How To Check For Bed Bugs?
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Updated
December 15, 2022
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Bed bugs are bloodsuckers that produce red patches and rashes on the skin, causing an itch that lasts for days. Bed bugs are little insects that feed on the blood of humans and animals. They’re most active at night, lurking in dark nooks, fissures, and cracks. Bed bugs are extremely difficult to discover and more difficult to eradicate, especially in heavily populated areas. On the other hand, your mattress is essentially their preferred dine-in venue since it allows them quick access to your body. Their bites might make it difficult to achieve a good night’s sleep. What, on the other hand, kills bed bugs immediately? Do they respond to home remedies? To allay your fears, we will provide tips and methods on how and what kills bed bugs instantaneously at home in this post.
Early Signs of Bed Bugs
If you fear your house has been infested with bed bugs, it’s worth your time to learn about and get familiar with these leading indicators. In general, expert confirmation of these bed bug indicators is required to be confident of bed bugs. However, this article will help you determine when expert confirmation is required.
Musty smell around the mattress
Our sense of smell might sometimes be the first indication that anything is wrong. For example, it might be an early symptom of bed bugs if you detect a strange, musty stench in your room that doesn’t appear to come from an apparent source, such as a pile of dirty clothing.
When disturbed or frightened, bed bugs produce “alarm” pheromones. These pheromones create scents that are somewhat sweet or musty. According to some who have encountered it personally, it smells like berries, coriander, cilantro, or almonds. Unfortunately, the scent of pheromones is normally very weak and almost unnoticeable to the human nose. So unless you have a specially trained canine to identify bed bugs, your odds of smelling the raspberry-like scent are slim.
Bed Bug Bites
The early indicator of bed bugs, according to many individuals, is waking up to find unexplained insect bites. Bed bugs are nocturnal insects like to feast on human blood during the dark. As a result, their bites usually develop on exposed skin throughout the night. The arms, fingers, and legs are the most typical areas where victims get bitten.
However, pest management experts believe that stings alone are insufficient to detect a bed bug infestation. Since various people respond to bed bug bites differently, there’s no definite method to tell them from other bug bites. 30% of people have no skin response to bed bug bites.
Blood Stains on your Sheet
Even if we don’t see bed bugs when feasting on us, they don’t always make it out alive. When a bed bug becomes swollen with blood, it transforms from a flat, seed-like shape to a spherical, inflated shape resembling a little football. If you move or twist your body unexpectedly while sleeping, you may crush or squish a bed bug that has just completed feeding. While it normally doesn’t kill them, it can force some of the blood they already ate to flow out, leaving a visible crimson or rust mark.
Bed Bug Eggs
Pregnant female bed bugs produce one to seven eggs each day, which mature in seven to ten days. Bed bug eggs are around 1 millimeter large, pearly white in color, and ovular in form. They look like microscopic rice grains that have been reduced to the length of a pinhead.
Eggs are visible to the human eye, so they might be tough to spot unless you know what you’re searching for. Each egg has a hinged cover at the end from which the freshly born bed bug emerges. A darkish eye mark can be visible on bed bug eggs that are more than 5 days old, but only under magnification.
Bed bugs or their casings in bedding
There’s a good chance you have bed bugs if you encounter bed bug shell casings, also called husks or shed skins. Shell casings that have been abandoned are a sure indicator of a burgeoning bed bug infestation.
Shell casings are transparent, hollow outlines of young bed bugs that are typically easier to spot than bed bugs themselves. Mattress seams, soft furnishings, holes, fractures, and fissures in wooden furniture are where bed bugs may hatch and grow.
Where do bed bugs hide?
Bed bugs can fit into almost any crack or fissure larger than 2 millimeters, thanks to their little, flat bodies.
They like to hide in bed seams, furniture crevices, cracks and crevices in walls and floorboards, and even within electrical outlets and among the folds of drapes. These are all places where you should look for the early indicators of bed bugs discussed earlier.
