The old adage about sleeping tight to prevent bed bugs from biting takes on a brand-new complexion when you’re faced for the first time with the prospect of a bed bug infestation. Finding them quickly through a bed bug inspection in NYC should be the goal at the first sign of a problem. These pesky critters can take away your sleep, cause gruesome bite lesions, and even bring on infections from scratching. To retake your bedroom and return to peaceful, healthy sleep, you’ll need to confirm you do indeed have a bed bug problem and then have them eradicated.
Know What You’re Seeing When You See It
Being able to identify a bed bug problem will clearly require you to know how bed bug signs appear visually. Often the first signs appear on a person’s body; red spots could show up on your neck or shoulders or arms—basically anywhere on your skin that could have become exposed while you were tossing and turning in the night.
Related: What to Expect After Bed Bug Treatment in Brooklyn, NY
Bed bugs are harder to see in action. They’re mere millimeters in size, so spotting the actual bugs will require a bright flashlight and a magnifying glass. Identifying the debris that they leave behind is often easier. Within the seams, near the piping of the mattress, under the box springs, within the cracks and joints of the bed itself, and even nearby carpeting or furniture are all places where bed bugs may hide. The bugs themselves are about the size of an apple seed, flat when unfed and round when they’ve recently fed. The color of the bug comes from its dinner of blood, so unfed bugs are almost translucent while filled bed bugs are brown. Even if the objects of your inspection are hidden, you may see the reddish brown of dead bugs or the telltale small brown spots they leave behind.
Where Should You Look
When not eating, these critters hide, so any furniture, carpeting, crack in the wall, or other spot within bedrooms could be where the bed bugs are living. The multiple places they can hide make a hunt for the untrained eye very difficult. That is why people opt for the efficient use of bed bug dogs to sniff out whether they have a problem on their hands or not. You don’t want to waste time that could be spent eliminating the problem.
When Should You Perform the Inspection
Since they feed only during the late, late hours of the night, seeing the actual bed bugs may not happen unless you perform an inconvenient stakeout. Instead, look beyond searching for the bugs themselves to other signs of their presence. In addition to brown spots on walls or furniture and rusty colored spots on your sheets, you might also smell a distinctive, musty odor of the pests.
Considering the size, crafty hidden nature, and late night behavior, visual inspections may fail, leading many to conclude that professional inspections are the most effective use of time. If you or members of your family have unexplained bite marks, you wake at night itching, or have some other reason to suspect a bed bug infestation, put the situation in the hands of professionals for a quick solution to a chronic problem. The longer you wait, the bigger problem, and population, you’ll have waiting for you to retire to bed for their dining pleasure.