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Signs of bed bugs

Signs of bed bugs are live insects in the mattress piping, dark pin-head dots that smear like a marker, tan shed skins, and tiny pale eggs glued in a seam.

Bites are not proof. Some people never mark. Start at the bed, not at the skin.

Key takeaways

  • If a crack holds a credit card, it can hide a bed bug.
  • Start at mattress piping, tags, and the box-spring dust cloth.
  • Dark dots that bleed on a damp cloth are fecal spots.
  • Adults are about apple-seed size, rusty brown, flat, six legs. They do not jump or fly.
  • Do not throw the mattress. Encase it. Photograph first.

EPA: a bed bug is about the width of a credit card. If a crack will hold a card, it can hide one.

Start at the piping

Pull the sheet. Run a card along the mattress piping, the tags, and the seams. Flip the box spring and check the thin dust cloth on the underside. Then the frame joints and the headboard bolts. Nightstand drawers after that. Baseboards and outlets last.

What you want is the insect, not a welt. EPA lists rusty stains from a crushed bug, dark spots about the size of a pen point, pale yellow shed skins, eggs about 1 mm, and live bugs. Dark spots often smear on a damp cloth the way a marker would.

Adults are oval, flat, rusty brown, about apple-seed size. Nymphs are smaller and paler. Six legs. They run. They do not jump or fly.

A heavy room can add bugs in chair seams, curtain folds, a screw head, or the wall-ceiling joint. Heavy infestations sometimes smell sweet and musty. You do not need that odor to call it.

Bites wait

CDC: some people show nothing. Marks can take a day or two weeks. A line on an arm is a maybe. Inspect the bed anyway.

Bathroom specks away from a bed are a different insect. Mold dots do not smear like marker. A bristly larva in a closet or on a sunny sill is often a carpet beetle: bed bug vs carpet beetle.

EPA: do not panic and throw out the furniture. Bag a specimen. Photograph the seam. Encase the mattress. Notify a landlord if you rent.

Log the date and a photo in the sighting log before you launder. Next steps: how to get rid of bed bugs. Compare bed bug treatment cost and heat treatment cost. Contact for a referral path. Typical US ranges, not a bid.