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According to one survey, about 97% of pest control companies say that they have treated bed bugs in a home within the last year.
This means that there is a good chance that you could have bed bugs in your home at some point! But what are the signs and symptoms of bed bugs?
Keep reading to find out how to identify a bed bug occurrence in your home!
Odd Smells
First, you might notice that there are some odd smells coming from your home. It might smell like a musty, unpleasant smell at first. Some people also say that it smells like a wet towel.
This smell comes from bed bugs release pheromones. These are hormones that they leave behind for other bed bugs to smell and keep track of. However, if there are a lot of them in your home, you’ll start to smell them all.
While bed bugs mostly congregate in your bedroom, this smell could be anywhere in your house.
Sleepless Nights
If you’re not sleeping well and keep waking up to itching and biting, you could have bed bugs.
Bed bugs are more active at night when people are in bed and sleeping. If you’re not moving around, this makes it easy for bed bugs to bite you.
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Faecal Spots on Your Bed
One of the more disgusting early signs of bed bugs is finding faecal spots or stains on your mattress or sheets. These are different from blood stains, and they’re normally dark brown.
These stains will smear if you end up touching them, which is how you know it’s faeces and not a stain of blood. Bed bugs can feed five to seven times a day (or night), so you’ll likely find a lot of these smears on your bed or other furniture.
Your Friends Have Bed Bugs
Did you recently go to a friend’s house who had said she had issues with bed bugs? They may not have completely gotten rid of them before.
It’s very easy for bed bugs to travel to new places to feed on new hosts. They can latch onto any fabric, including the clothes that you’re wearing. If you’re not careful, you can easily bring them into your home.
You may also bring them in if you stayed at a hotel or other place that had bed bugs. To avoid bringing them in, make sure that you’re always vigilant and you’re careful about where you go or stay.
If you do find out that you brought bed bugs home, check out Custom Bed Bug for help!
You Wake Up With Itchy Bites
One of the biggest red flags that you have bed bugs in your home is that you are waking up each morning with itchy bites. Bed bugs will leave behind small bites, but they’re normally itchy and can become swollen as well.
While this won’t be a severe issue for most people, it can be more of an annoyance.
But how do you know that it’s a bed bug that’s biting you and not something else? Bed bugs normally bite people in a pattern. It’ll normally be together in a cluster, and it could be in a straight line or in zigzag patterns.
Bed bugs will also tend to bite whatever’s easiest for them to reach. If you sleep with your feet out from under the covers every night, they’ll have an easier time biting you there than trying to crawl underneath your pyjamas.
Spots on Your Mattress or Furniture
You may also find spots on your mattress or furniture that aren’t faeces. When the bed bugs are feeding at night, sometimes they can leave behind spots of blood on your mattress or sheets.
When they do feed on you, you could end up rolling over in your sleep and accidentally squishing them. If you do this right after they fed, they’ll explode and all the blood they ate will end up on your bed.
You might also find spots that are dark brown, rather than red. If you watch them long enough, you may even notice that they’re moving. This means that you’ve found a live bed bug.
They’re very small and hard to see, so you might need a flashlight to confirm what you’re seeing. You may also notice them as small white spots. These are usually eggs, and they can be tucked into the corners to protect them until they’re born.
They’re Hiding in Your Bed
Lastly, if you want to confirm that you have bed bugs, start searching for them! They like to hide when they’re not feeding, so you’ll have to be stealthy in order to find them.
They like to hide in the dark, and they’re small, so they can fit in tiny cracks and crevices. Try stripping down your bedsheets to see if you can see anything out of the ordinary.
If they’re not in your sheets, you may also want to check your headboard and see if they’re hiding in the cracks there.
Discover More of the Signs and Symptoms of Bed Bugs
These are only a few of the signs and symptoms of bed bugs, but there are many more that you should keep an eye out for.
We know that it can be exhausting and overwhelming dealing with a bed bug infestation, but we’re here to help you out!
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