(Step 2 of 9 in the Bed Bugs Killer Ultimate Guide - Updated March 4, 2020)
First, you need to determine whether you have bed bugs. If you find signs of bed bugs in one location, assume there are more. It's critical that you detect ALL of their hiding places. This is the key to successful long-term eradication. This means following the plan: learn how to detect bed bugs. Here we go.
Detect Bed Bugs with a Room-by-Room Search
To detect bed bugs' hiding places, start with a room-by-room search. It's important to search your entire home. Start with the bedrooms, because that's where most bed bugs (85%) will be found.
They like to stay close to their food source — you.
In the bedroom, search the following thoroughly:
Image credit: texelart / 123RF Stock Photo
In short, you will check everything. This illustration depicts the most common bed bug hiding places in bedrooms.
Where Do Bed Bugs Hide in the Bedroom?
- 1Behind art and mirrors hanging on the wall
- 2Behind wall fixtures
- 3Behind headboards
- 4Inside electrical outlets
- 5Inside tops and bottoms of drawers
- 6Around, on top, and beneath mattresses
- 7Around, on top, and beneath box springs
- 8Around and beneath bed platform
- 9Along carpet edges
- 10Along baseboards
- 11Inside drapes, curtains, and closets
If you have chairs, toys, pet bedding, or other objects in your bedroom, these are also prime areas for your bed bug inspection.
How to Detect Bed Bugs Like an Exterminator
Check your sheets for signs of dried blood. Bed bugs sometimes overindulge while feeding and leave traces of your blood behind. Strip all the covers and sheets, including the mattress cover. Study them closely for dark spots and signs of blood, droppings, crushed insect bodies, or other foreign substances.
You can see blood stains, eggs, and bed bug colonies with the naked eye, but a flashlight or magnifying glass may help as well.
Bed bugs are detected most often in mattresses and mattress covers; on top of box springs; along the bed rails, and in the crevices of the bed's frame, especially any hollowed out areas. The box springs are the most likely place to find them on your bed.
In one insecticide treatment test, exterminators found 63% of the bed bugs on or near the bed: 15% on mattresses, 42% on box springs, and 9% on bed frames.
Also, inspect the seams and the buttons on the mattress for signs of dried blood.
Don't forget to check for bed bugs on top of your bedding, including spreads and comforters. Often, you'll find signs of their presence here.
In the video, entomologist and bed bug specialist Jeff White demonstrates how to inspect your bed the way a pest control professional would do it:
In other words, bed bugs will:
Last, check yourself and your family for bed bug bites.
Is anyone experiencing welts, red spots, rashes, or swelling? Not everyone exhibits signs after being bitten, but many people do demonstrate these types of allergic reactions.
Bed bug bites on leg. Photo by Simon Berenyi from Pexels.
How to Know If You Have Bed Bugs
Detecting bed bugs requires knowing what you're looking for. These are some of the things that exterminators look for to help detect a bed bug infestation:
Blood feed. Cimex lectularius. Photo by A.L. Szalanski, 2007; GFDL-CC-BY-SA-3.0-migrated.
Bed bug adults and eggs on infested couch. Photo courtesy of Scout Pest Control.
Detecting bed bugs along edge of infested mattress.
Detecting bed bugs, eggs, and droppings on a shelf. louento.pix. CY 2.0.
Detect bed bug presence and stages through shed skin. louento.pix. CY 2.0.
Because human blood is their favorite meal, they're drawn to your sleeping quarters and will find cracks and other protective daytime hiding places nearby.
You have the advantage, because you know that the nighttime is their time to feed. And you know where they will come to find their food. You need only wait to see the places they emerge from to uncover their hiding places.
Bed bugs congregate; so if you find one, expect to find many more.
One more thing before you leave each bedroom after inspecting it: Get everything off the floor. Leave no clutter behind.
And this is very important: If you do find signs of bed bugs in the room, do not move the clutter to another room.
Go here to learn how to handle the clutter and prepare the room for treatment.
Bed bug droppings all over slipper found under bed. louento.pix. CY 2.0.
Detecting Bed Bugs in the Other Rooms in Your House
Credit: NY State Integrated Pest Management Program
If you have bed bugs, you will find that most live in your bedrooms. But, sometimes, bed bugs navigate their way to other rooms in your home. The process for detecting these bed bugs is much the same as the one you used in the bedroom. Check everything.
Examine any furniture that you or your guests sit on. Bed bugs love upholstered furniture. In one case study, exterminators found 27% of the bed bugs in the home inside sofas and recliners.
Check all the crevices of your sofas, futons, convertibles, love seats, recliners, and other chairs. Examine any skirts hanging from the furniture to the floor, and turn the flashlight on to examine any seams. Inspect the frame, cushions, any covers, underneath, and any other area of the furniture that has openings large enough to admit a flat bug. Again, think credit card width.
In these rooms and others, pull out any drawers and inspect the corners for blood stains, droppings, and molted skins. Open all cabinets and look for spots that don't belong there. Check the corners, windowsills, baseboards, electrical sockets, and electrical appliances.
Assume the carpet in those rooms may contain bed bugs as well. Pull back the edges and look for signs of excrement and dried blood, as well as live bed bugs that may be hiding there during the day.
Bed bugs are like roaches in many ways. They use wall voids to travel safely from room to room and apartment to apartment. Bathroom and kitchen wall voids are particularly attractive to them. Because they travel via the plumbing, you may find bed bugs in either of these locations. It's not common, but inspect these sites anyway. Bathrooms located inside of or close to an infested bedroom have an increased chance of hosting an infestation.
What If You Don't Find Bed Bugs But You're Still Getting Bitten?
Maybe you don't have bed bugs. Then, again, maybe you do, but it's a small infestation (less than 20), and they are difficult to find.
One tool that pest control professionals use in these situations is interceptors. These are very handy tools that monitor for you while you sleep. Briefly, you'll place one under each leg of the bed (or couch or chair) you suspect bed bugs are climbing to get to you. The key is to remove all means of accessing your bed but these interceptors. If you have bed bugs, you'll use these again to monitor for bed bug survival after you treat for them. Go here, and read how interceptors work. Decide whether you want to buy a set for about $20 or make your own.
Leave the interceptors in place for at least 30 days. If you have bed bugs, and you've deprived them of other means of accessing your bed, the interceptor will detect them, probably in less than a week. Interceptors do not get rid of bed bugs for you. Their job is to confirm whether you have them.
Next: Get Rid of Hiding Places
If you detect bed bugs in your home, you will want to focus on treatment tools next. But before applying any of these methods, you need to do some specific cleaning for bed bugs. Don't skip this step.
If you found no signs of the critters, congratulations! Know that bed bugs will always look for a way to travel home with you. Now that you know how to detect bed bugs, check out what you need to do to put out the no vacancy sign and prevent bed bugs from getting into your home.
Did You Miss the Previous Steps in the Guide?
In case you missed it, click to read Step 1: Bed Bugs Facts - First Know Your Enemy.
