How to Tell If I Have Bedbugs

Bedbugs are insidious little pests. They hide well, procreate often and can thrive without a single meal for nearly six months. Bedbugs thrive in transient environments such as hotels, shelters and dorms, that enable them to hitch a ride in the suitcase of their next host. Making their detection even more difficult is the fact that bedbugs reside in other places besides your bed. Bedbugs gravitate toward hiding places with clutter, but the physical cleanliness of an environment has no bearing on the bedbug population.

Things You'll Need

• Flashlight
• Butter knife
• Hair dryer

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Instructions

• 1

  Peel back the seams and layers of your mattress. The darkness, seams and folds of mattresses make them prime habitats for bedbugs. Slide a plastic butter knife along the ridges and seams while following with a flashlight. Bedbugs shed their old carcasses, so look for any empty shells. Draw out any bedbugs that might be hiding in small holes or rips by running a hot hair dryer along the edges of the mattress.

• 2

  Examine the top surface of the mattress where you sleep for small blood stains. Sometimes bedbugs overeat, causing some of the blood to spill back out and stain the mattress. After digesting their blood-meal, bedbugs defecate on the mattress top, leaving behind reddish-brown spots. The presence of even half a dozen tiny blood stains is a good indicator that bedbugs are present.

• 3

  Inspect bedbug hiding places using a flashlight. Peel back strips of wallpaper, move storage boxes, couch cushions, bed skirts, curtain folds and carpet edges. Apply the same technique of using a hair dryer and flashlight to expose and identify the bedbugs. Determining the extent of the infestation can help you decide whether professional exterminators are necessary.

• 4

  Examine your skin. Bed bug bites are small, red, raised bites that resemble smaller mosquito bites and are usually extremely itchy. Bedbugs typically bite where your skin is most accessible. For instance, if you sleep on your back the bites may cluster along your upper arms and sides. Approximately 30 percent of people bitten by bedbugs don't develop irritating red bumps, so don't discount a possible infestation based solely on this evidence.