Are These Bed Bugs? 4 Tips for Identifying Bed Bugs

If you suspect that you might have bed bugs, it can be a scary and unsettling experience, especially if you aren’t quite sure if you do indeed have them. When you’re not a pest control expert, bed bugs aren’t something you see every day. Perhaps you’ve never seen one at all, but you have heard of their fame and do know that they are notorious. You’re absolutely right that a bed bug infestation is something you don’t want, and identifying the bugs is the first step to knowing how to use the correct measures to get rid of them.

1. Capture one or more bugs if you can

If you spot a bed bug, try to catch it on a piece of tape or put it into a ziplock bag. This will be very valuable to show to your exterminator and also to study yourself to compare with photos of bed bugs. Bed bugs are fast, and they hide in the light, so unless you have a very large number of bugs, you may not be able to spot one or catch it. If you can’t capture a bed bug, read on for more tips that will help you to tell whether you have a bed bug infestation.

2. Evaluate the bites that you are seeing

Bed bug bites will show up as red, raised places on your skin. Many people tend to be less itchy than a mosquito bite. They also sometimes display one or two distinctive bite patterns: Look for either a row of three bites closely spaced together in a line or a triangle-shaped cluster of closely-spaced bites. If you are getting bitten at night, and if the bites are happening anywhere on your skin, there’s a good chance you are dealing with bed bugs. On the other hand, if the bites are equally likely to happen in the day as the night, and if they tend to be on your legs from the knees down, this might indicate that you have fleas instead. Either way, an exterminator can help.

3. Look for tell-tale signs of bed bugs

Even if you can’t find the bed bugs themselves, you can often find signs that they have been there. Check the crevices of your mattress and any other hidden areas in soft or hard furniture to look for the following:

• Blood spots: Dark, reddish round spots of blood are a sure sign that bed bugs have been feeding nearby.
• Fecal droppings: The fecal droppings of bed bugs might look like someone took a Sharpie marker and made a series of round marks with the point of the pen.
• Shed skins: If you have had bed bugs for long enough, some of them might have had time to grow and shed their exoskeletons. Look for their cast skins in the places that they have made home.

4. Get a free bed bug identification service from our exterminator

Here at 1st Choice Pest Solutions, we have lots of experience identifying and eliminating bed bugs in west-central Wisconsin. We’ll identify your pests for free and give you choices on the extermination options available to you. Contact us today to get started.