By Melanie Thompson

Bed bugs are a nuisance, a huge nuisance.  Every year, our health department receives phone calls when people discover that these bugs have moved into their homes.  In this article, I will discuss ways to find out where those bed bugs are in your homes and in your hotel rooms.

So how DO those little buggers get into your home?  Bed bugs don’t have wings, so they can’t fly into your bedroom; rather they are brought into your home by travelers who came into contact with them in a hotel or when their luggage spent time in an airplane with infested luggage.  They can be brought into the home with used furniture or clothing.  They can hitch a ride on clothing you are wearing if you visit a home that has an infestation of bed bugs, too.  Family members living away from home (such as college students) may bring them home on breaks.  If you move into a home that is already infested, you will have the joy of immediately dealing with a bed bug infestation. Once bed bugs are brought into your home, they will readily spread out throughout the spaces in your house.  If you live in an apartment, you can get them from your neighbors.

Bed bugs are flat and live in cracks and crevices around the bed.  You might notice brown or dark red spots on your bed and bedding or in their hiding spaces—this is their feces or poop.  Studies have shown that most of the bed bugs in an infestation will live within 15 feet of the bed, but they do sometimes go further away from the bed.  If your house is infested with bed bugs, and you have been sleeping on the sofa, for example, it is likely that there will be bed bugs around that piece of furniture.

So how do you find out if your home has an infestation of bed bugs?  Besides the nasty bites that they give you, the bed bugs will leave evidence that they are in your house.  First and foremost, are there brown/red spots on the sheets or in the seams of the mattresses and box springs?  This may be from bed bugs. Shine a flashlight along the baseboard at the head of the bed to see if there are red/brown spots or actual bed bugs crawling there.  Bed bugs love to hide behind your headboard, so move it away from the wall and look for them inside of it.  Examine the foundation of your bed for their fecal smears (those brown/red dots) or the bugs, themselves, too.  A common hiding place for these bed bugs is the wood frame of the box springs.  Look very carefully in the cracks where the wood on the box springs comes together; if you can, peel back the fabric that is stapled to the wood frame to check for the bugs.

Do you have clutter in your bedroom and around your house?  Do you have a pile of stuff by your bed, under your bed and around the bedroom?  You’re not going to like this, but you are going to have to put that stuff away or even throw it away.  Look in and on all these items to make sure there are no bed bugs.  Look behind your pictures and picture frames on the walls and furniture; look inside your books and magazines; as I said before, really examine the area at the baseboards around the room and even look inside your electrical receptacles.  You also get to move your dressers and look in your closets; bed bugs are notorious for hitching a ride on clothing and will make their way from room to room that way.

What do you do if you are traveling and need to stay in a hotel?  The best thing you can do is to have everyone traveling with you put their luggage in the bathroom while you do a check of the carpeted areas of the hotel room.  Pull the sheets and bedding off the bed to look for bugs and those brown/red dots.  If there is a bed bug mattress cover on the mattress or box springs, do NOT remove it!  Many hotels are now proactively putting those covers on their mattresses to prevent infestations.  The bed bug protectors keep the bed bugs from getting into the mattresses and establishing a home.  If you find bed bug protectors on the mattresses (these are generally zipped-up mattress protectors), that’s a good thing!  But don’t stop with just looking at the bedding and mattress!

Shine a light (a flashlight or a light from your phone) along baseboards along the wall by the bed.  You’re once again looking for brown/red dots and smears or actual bed bugs crawling along the floor and wall.  Oftentimes, hotel headboards are bolted to the wall, so looking behind them is difficult; the same is true for the artwork on the walls.  If you will not be staying at the hotel for more than a night or two, I would recommend leaving your luggage in the bathroom.  The bed bugs find it difficult to crawl on slick surfaces, so they aren’t generally found in bathrooms.  Being very particular about where you sit and what clothing comes into contact with the hotel bed and furniture can be helpful in keeping bed bugs away. 

When you get home after traveling, it is best to wash all of your clothing right away and put them in the dryer after washing.  The heat from the dryer will kill any bugs that managed to catch a ride with you.  It can also be useful, but not very convenient, to store your luggage in a garage, if you can. 

In a future blog post, I’ll discuss ways to try to combat a bed bug infestation once they’ve invaded your home.  If you need more information about bed bugs, give us a call at 402-529-2233 or email info@elvphd.org.