Like vampires, bed bugs hide in the daytime and spread their vendetta via bed bug bites at night. Unfortunately, sleeping soundly is impossible when you have a bed bug infestation.
Our team researched how to find bed bugs during the day to help you free yourself from sleepless nights and itchy backs!
6 Ways to Find Bed Bugs During The Day
1. Gather The Tools & Brighten The Room
The first step to finding bed bugs is making your room conducive to an investigation. Searching for bed bugs in the dark can be challenging, especially since bed bugs hide during the day and feed by night.
You can remove the curtains to let natural light seep through. The common tools you’ll need to find bed bugs are magnifying glass, a credit card, and a flashlight. Alternatively, a headlamp will free your arm so you can find bed bugs more effectively using both hands.
We recommend putting your sheets inside a plastic bag and sealing them shut while searching. To be thorough, you may throw it in the washer to kill the bugs. Find out how long will bed bugs stay alive inside plastic bags here.
2. Spot Bed Bugs Tracks
Sadly, there isn’t much bed bug activity during the day, so there won’t be a much-squishing extravaganza. Instead, it’s more “investigative” during daylight.
Try to look for bloodstains scattered across the bed. The reddish stains are usually human blood droplets from when bed bugs feed, so if there are specific areas with abundant stains, it can mean that it’s their favorite blood meal spot, and they hide near that area. If your bite marks are in one place only, use it as a compass to detect bed bugs during the day. But what do dead bed bugs look like?
Other signs of bed bugs are their shed skins. Bed bugs molt their pale yellow skins near their nesting place. Bed bug excrements are other clues you should be on the lookout for. They look like a cluster of dark spots, and if you see one, they’re nearby.
3. Look For Bug Eggs or Nymphs
Finding bed bug eggs is easier than searching for adult bed bugs. To the naked eye, bed bugs are smaller in comparison (that’s why you need to have a magnifying glass handy) but are easier to spot since they are immobile.
These eggs look like small rice grains, and the mother often protects them. A single female bed bug can lay 5 eggs a day, so finding the female and their offspring will save you a lot of work.
Nymphs or baby bed bugs appear as miniature white bed bugs, and they often live with their mother.
4. Determine Their Hide-Outs
There are countless hiding spots for live bed bugs – from walls to floorboards, as long as they have access to the host whom bed bugs bite. Here are the most common hiding places for bed bugs:
Underneath the Mattress
In pop culture, you’ll see people changing their mattress covers whenever they hear that there’s a bed bug infestation happening. However, the sheets are just one hiding spot. Other times, bed bugs can hide along mattress seams, so it’s best to check those areas first before you lie down.
Box springs can also offer shelter to your bed bug problem. They can simply crawl out of the box spring for feeding whenever needed. In other cases, they can hide along the bed frame or within cracks in your headboard. But can you duct tape bed bugs?
Wall Crevices
Bed bugs love to be near their host. If you don’t find traces of the insects in your mattress, maybe they’re hiding in wall crevices near your bed.
Don’t think that simply applying an ample amount of insect repellant or bug spray would eliminate them. These products discussed (repellants) would only prohibit them from living in the area until the effect subsides. But what if you find one bed bug and no others?
Furniture Near The Bed
If there are no signs of bed bugs in wall crevices or your mattress, any furniture nearby (like a nightstand or bookshelf) can house them. There are countless hiding places for these insects, especially since a female single bed bug often searches for new habitats once she has mated with all males in their current spot.
So, you’ll need to make a thorough inspection to find and kill bed bugs. Can bed bugs get into your ear though?
Other Furniture Around The House
Bed bugs hide during the day, but they can also be crafty with their spots. Since bed bugs seldom feed (usually every 5 to 10 days), they don’t necessarily need to be in close proximity to the host. This means that bed bugs can hide in furniture which is a bit remote from the bed.
However, if you always get bed bug bites whenever you sleep, that means the infestation is worse, and they’ve multiplied.
These insects can travel up to 100 feet in an hour, which means they can do the feeding-crawling activity before you wake up. With this being said, don’t limit yourself to mattresses and wall crevices since bed bugs come from all kinds of furniture.
Ceiling & Wall Junctions
Lastly, the ceiling and wall junctions can be an infestation spot for bed bugs. This would blow their cover and make your job easier since they leave clues behind. Once you see a cluster of apple seed-like spots on your ceiling or along the walls, you can be sure they’re hiding there.
In some unique cases, bed bugs were found hiding inside electrical receptacles. However, we recommend hiring a professional electrician to sort it out.
5. Lease a Bed Bug Sniffer Dog
Say you can’t sleep at night, and you’re positive that there is a clear indication of bed bugs, but you can’t find them. There’s another option on how to find bed bugs during the day — bed bug sniffer dogs!
Bed bug sniffer dogs are specially trained to find bed bugs (although some are trained to find other insects, too), and they can sniff them out with up to 90% accuracy!
Read: Will Bed Bugs Bite Through Clothes?
6. Use Traps
If you want to improve your living conditions, setting some traps at night can work wonders. You can either use a passive trap or resort to active lures to stop bed bugs. They usually peek feeding from 2 am to 5 am, so the traps ought to be there before this hour comes. [1]
Passive traps include placing water under the bed’s legs, so the bugs die once they fall in it. Meanwhile, active lures attract bed bugs by using carbon dioxide and warmth, mimicking a sleeping host. When bed bugs ascend at night to feed, they won’t be able to get out.
Adding water can also aid in drowning and exterminating them.
Are Bed Bugs Active During Daytime?
No, bed bugs are not active during the daytime. Looking for bed bugs during the day can be vexing since they’re hiding. However, bed bugs feed during the day when needed.
For instance, if you left for a month-long trip, there would be no host for them to feed on.
Although they can survive cooped up in your mattress for at least 3 months without food, they’ll be looking for you for their next meal as soon as you get back and lay down. [2]
Read: Can You Find Bed Bugs In The Wild?
FAQs
Can you find bugs on carpets and rugs?
Yes, you can. When not feeding, bed bugs can hide in various places like carpets and rugs. Although the mattress is the most common place, bed bugs can hide elsewhere as long as it’s in close proximity to the host.
How do you draw bed bugs out of hiding during the day?
One technique to draw them out of hiding during the day is by using any heat source like a blow dryer and hovering the nozzle over the suspected hiding spot. Take note that bed bugs don’t like the heat as much as they hate the cold. The bed bugs will creep out if they’re there; otherwise, do the same procedure in another spot.
In Summary
It can be tough to deal with a bed bug infestation, but knowing how to find bed bugs during the day can be tougher. Thankfully, there are techniques you can do to get rid of the pesky bugs and free yourself from their itchy bite marks.
If you’re struggling with bed bugs, we hope the abovementioned tips can help you out. A simple, thorough investigation and inspection can be a huge and time-consuming sacrifice but is definitely worth it if it means you’ll be having a peaceful sleep every night.
References:
- https://www.womansday.com/home/organizing-cleaning/advice/a1905/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bedbugs-110933/
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/top-10-myths-about-bedbugs/
Alene Schill is a property manager from Columbus, Ohio, who has dealt with numerous pest control agencies. She helps families find the perfect homes and knows very well that bed bugs are an ultimate deal-breaker. She enjoys cycling around Scioto Mile during her spare time.