A suspected bed bug infestation on your Aiken property can be a nightmare and one that raises important questions, such as “What do bed bugs look like?” and “How do you get rid of bed bugs?”. Fortunately, a little information and professional bed bug control can set you straight.
What Do Bed Bugs Look Like?
Bed bugs can be a very difficult pest to identify, thanks to their small size. They are often mistaken for other insects, which can be problematic based on the damage an uncontrolled infestation can cause.
When identifying a bed bug, you should be looking for a small reddish-brown insect that is approximately the same size and shape as an apple seed. If the bed bug has recently fed, their body may be more elongated than oval, and their color may be darker.
You can also watch for bed bug eggs or eggshells, which are both fairly small. They may be difficult to see due to their off-white, almost transparent coloration and one-millimeter size. Often, bed bugs lay their eggs in areas that see the least amount of disturbance and movement, such as in the gaps and cracks of walls or baseboards around your home.
Additionally, you may detect bed bug nymphs around your home. Nymphs are young bed bugs that haven’t fully matured. They are almost translucent when they haven’t eaten but may appear off-white or yellow if they have recently eaten. Nymphs can also be quite difficult to detect.
Due to their size and tendency to stay hidden until a major infestation is underway, bed bugs can be hard to detect around your home. Watching for signs of an infestation and investing in professional bed bug control is very important in protecting your home. Below, you can review several visual signs that indicate bed bugs may have infiltrated your property:
- A bed bug infestation will typically leave reddish-brown stains on your sheets, mattresses, walls, floors, and furniture. These stains are a by-product of the bed bugs feeding on the humans in your home. The stains can be found wherever bed bugs frequent and may be highly concentrated in areas with a large number of bed bugs.
- Bed bugs can be found all around your home, even though they do have a preference for beds and sleeping areas. You may detect dead bed bug bodies, bed bug eggs or eggshells, or nymphs throughout your house and especially near hot spots such as baseboards, beds, furniture seams, and cracks in walls.
- The people in your home may start to show signs of red, itchy bumps on any exposed limbs due to bed bugs feeding on them overnight which can be a major sign of an infestation.
- You can shine a flashlight around the corners of beds, cracks in walls, or along baseboards and seams in furniture to illuminate bed bugs hiding in these areas, giving a strong sign of an infestation.
How Do You Get Rid Of Bed Bugs?
If you are spotting signs of bed bugs, you should contact the professionals at Aiken Pest Control right away. Our experts will be able to pinpoint the major sources of bed bugs in your home and fully eliminate an infestation, so your home can return to its peaceful, pest-free self.