Bed bugs are not ones for making a grand entrance. Slowly taking over your bedroom, the tiny insects love to play hide and seek, which makes them “difficult to spot”. Fortunately, experts have shared seven warning signs that could reveal the uninvited guests.
Between working nine till five, managing house chores and trying to keep your social life going, your bedroom is the one place where you finally get to relax.
This safe haven allows you to unwind at the end of a very long day – and you definitely don’t need any unwanted guests to keep you company.
However, bed bugs are a common household pest in the UK.
“Not to mention, they can be quite difficult to spot, causing them to become more of a nuisance in your home and therefore harder to get rid of,” said the experts at Bed Kingdom.
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Fortunately, seven warning signs could help reveal the pesky visitors.
Unusual smell
If you’ve been picking up a new “strange” smell when entering your bedroom lately, despite there being no clear cause for this musty scent, it might mean you have bed bugs.
The experts said: “When bed bugs feel threatened, they emit what is called alarm pheromones which have a faint smell of raspberries, cilantro, or almonds – and in severe bed bug cases, this smell we be mixed with the odour of dead bugs and shed cell casings which creates a rusty scent.”
Bites
While bed bugs are not keen on being seen, they still crawl out at night to grant you a nasty souvenir – bites.
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The experts said: “If you wake up with red, itchy bites, this could be a sign of bed bugs, as they typically feed on blood during the night.
“Usually, bites will appear on arms, hands, and legs and will be in small clusters of a few bites, but they can also show up in single bites.”
Blood stains
Once the tiny pest is finished feeding itself, it is full of blood that can leak out if you squash the bug during your sleep.
“If you notice any small splotches of blood on your bed sheets or clothing… [and] there’s no visible cause of the blood, it’s likely that these stains occurred from bed bugs,” the experts said.
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Dark, brown marks
Apart from annoying itchy bites, beg bugs also leave behind droppings about the size of a pen tip.
These can crop up on your mattresses, sheets, headboards, and even your walls, leaving a faint, rusty smell behind.
Eggs
The experts said: “Bed bug eggs can be hard to spot, as they are only around one millimetre long – but they can be found by paying attention to anything that looks like small rice grains in your bed.
“They can be loosely stuck to different types of surfaces, typically the mattress seams and joints or behind the headboard.”
Shell casings
Bed bugs shed several times during their life cycles, leaving shell casings of different sizes behind.
“You can spot them by their yellow, translucent appearance in the seams, folds, and crevices of mattresses, or even other areas such as cracks in walls and furniture,” the experts said.
Live bed bugs
The most challenging sign to spot – picking up bed bugs with the naked eye can be quite difficult as they love hiding. However, you are more likely to notice them once the infestation becomes severe enough.
“Adult bed bugs are approximately four to five millimetres long, with bed bug nymphs starting at just one millimetre,” the experts added.
If you discover a “severe infestation” of the nasty pests, you should contact the council or pest control service to get rid of them.
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