Helping You to Sleep Tight Without the Bed Bugs

Bites alone do not confirm bed bugs; people react very differently and other things bite too. Look instead for physical evidence at the mattress seam, box spring edge, and headboard: small dark fecal spots, shed skins, or the insect itself, about the size and shape of an apple seed. Do not use a fogger. Foggers scatter a contained problem through the house and multiply the cost of fixing it.

Maybe you found something at two in the morning, or you have woken up with marks for a third night. What you need now is a way to know for certain and a clear picture of what happens next.

This article covers how to confirm them rather than guess, what treatment actually involves, and the specific mistakes that turn a manageable problem into an expensive one. If you are trying to avoid bringing them home from a trip in the first place, that is covered separately in our article on finding bed bugs in hotel rooms.

You know by finding physical evidence, not by reading your bites. Bite reactions vary enormously: some people develop welts and some show nothing at all. Other insects and skin conditions also leave similar marks. A pattern of bites is a reason to look, but it does not prove you have bed bugs.

These are the four signs to look for, starting with the one people usually find first:

• Fecal spotting. Small dark spots, like a fine-point marker bled into the fabric, along mattress seams, on the box spring, and at the underside of the bed frame. This is usually the first real evidence anyone finds.
• Shed skins. Translucent, insect-shaped casings in the same locations. Bed bugs molt several times, so skins often outnumber live insects.
• The insect itself. About the size and shape of an apple seed, flat when unfed and rounded after feeding, pale to reddish brown depending on age and feeding.
• Eggs. Very small, pale, and difficult to spot without knowing what you are looking at.

Where to check, in order: the mattress seam and tag area, the box spring edge and its underside, the bed frame joints. Then check the headboard including its back and any bolt holes, then the nightstand and any upholstered furniture within a few feet of the bed.

Bed bugs stay close to where people sleep. Start at the bed and work outward rather than searching the whole house.

Slow down, and do not reach for a product, because the first hour is mostly about what not to do.

Do this:

• Leave the affected room's contents in that room. Moving a mattress or a bag of clothing to another room is the most common way a one-room problem becomes a three-room problem.
• Bag affected bedding and clothing where it is, then wash and dry on high heat. The dryer does the work; heat is what gets rid of them.
• Photograph what you found and keep a specimen if you can. Identification matters and a photograph makes it faster.
• Vacuum thoroughly along seams and edges, then immediately empty the canister or bag outside the house.
• Write down when it started and where you have traveled or acquired furniture recently. It helps establish the source.

Do not do this: do not throw out the mattress yet, do not move to the couch, and do not set off a fogger.

Sleeping in another room feels like the obvious move, but it is the wrong one. Bed bugs follow carbon dioxide and warmth, so moving to the couch commonly spreads them into the living room while the rest survive in the bedroom.

Call us at (303) 346-7087 and describe what you found before you spend money on anything.

A fogger’s spray never reaches the places bed bugs live, and it pushes the survivors somewhere harder to reach. Bed bugs hide in seams and cracks, in hollow spaces, and behind baseboards. It settles on exposed surfaces, where bed bugs are not. The spray also repels them, so survivors move deeper into the hollow spaces inside walls and into nearby rooms.

It is an expensive mistake, because a problem contained in one bedroom becomes a problem in several rooms. The treatment that follows is much larger than the one that would have worked at the start.

Most store-bought bed bug sprays have the same weakness. They only affect the bed bugs they touch directly and do nothing to the ones still hidden, which is nearly all of them.

It starts with an inspection. Then comes a treatment matched to how far the bed bugs have spread, and then a follow-up visit to confirm it worked. The follow-up matters because bed bug eggs survive many treatments, so a single visit with no check afterward leaves no proof that it worked.

What a homeowner should expect:

• A thorough inspection to confirm the pest, establish the extent, and find where they are hiding
• Preparation instructions before the treatment, which really affect the outcome
• Treatment of the cracks and seams where they hide, not open surfaces
• A follow-up visit to verify, because eggs hatching after treatment is normal and expected
• Clear guidance on laundering, encasements, and what can stay in the room

Mattress and box spring encasements are worth their cost. They trap anything remaining inside, make future inspection far easier, and are cheap compared with replacing a mattress.

Whoever you call, ask two questions before you book: whether a follow-up visit is included, and what preparation the company needs from you. Guardian answers both on the phone at (303) 346-7087 before you book anything. On home service, a follow-up visit is free when you ask for one.

Close the routes bed bugs use to get in, because they do not appear on their own but arrive on something or someone.

Inspect secondhand furniture, especially upholstered pieces and anything with seams, before it comes through the door. Keep mattress and box spring encasements on after treatment. Reduce clutter around the bed, which cuts hiding places and makes inspection possible. Handle travel deliberately, which is the biggest single route and is covered in our hotel article. In a shared building, talk to neighbors and management. Bed bugs move between units, and a unit treated in isolation while the adjacent one is untreated will be re-infested.

This matters most in a condo, apartment, or townhome. When the units next to yours are treated at the same time, the problem can be solved once. When they are not, you can end up paying to solve it again and again.

Guardian Pest Management is family owned. Sean and Michelle Meade have run it since 2000. We serve Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Castle Rock, Parker, Centennial, Lone Tree, Castle Pines, Greenwood Village, Roxborough, and Cherry Hills. Sean and Michelle personally bring more than 30 years of pest control industry experience, earned before Guardian was founded. That was earned before Guardian opened. We hold a 5.0-star Google rating in South Metro Denver.

Bed bugs need professional treatment because of how the insect lives. Store products cannot reach where bed bugs hide, and their eggs survive most of those products. We inspect first and confirm what you have, then tell you what treatment involves before you commit to it.

A good portion of the time, what a worried homeowner has photographed turns out to be a carpet beetle or a spider beetle rather than a bed bug. We would rather tell you that on the phone than sell you a treatment you do not need.

If you have found something and want it identified before you spend anything, call Guardian Pest Management at (303) 346-7087, or start at myguardianpest.com.

Related reading: Checking a hotel room for bed bugs before you unpack; Where DIY pest control goes wrong; When a pest problem is worth calling about.