Early Signs of Bed Bugs, and What to Do in the First 24 Hours

What you are looking for

Check the mattress seam, the box spring edge, the headboard joints and the crease where the bed frame bolts together. You are looking for small rust-coloured spots, black specks like ground pepper, pale shed skins, or the insects themselves, which are flat, reddish-brown and about the size of an apple seed. Bites in rows or clusters that appear overnight are suggestive but not proof, since people react very differently.

This is not about cleanliness

It is worth saying plainly, because most people who call us have spent a week feeling ashamed. Bed bugs arrive in luggage, second-hand furniture, shared laundry and delivery boxes. Spotless homes get them. The only thing cleanliness changes is how many places they have to hide.

The three things that make it worse

First, spraying a retail insecticide. It scatters the population into adjacent rooms and turns one bedroom into three. Second, moving to the sofa or a spare room, which relocates the infestation to follow you. Third, throwing out the mattress, which usually costs a lot of money and solves nothing because the bugs are in the frame and the baseboards too.

What to do instead

Strip the bed and wash everything on the hottest cycle the fabric allows, then dry it hot and bag it. Keep sleeping in the same bed, which sounds wrong but keeps the population concentrated where it can be treated. Pull the bed a few inches off the wall. Then book treatment. If you are not sure it is bed bugs, photograph what you found before you clean it.

Expect a follow-up visit

Eggs are well protected and can hatch after the first treatment, so a second visit is normal rather than a sign something went wrong. Any quote you accept should already include it. Call (833) 652-6912 and we will walk you through the prep list.

☎Call (833) 652-6912