bug
This must be one of the very definite warnings that your house is at risk of bed bug invasion. Usually, they hide during the daytime and only come to suck on a victim's blood at night. They are typically very tiny insects that the naked human eye can see. They have oval and flattened bodies, with small eyes, antennae, and a rusty red color. They have no wings and cannot fly. Once they have sucked blood, they significantly increase in size. Identifying bed bugs in your home may be a hideous and demanding task because their flattened bodies can fit into very tiny cracks and crevices.
Provided below are the right places to inspect to spot a bed bug quickly:
- Folded areas of bedding, beds and mattresses
- Furniture crevices
- Behind baseboards and wallpapers
- Backpacks
- Under sits in the house.
Bed bugs prefer to dwell only a few steps from a victim's bed since they suck on blood when one is deep in sleep. Once done feasting on you, they crawl back to hiding, so you'll hardly spot them. Even more disturbing is that its victims can develop an allergy due to the bites, and in extreme cases, they can be a cause of anemia, asthma, and blistered skin eruptions.
Maintaining a clean house does not reduce the risk of invasion of bed bugs because they can live very long without food. Therefore, it's always very advisable to call an expert to help you accurately identify bed bugs, eradicate them, and ensure no chances of future re-infestation. Many DIY methods have unfortunately proven ineffective, and these insects are very resistant to any incorrect application of pesticides, which only makes them mutate.
