How Can I Tell If Bed Bugs Have Infested My Durham Property?

Recognizing Bed Bugs Bites

Do you know that it can take a while for your skin to react to a bug bite? Some bites can take hours, or even days, to become a red bump or an itchy rash. As an example, you can get bitten by a mosquito and not realize it until days later when the bite starts to get itchy. So you can't assume that you have indoor bugs biting you just because you woke up with bites.

The converse is also true. You can't assume that you don't have bed bugs because you notice bites later in the day rather than when you woke up. So, how can you tell bed bug bites from other bites? Here are a few facts to help you figure out the mystery:

• One bed bug is likely to bite you three times. It will feed for about ten minutes, crawl forward, feed ten minutes, crawl forward, and feed ten more minutes. This isn't how it always happens but it is generally the case. Therefore, bites are likely to be in sets of three, and they are likely to be in a line or slight zig-zag pattern on your skin.
• If four bed bugs bite you, you'll have around twelve bites. Each individual group of bites will be in the pattern described above. Together, the bites will look like a little "bug bite road" on your skin.
• The rash caused by bed bug bites can be extensive. In many cases, it will be large enough to encompass more than one bite wound. This can cause the rash to cover the entire area where you've been bitten rather than having a small rash around each bite.
• When bed bug nymphs bite, or when adult bed bugs bite you for the first time, your reaction to the bites may be slight. If this is the case, they can simply look like a bumpy rash, such as a reaction to food, fabrics, or something else. They might not look like bug bites at all.
• There is no specific location of the body that bed bugs will bite, but they tend to bite skin that is exposed during sleep. If you find bites on an area of your body that stays covered during the night, you might not have bed bug bites.

Seeing Bed Bugs

You may think that detecting bed bugs is easy because you'll see them crawling around your home. Unfortunately, bed bugs don't make it easy for you to detect them. In fact, they're so good at hiding, some people wrongly think that bed bugs are microscopic insects. Why do bed bugs do such a good job of hiding? It's simple really.

• Bed bugs are mostly nocturnal. This means they're active while you're sleeping.
• When bed bugs are active in the day, they are only active in dark spaces. Their photosensitivity keeps them out of the light.
• Bed bugs are drawn too tight spaces. They like to be squeezed in tight. They love tight spaces so much that you can pull a mattress, box spring, and bed apart and not see a single bed bug, even when there are dozens in the bed.

If you want to know whether or not you have a bed bug infestation, you're going to have to inspect tight spaces, dark voids, and compressed areas. We recommend inspecting beds, furniture, and the areas around beds and furniture.

Be sure to check baseboards, outlet covers, crown molding, carpet edges, and other potential hiding places within your home. Look for black specks, black fecal spotting, dried blood stains, shed skins, tiny white eggs, and, of course, the bed bugs themselves.