Where Do Bed Bugs Hide? – Identify Bugs

Bed bugs are tiny insects (1/4 inch in body length) and are a nuisance to humans – their bites are painful and may cause anemia.

You will mainly find these bloodsuckers in residential or public premises and public places. Nevertheless, it’s challenging to locate their hideouts. So, where do bed bugs hide? 

Simply put, bed bugs hide in mattress seams, wall or floor cracks, bed frames, chair joints, second-hand furniture joints, couches, bedding, clothes’ seams, ceiling, and clothe shelves.  Often, bed bugs hide during the day and appear at night when you are asleep. 

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Details: Where Do Bed Bugs Hide? – Identify Bed Bugs 

First, here’re the signs of bed bugs infestations: black spot on the bed framework, the bloodstain on the bedding, rusty/dark excrete of bed bugs on the mattress, bed bug shells where they live, must odor of bed bugs’ scent, and bites on your skin. Also, here are the images of bed bugs.

1. Bed Bugs Hide in Living Room

Your living room may shelf various items that offer hideouts for bed bugs. These include:

1. Carpet – Some carpet materials such as cotton, leather, plastic, or wool will provide excellent shelter for bed bugs. Such rugs create a dark and warm environment where the bugs and their babies will hide, lay eggs and crawl as they plan on attacking their next host for another blood meal.
2. Couches. Bed bugs hide in the space left between joints of the wooden sofa. The cloth covering/cushion used to make a sofa is also a hiding place as bed bugs pierce through them using their mouth part and get into the inner part.
3. Chairs and tables. Chairs and tables made of tube framework offer a hideout for bed bugs in their hollow parts. Bed bugs are tiny and can penetrate the space left by the casing of the feet of these chairs and tables. Besides, joints and cloth materials used to make the chair also create a room for them to hide. The drawers of some tables also house the bed bugs.
4. Cracks/crevices. The notches on the wall and floor are hideouts for bed bugs. Cracks may seem smaller, but bed bugs can get through due to their small size – here’s where you’ll find bed bug eggs.
5. Wall unit. Bed bugs may find their way into your wall unit, especially if you rarely clean it. The Wall unit offers a suitable environment for bed bugs breeding. Mostly, Bed bugs breed at the corners or upper top of the wall unit and any lockable shelf.
6. Electronic devices.  Bed bugs may also hide inside the loudspeakers, home theatre, television casing, socket pinholes, or the cloth covering for these devices. Provided there is minimal interruption of these electronics, bed bugs will hide and stay. You must know that bed bugs are not affected by loud voices.
7. Picture frames and wallpapers- The joints and inside space of picture frames and wallpapers create a better hideout and breeding ground for bed bugs.
8. Doors and window frames- The spaces left at the gates, hinges, and bushes offer are hideouts of bedbugs in your home.

Related: How do bed bugs spread?

2. Bed Bugs Hide in Bedroom

Your bedroom has items that may have offer hideouts for bed bugs. These include:

1. Mattresses and pillows. You will find colonies of bed bugs along the seam of mattresses. Bed bugs pierce the mattresses with their mouthpart and enter the interior part. Your pillow may have a colony of bed bugs, too, since most of them are attracted by the carbon dioxide you breathe out.
2. Your blankets, mattress cover, pillowcases, bed covers, and bed sheets offer a suitable environment for bed bugs to hide. What bed bugs do is hide between layers of the bedding or hide within the folding of these beddings. Beddings must be well straightened. A heap of dirty clothes in your bedroom will also house bed bugs.
3. Cloth closets. Bed bugs hide in wall closets and clothing. In case you pile your clothes in an unkempt way in your closet, you are actually providing hideouts for bed bugs. The space left by joinery or closets also provides hideouts for bed bugs.
4. Bed Framework. You will identify bed bugs in the joint space of the bed framework. The hollow metallic or plastic framework provides a more suitable environment for the hiding of bed bugs. You will find colonies of bed bugs in the hollow sections from where they will come during the night to attack you or your humans.
5. The ceiling of your bedroom provides a space for bed bugs hideouts. Though it takes longer for bed bugs to climb up, they would find safety there eventually.
6. Footwears. Bed bugs hide inside shoes or boots that you may have left in your bedroom. Even though you have placed footwear in a rack, bed bugs will find their way there. The footwear that you do not use should be disposed of.

3. Bed Bugs Hide in Showers Areas

Showers are not places you expect bed bugs. However, modern showers, tubs have cabinets/shelves for storing laundry items. These are common hideouts of these bed bugs.

The cistern, piping network, and door lining also offer points where bed bugs may hide.

The piping network of the showers/bathtub offers hideouts too.  Some bathrooms have hot/warm water, which gives bed bugs suitable conditions for breeding.

Where do bed bugs hide in public places?

1. Public service vehicles / Trains

Have you ever boarded a public service vehicle or a passengers train and experienced a bite from a bed bug? This has been a common occurrence to many as passengers from bed bugs infested areas use the same vehicle/train and could have left bloodsuckers there.

Bed bugs hide in seats, cushions, hollow tubes, welded parts, or seat belts of the public service vehicle. Material that makes the seat cover of these vehicles have spaces that conceal bed bugs.

• In public service vehicles/trains, people often rub their shoulders while boarding, dropping, or taking their seats.
• You may acquire bed bugs if you stay in contact with people having bed bugs as these insects may crawl onto your clothing, unaware.

