HOW TO IDENTIFY A BED BUG

Written by Viking Pest Control | December 4, 2015

It is hard to miss the fact that bed bugs are everywhere in the news. We’re hearing about landlord and tenant disputes, apartment fires, bed bug bites in hotels, and the little blood suckers showing up in some strange places like libraries and movie theaters. It is getting to the point in this country that if you haven’t had a bed bug incident, you know someone who has. So, how do you protect yourself? Well, the first step is bed bug identification. Not just what these bugs look like, but how to recognize the evidence of an infestation.

Identification

Adult bed bugs are about the size of a pea, rust in color, and oval in shape. If they have not had a blood meal recently, then these little bugs will be flat. A full bed bug will be more rounded, but not all bed bugs are adults. These pests can be a plague in their larval stage, and larvae can be as small as the tip of a pen.

Recognizing an infestation

Bed bugs are most often found in mattresses, but they can also be in many other places. These bugs will infest couches, chairs, baseboards, wall voids, outlets, alarm clocks, televisions, computers, and more. They are also found in more places than just a bedroom or a hotel room. These hitchhiking bugs can infest taxi cabs, buses, trains, planes, and other public transportation. No matter where you are, you should be aware of these telltale signs of infestation:

Bed bugs leave their black-colored feces wherever they go. You will find their feces in many places. Most often it will be in the seams of mattresses or around the corners. Sometimes you will only find streaks. These can appear on bed sheets, baseboards, walls, outlets, or on the stitching of upholstered furniture.
Bed bugs leave their urine behind as well. This will cause staining on sheets and furniture coverings. It will appear light brown in coloring.
Bugs often drip after feeding. If bed bugs are around, you may see dark brown staining from dried blood.
These bugs shed their skins as they mature. If you’re finding rust-colored debris in your bed or around the stitching of a couch or chair, there could be bed bugs inside.
Bed bug bites are also a sign of an infestation. Hopefully, you will not have to find one this way, but be on the lookout. These bites will look like mosquito bites with a rash around them. They will also appear in rows or clusters. This is because multiple bites will come from the same bug, and they feed several times.

If you need more help identifying bed bugs, give us a call. The team here at Viking Pest is up to speed on everything that is currently known about these bugs. We’d be happy to assist.

Call Viking at 800-618-2847 to learn more about pest control and extermination services, or get a fast, free quote online today!

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