Here are a few examples of frequent bed bug breeding grounds and how you can also check for bed bugs.
- Bed: Cushions, bedspreads, mattress seams, headboard, bed frames, and box springs are all part of your bed.
- Close to bed: Nightstands, dressers, carpets, and storage boxes are placed next to the bed. Couches and cushions, bookcases, desks, workstations, couches, carpets, and pet beds are all examples of probable places.
- Walls: Wallpaper, baseboards, doors and windows, tablecloths, photos and posters, electrical outlets, and smoke alarms are all things that can be found on the walls.
What to do if you have bed bugs?
Are there any effective home cures for bed bugs? In most cases, you should allow your bed insect infestation to the professionals. However, this does not exclude you from taking action while expecting the bed bug exterminator to come. Here are some suggestions for reducing the bedbug population in your house.
1. Warm water
If you believe bed bugs have taken up residence in your bed, blankets, or even garments, it’s time to give them a good wash in the hot, steamy water. To eradicate bed bugs, it’s critical to wash these objects in hot water for a long time as they can take the heat. Heat treatment is an efficient way to get rid of these bothersome animals since the strong heat causes them to dehydrate. Put your garments and sheets in the dryer to get some extra heat. The bed bugs would have a hard time surviving this.
2. Black Walnut Tea
Antimicrobial, antifungal, and pesticidal characteristics of black walnut tea can help you get rid of an invasion in your house. For example, instead of throwing away your leftover black walnut tea bags, put them in areas where bed bugs are known to hide. This covers any cracks and crevices and baseboards and other areas. You may also sprinkle dried tea leaves around your bed and sheets to get rid of bugs and eggs.
3. Dash of cayenne
What additional bed bug home cures are there? How about cayenne pepper, oregano, and ginger blend? While the spice of ginger and cayenne, combined with the strong aroma of oregano essential oil, will not kill bed bugs, it will deter them. It can also help manage these pests when used with other approaches. One teaspoon of cayenne pepper, oregano argan oil, grated ginger, and a cup of water is required. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and bring to a
boil for around seven minutes. After that, strain and add to a squeeze bottle. Spray the solution around all probable entrance points in rooms where bed bugs are suspected.
If the situation continues to escalate and there seems to be no end to it despite using all these effective DIY, it is then time to opt for professional help to help combat the issue of bed bugs.
How to prevent bed bugs?
Practice these bed bug prevention techniques to avoid a bed bug outbreak in your home:
Never store anything under your bed.
Storing stuff under your bed encourages bed bugs to congregate around your mattress. As a result, you might potentially be storing a contaminated object without realizing it.
Encasements that are dust mite-proof
To build a barrier between you and any possible bed bugs, encase your mattress or bed frame with dust mite-proof encasements.
Regularly vacuum
This form of prevention aids in the removal of stray bed bugs. Discard the vacuum bag in an outdoor trash container for added protection.
Remove all clothing from the bed
You have no idea whose bed these bugs have infected and who’s not. If you want to keep bed bugs out of your house, it’s essential to keep your garments off any beds. Keep other people’s clothing off your bed with this in mind. You never know whether they’re bringing a bed bug home. Place guests’ jackets in the coat closet rather than on your bed.
Conclusion
An infestation of bed bugs can be aggravating, especially when they continually return. However, while you wait for the expert, you may keep bed bugs under control with these top pest control methods for bed bugs.
FAQs
Adult bed bugs may be seen with the naked eye. However, some of us may need to wear our reading glasses. Bed Bugs are around the length of an apple seed, measuring 5 to 7 millimeters in length.
Examine the areas where the floor planks of molding meet the wall. Bed bugs love to congregate in these little spaces. Examine the seals on the cabinet doors and the closet joints and edges in the wardrobes.
Bed bugs may travel at speeds of up to 4 feet per minute. However, that is their top speed, and they rarely travel at that pace.
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