Bed bugs tend to live in cracks and crevices in and around your bed, especially in mattress seams and travel on clothing, furniture, bedding and luggage. They prefer to feed on humans but will also feed on other warm-blooded animals. They mainly feed at night.
They can come from other infested areas or from used furniture. They can hitch a ride in luggage, purses, backpacks, or other items placed on soft or upholstered surfaces. They can travel between rooms in multi-unit buildings, such as apartment complexes and hotels.
Around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard. If the room is heavily infested, you may find bed bugs: In the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains. In drawer joints.
One scent that bed bugs find appealing is dirty laundry or dirty bedding because of how it smells once it's come in contact with humans. Research has shown that bed bugs prefer previously worn clothing and used bedding, which is why you shouldn't leave these items on the floor close to your bed.
Closely inspect the grooves in hardwood flooring, especially beneath or around the bed. Look along the bottom and top of the baseboards. Pay special attention to any cracks in the wood or nail holes. Peel back the carpeting from the tack strip to look for the bugs.
Bed bugs live throughout the year, but there is a particular time during each year when bed bug infestations become more common. In normal years, bed bug “season” peaks in the months of August and September when most families have returned from their travels, and bugs have a chance to gain a foothold.
Don't count on bed bugs to go away on their own. In theory, they can. In practice, they don't unless several highly specific circumstances occur. Your best bet is professional bed bugs treatment.
One of the most researched solutions for keeping bed bugs away is peppermint. This plant can provide a smell which bed bugs and other pests hate. The scent will drive any pest which will keep your home pest-free and fresh at the same time.
However, if there are not too many, then chances are that they will not bite every night. On average bed bugs feed once every 3 to 10 nights and spend the rest of the days resting and digesting their meals.
Many people think that bed bugs active only at night, but bed bugs love being active any time of day. If you're trying to find bed bugs during the day, a flashlight is one of the best tools. Bedbugs are small, so they can be hard to see with the naked eye. A bright flashlight will help you to spot them more easily.
Female bed bugs typically lay an average of one egg per day, although they can lay as many as 5-7 eggs in a single day at their peak. It takes only 10-15 days for an egg to hatch, and a bed bug is able to reproduce about 6 weeks after hatching. And most bed bugs live approximately 4-6 months.
Ultimately, it can take mere minutes to travel from room-to-room, with infestations growing in a matter of weeks or months. Every day, bed bugs can lay between one and 12 eggs, and anywhere from 200 to 500 eggs in a lifetime.
You may have them for a while, but may not notice them until weeks, or even months later. Bed bug eggs take anywhere from six to 12 days to hatch, and the adult life span can be anywhere from six months to a year. That's why it's important to know these early signs of an infestation.
Myth: Bedbugs won't come out if the room is brightly lit. Reality: While bedbugs prefer darkness, keeping the light on at night won't deter these pests from biting you.
Generally it takes at least seven weeks for a bed bug to grow from an egg to an adult, so there should be no new adults from eggs during that period. Therefore, if many adult bugs are present one can reasonably assume that the infestation has been there for more than seven weeks.
Using heat is the best way to force bedbugs to leave their hideaway. You can use heat to convince the bedbugs that the host is nearby. They will come out and begin looking for food. You can also try washing your clothes on high heat.
Steam – Bed bugs and their eggs die at 122°F (50°C). The high temperature of steam 212°F (100°C) immediately kills bed bugs. Apply steam slowly to the folds and tufts of mattresses, along with sofa seams, bed frames, and corners or edges where bed bugs may be hiding.
Shortlist of bed bug predators are:
American Cockroaches. Thanatus Flavidus Spiders. House Centipedes. The Masked Hunter also known as the Masked Bed Bug Hunter.
Yes! Washing your linens in a hot water wash has proven to be effective in killing bed bugs. Although this may not get rid of your infestation entirely, it will control the bed bug problem.
In most cases, bed bugs thrive inside a home whether it's cold or warm outside. In fact, they can be extremely active in the winter months, especially if you keep your home nice and warm to combat the cold. So if you notice bed bugs in your home, don't wait for the cold outdoors to scare them away.
If you ignore the problem, bed bugs will reproduce and multiply and can quickly infest your entire house, from couches to carpets and even clothing. Once this happens you have a big problem that can get costly to get rid of.