No matter whether you live in a home or an apartment, or what else is going on in your life, realizing that you may have a bed bug infestation is one of the worst things to deal with. These tiny, blood-sucking insects can be a real nuisance for more than one reason!
Bed bugs are insects of the genus Cimex that feed on human blood at night. Their bites can have a variety of negative health impacts, such as skin rashes, psychological stresses, and allergy symptoms.
Adult bed bugs are about the size and shape of an apple seed. They are up to 1/4th inch long. Adult bed bugs can be seen with the naked eye. True bugs, the bed bug has long, brown, oval, flattened bodies before they feed and rounded bodies after they feed.
The first signs of bed bugs are subtle. Finding just one sign does not mean you have bed bugs, but it should prompt you to investigate further. The more signs you find, the more likely it is you have bed bugs. Here are the most obvious signs to look for:
Bed bugs, especially large numbers of them, have a musty smell. Bed bugs excrete a smelly pheromone from their body. After they have been feeding, it has a coppery tang because of the blood in the feces.
The first sign most people have of a bed bug infestation is bite marks on their skin. However, many other insect bites and spider bites look the same, so this isn’t definitive.