How to Check for Bed Bugs in Your Home

Depending on what part of the country you live in you may have hear about bedbug outbreaks in certain states. Bed bugs are crawling their way back into fashion and are affecting areas in New York City, Boston, and Detroit. You may be quick to brush these little guys off and say that it'll never happen to me but it may be happening to you right now. Bedbugs are very discreet, resilient, and have the perfect anatomy for hiding in the tightest of places. So even though you may not see a bedbug it does not mean that you don't have them. In fact, it's because many people don't see these bedbugs that infestation arises. People often spot bedbugs after they have already multiplied and spread in the house or apartment. When there's one bed bug there is sure to be plenty more. It's best to detect any bedbugs early on so that the problem can be tackled without much problem.

If you live in any of the areas mentioned above you may want to open your eyes and start snooping around your house to see if you can find any bugs. You may not want to do this job but it needs to be done for the sake of your comfort level and sanity. Bed bugs aren't that easy to get rid of. Locating these bugs is the first step in treating your home. Below are some ways on how to capture a few bed bugs.

The first thing you want to do is a visual inspection. You should know that bedbugs are most active between the hours of 3AM and 5AM so you may want to set your alarm in order to wake up and stalk them. You'll need to get down on all fours and take a look around your home. The first place that you should look is in the creases and underneath your mattress. Bed bugs like to sleep close to where they feed and they feed on you, so look in and around bedding and sofas. If you don't see any bedbugs in your bedding it does not mean that you do not have them. You want to try and cover all areas of your home. Look on curtains, on baseboards, in piles of clothing, in outlets, and in cracks of the floor and wall. Bed bugs are especially built so that they can nudge in the smallest of places so look everywhere. Get creative and think if I were a tiny bug where would I hide. Also, when looking at your bedding check for dark spots. Bed bugs can leave behind feces which will look like a black spot on bedding. Also look for blood stains on sheets that occur from a bug getting accidentally crushed by you in your sleep.

Your visual inspection may or may not pull up any bedbugs but you should still set up a trap just to be certain. The first trap that you should try is the Vaseline trap. All you need is a bit of Vaseline for this trap. You may also want to consider sealing your mattress in plastic sheets to entrap any bedbugs in there and to also prevent anymore from inhabiting your mattress. To set the trap, apply a generous amount of Vaseline on the legs of your bed. This will prevent the bugs from reaching your bed to feed on you. They will get stuck in the Vaseline before reaching the top. In order for this to work you need make sure that your covers are not touching the floor because if they are the bedbugs can easily attach themselves to them and crawl up to reach you.

In addition to using the Vaseline trick you can place double sided tape on the floor, all around your bed. The bedbugs will most likely crawl to reach you and they don't just hide in one area of the house. The bugs will crawl from out of different locations so placing the tape around your bed gives you a great chance to capture some. Once the bugs crawl on the tape they will not be able to crawl off. They will be stuck there.

If these homemade traps are not working for you then you may want to do a google search for bedbug traps. There are many devices sold to capture bed bugs; from monitor tracks that use heat and carbon dioxide to attract bugs to interceptor devices that trap the bugs as they try to crawl up to your bed. It may be best to use a combination of the homemade and store bought devices.

Once you've determined that you have bedbugs your next step is to contact your landlord who should then hire an exterminator and if you own a home you should contact an exterminator. Some landlords will say that they are not responsible for this problem. It could cost thousands just to treat this problem so it is easy to see why landlords would turn the other cheek. States have different laws on bedbugs and extermination so be sure to contact your board of health to find out what those laws are and whose responsibility it is to fix the problem. The faster the resolution the better it will be for everyone as these things multiply quickly.