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If you wonder how to find bed bugs during the day, it is essential to understand why daytime is the best time to hunt them. Bed bugs are, in a way, nocturnal insects. It means that when you are sleeping at night, they get to work biting you and disrupting your sleep.
As long as you know the spot you want to infiltrate, you are good to go. Let’s look at how you can go about finding them in the daytime.
First Things, Ensure That You Have the Right Tools
When learning how to find bed bugs during the day, it’s important to remember that they are tiny. It means that you will require special equipment to help you spot them.
First, since it’s during the day, you can use sunlight to illuminate the house. Draw the curtains if you must to ensure you get sunlight.
To ensure that you have sufficient additional lighting, you can go ahead and use a flashlight as well. Also, since bed bugs are relatively tiny, it’s essential to consider using a magnifying lens to find them.
Know the Signs That Indicate a Bed Bug Infestation
There’s no guarantee that you can tell there is a bed bug infestation in your home right away. You might have to master the signs to look for that indicate that your space has a bed bug infestation. Some of the indicators that you should look for are;
- Live bed bugs
- Bed bug bites
- Egg remnants
- Bloody or black spots on beddings
- Shed skins
Live Bed Bugs
If you happen to randomly see bed bugs roaming in your space during the day, then it indicates that you have an intense infestation. It’s the surest way of identifying your infestation problem.
Bed Bug Bites
The way to identify bed bugs is that they appear in a cluster pattern on the skin. While that is the case, understand that some people don’t react to bed bug bites. For this reason, bed bug bites may not inform you of the situation entirely.
A bedbug’s bite mark looks like that of a mosquito and is just as itchy. Sometimes the bites, may not be itchy, but they appear as red bumps. Always keep in mind that people react differently to insect bites, including bed bugs.
Egg Remnants
It’s easy to spot bed bug eggs casings. If you intend to find egg remnants, look for brown or white particles bigger than 1millimeter. Magnifying lenses can also be helpful in this situation.
Even though there is the temptation to touch the eggs with bare hands, avoid it. Ensure that you have gloves within reach.
Bloody or Black Spots on Beddings
Bloody marks or black spots on your beddings can be further proof of bedbug existence.
Small bloody marks are indicative of bedbug bites. Bed bug fecal matter is also red or black, which should signify their existence in your space. Since they consume blood, squishing bed bugs also leave blood marks on the bed.
Shed Skins
Throughout its life, a bed bug undergoes five growth stages as it is with most insects. At some point in their development, they tend to molt, leaving bashing skin.
You can notice the skin if you look close enough. One of the things you will likely discover is how they closely resemble the bed bugs. Look where you suspect an infestation, and you will probably find skins there.
Identify All the Spots You Want To Look
Bed bugs always stay close to their food source. That should guide you to realize they are likely to settle in your favored sitting spot on the couch or in your bed. If you can look for the signs, you will find them in such areas.
As you try to expose bed bug infestation in broad daylight, you have to be careful not to cause further infestations. You can start by ensuring that you have the right equipment gear on when you decide to go after them.
There are at least two primary ways of going about truly revaluing their nests.
Check Your Bedding
As the name suggests, bed bugs love to hide in the bed. That includes inside the mattress and in the seams of your bedsheets.
Ensure that you pull apart bedding if you want to know if there are bed bugs within them. If you have a child, ensure that you check their crib and the palsy area, especially if you have mats laid out. Expose the bed bugs as you prepare to take action.
While stripping your beddings, ensure that you don’t contribute to spreading the bed bugs further. It’s best to have containers or bags to seal the infested beddings within reach.
Go ahead and examine your mattress thoroughly. That way, in case there are bed bugs in it, you will know the intensity of the infestation to help you decide how much work it will require to eliminate them.
Apply a technique where you look through the seams and fold on the bedding carefully. The goal is to ensure that you don’t miss any parts unchecked.
Assess the State of Your Furniture, Ceiling, and Walls
An amazing fact about bed bugs is that they are pretty good at hiding during the day. Besides beddings, it will do you some good to check your furniture.
The best way to go about it is to ensure that you don’t discriminate against your furniture. Start by checking your bed and then proceed to the rest of the table in your house.
Couches, in particular, are susceptible to bed bug infestation. They have cushions and seams, which are some of the favorite breeding areas for bed bugs. Cabinets and drawers also require examining for bed bug colonies.
Another surprising place where bed bugs are likely to nest is the ceiling and walls. Examine the junctions between walls and ceiling for bed bugs. This kind of infestation is common where it’s intense.
If the walls and ceiling have bed bugs, then it only means that the wallpaper has an infestation. If that’s the case, get the status of the electrical outlets and receptacle since they breed there too.
Laying Out Traps to Prove Infestations
In case you are not sure that you have bed bugs, you can lay out traps. The good thing about this alternative is that it is safe and produces results.
Bed bug traps are mostly non-toxic glue designed to attract and trap them. They come in a folded fashion so that you can have an easy time planting them even in the trickiest spaces.
Bedbug traps are easy to fold up and place beneath your bed sheet and in crevices where bed bugs like to hide. For the traps to work, you have to give them time. Leave them laid out and check weekly or daily if you can for signs of bed bugs.
Even after laying out traps and managing to expose a bed bug infestation, the traps may fail to capture all the bed bugs. Sometimes these sneaky insects can hide and go for a long time without feeding. It’s up to you to get more intelligent than them.
Use a Bug-Sniffing Dog
Given that bed bugs are hard to spot, you can get the services of a bug sniffing dog to help you find them. Bed bugs produce a distinct smell that dogs can trace.
A sniffer dog can smell bed bugs hidden in the cracks where our eyes can’t reach. The only thing you have to ensure is that the dog you hire has sufficient training to trace bed bugs.
Once you manage to expose a bed bug infestation in your space, the only thing left to do is ensure that you get rid of them permanently. It’s best to ensure that you don’t throw anything away, especially beddings.
There are ways to ensure you completely get rid of the bed bugs in your sheets, blankets, and mattress. Get help if you have to once you find yourself with bed bug-infested bedding.
If the infestation is intense, you might have to use chemicals or call an exterminator. Other than that,
if you are an environmentally conscious person, there are less abrasive methods that you can try out.
Conclusion
Now that you have an idea of how to find bed bugs during the day, you can go ahead and put them into practice around your home. While discovering bedbugs colonies, personal safety should be a priority, especially when surveying walls and ceilings. Once you find the bed bugs in your house and get rid of them, please do your best to ensure that you don’t reintroduce them back into your space.
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