The ceiling of the public service vehicles and passengers’ trains have spaces where bed bugs can hide. These ceilings are rarely cleaned, thus giving room for further breeding of bed bugs once infested.

Carriers in passengers’ trains and public service vehicles may contain shelf bed bugs, which offers hiding/breeding ground for them.

Luggage brought by passengers into the trains and public service vehicles may have bed bugs. It would help if you were keen when you board public transport lest you carry some bed bugs home.

2. Cluttered Garages

Cluttered garages are places where you will meet different types of vehicles under maintenance. At times, the seat compartments of these vehicles are exchanged to replace the faulty ones.

In this way, any part infested with bed bugs ends up transferring the same to the next vehicle.

Garage mechanics uses a single overall when attending different vehicles from their clients in a given. Just in case they handle your vehicle while having bed bugs from a previous one, they may deposit these bloodsuckers on your seats.

Stores of clustered garages may be centralized. Any piling of the spare parts over each other from various stations may be dangerous as if one has bed bugs, they may affect the other parts.

3. High Traffic Receptions Areas

Bed bugs are found where people are staying. High traffic areas such as lounge, airport waiting room, reception, break rooms, and lobbies with soft seats.

These places are characterized by a high influx of people per given time. Some of these people may be carriers of bed bugs in their clothes or luggage.

Often you will find yourself being bitten by bed bugs while waiting in these places. It happens often. Once a carrier drop bed bugs in these places, they multiply and hide in the joint spaces or clothes of this furniture, waiting to attack you on settling.

Most seat in restaurants and service rooms are made of cushion and fabric materials, which may house bed bugs once dropped by various people who visit them daily.

• Research shows that most nightclubs, casinos, and late inns furniture have a high risk of bed bugs.
• Drunkards easily carry bed bugs as they cannot notice bites from them when under the influence of alcohol.

People may carry bed bugs from guesthouses and drop some at the reception furniture while being attended.

Bed bugs may attack clients in their waiting bay at the airport or busy offices as at the time; they may not notice them crawl on their clothing.

Can pets house bed bugs?

Pets like cats and dogs are often kept at home. So, can bed bugs live on these pets? Beg bugs feed on blood; these pets have blood too: bed bugs will suck them.

• These pets’ body is covered with hair that is suitable for housing and breeding of bed bugs.
• This may not be pronounced as it is in human dwellings. You can use suitable traps on the bloodsuckers.

Pets may leave the compound and carry with them bed bugs in return from where they had rested. They will transfer these to your living room as they jump from one item to another or in you carry them yourself.

Can you see bed bugs? Tools to identify them?

Though they are tiny insects, bed bugs can be seen with your naked eyes during the day – check this comprehensive guide. During the day, most bed bugs are asleep or resting.

• You find some moving around though not in most cases.
• Some bed bugs move during the day in search of their prey.
• Therefore, if you are not around, then bed bugs have nothing to feed on, and that’s why you may rarely see them during the day.

You may also notice some in their hideouts asleep after having fed enough blood.

At night, it is difficult to identify bed bugs in the dark. Their black color camouflage well with darkness, making it difficult for you to see them. Therefore, you will need several tools that may help you find the bed bugs in your hideouts. These include:

1. Source of light. e.g., Flashlight. This will help concentrate light to point in the darkness you suspect to be bed bugs’ hideouts.
2. A pair of forceps/tweezers – This tool helps you pick the bed bugs precisely to confirm that they are the ones. This is possible because bed bugs cant’s jump or fly.
3. Vacuum machine or Steamer – This will be used to suck bed bugs from mattresses or cushions if you happen to suspect their signs.
4. Spatula/crevice knife- This helps remove the bed bugs from the cracks. You can also use compressed air as a substitute. Collecting basin/ jar/container- use this to put bed bugs that you have caught.
5. Hand lens/magnifying device- since bed bugs are small insects, you will need to enlarge them for visibility.

How to find Bed Bugs during the day

You will find it difficult to bed bugs during the day. However, in case you need to find them, you will have to do the following things:

1. Put your Bedding or mattress (and their encasements) outside under a direct sun- you will see them move out due to heating.
2. Remove all cushions and furniture covers—spray bed bugs hideouts with the bed bug killers during the day.
3. Knock severally the joint of Home furniture and closets to disturb their comfort.
4. Place carbon dioxide source/emitter near their suspected hideouts- bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide.

How to prevent and Control Bed bugs

Bed bugs are not nice insects to have in your home. There are various measures that you may follow to prevent and control bed bugs. These include:

1. Drying mattresses and bedding under the sun severally and cleaning bedding and clothes often with hot water. But definitely, bed bugs won’t bite through your clothes.
2. Sealing all the cracks on the wall and floor completely and stop buying second-hand furniture. Ensure your pets are often treated against bed bug attacks and engage a bed bug examiner/professional to check any presence of bed bugs.
3. Washing and drying (at about 140 Degrees Fahrenheit) all clothes and bedding regularly and ensure sockets are covered.
4. Cover your mattress well with top-quality fabric and fit your bed feet with bed bug monitors to keep off bed bugs.
5. Inspect your furniture regularly to check bed bugs and be aware of bed bugs in public places. Train on how to identify bed bugs and ensure you do not move bedding from place to place.

Conclusion

Bed bugs can be found in both public and residential places. Maintain good cleanliness to prevent and control bed bugs. 

In your home, you will find bed bugs in the couches, seam mattresses, wall units, bedding, ceiling, cracks on the floor and wall, joinery spaces of bed, chairs, and closets, as well as in clothes.