The nymphs can reach adulthood in as little as 21 days under favorable conditions of temperatures between 70-80ºF (21-27ºC) and constant access to a blood meal, but it more realistically takes around 5 weeks to reach maturity, and this is when you're likely to see the infestation start to show.
Bed bugs are most likely to bite you or perhaps climb into your clothing if you are sitting, sleeping, or lounging on infested furniture. In particular, avoid sitting on upholstered furniture or beds, and don't place any of your belongings there.
Bed bugs got their name because they can primarily be found on and around the bed. If you've seen them, or been bitten by them, you may have an infestation. If it's not super noticeable, meaning you have to search for the little buggers, the problem may be mild.
Bed bugs will not just go away on their own. The answer is that you have to take concerted, consistent action to actively kill all the bed bugs in your house. If even a single impregnated female bed bug survives, the nightmare of bed bug infestation could start all over again!
If you can't find bedbugs but have bites all over the lower half of your body, it could be flea bites. A pet may have brought in the fleas, and they are the ones giving you those bites. Often, if you can't find bedbugs but have bites, you do not have a bedbug problem.
This is why bed bugs, as well as other insects and arachnids, also hate the following scents: mint, cinnamon, basil and citrus. (All of these contain linalool in them.) Sprinkling lavender oil or spraying lavender scent in areas where bed bugs are hiding is useful, but not too powerful on its own.
Other signs that you have bedbugs include:
- Blood stains on your sheets or pillowcases.
- Dark or rusty spots of bedbug excrement on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes, and walls.
- Bedbug fecal spots, egg shells, or shed skins in areas where bedbugs hide.
- An offensive, musty odor from the bugs' scent glands.
While bed bugs can be found in your car, it's not particularly likely. Bed bugs would usually use a car just to move from host to host, and probably won't stick around for long. The odds of you finding bed bugs nesting or mating in your car are very slim.
Even if a single bed bug crawled into your luggage, chances are nothing would come of it. However if several bugs or a pregnant female bed bug found her way to your home, you could have a problem in a few weeks.
Technically, bed bugs are unlikely to live on the clothes you're wearing, but they can quickly take up residence on items in a suitcase, and even what's in your drawers or on your floor. Just remember, if you've seen a bed bug, wash, dry, sort and store your items safely.
Find a Therapist
- First, know you are not alone.
- Use some positive self-talk.
- Get outside.
- Remember that bed bugs are not really any different than other types of bugs.
- Use deep breathing.
- Get some exercise.
- Tell someone!
- Lastly, do everything in your power to get rid of the bugs.
If you have already brought the bedbugs into your home, consider hiring a pest control service or you can follow steps to get rid of them on your own
- You'll want to quarantine your suspicious clothes and suitcases.
- Discard any items that are not valuable or heirlooms.
- Place any contaminated items in a plastic bag.
Travel is widely recognized as the most common cause of bed bug infestations. Often unbeknownst to the traveler, bed bugs will hitchhike on people, clothing, luggage, or other personal belongings and be accidentally transported to other properties. Bed bugs can easily go unnoticed by humans.
Steam – Bed bugs and their eggs die at 122°F (50°C). The high temperature of steam 212°F (100°C) immediately kills bed bugs. Apply steam slowly to the folds and tufts of mattresses, along with sofa seams, bed frames, and corners or edges where bed bugs may be hiding.
How to avoid bringing bedbugs home from vacation
- Inspect your hotel room. Before settling in, it's worth doing a quick scan of the bed and any couches or armchairs.
- Look closely at wooden headboards.
- Know what bedbugs look like.
- Keep your suitcase off the floor.
- Unpack immediately.
- Keep calm and declutter.
Where Do Bed Bugs Hide During the Day?
- In and around the piping of your mattress. They'll push themselves as far into the gap as possible, but will still be visible.
- Underneath furniture, especially in cracks in the wood.
- In cracks in the wall or floorboards, which is where they're especially hard to find.
A bite can take up to 14 days (but usually only three) to develop on the skin and approximately 14 days to disappear, but reactions may vary by person. Those with sensitive skin typically see signs in as little as an hour and it may take up to three weeks to fully disappear.
Can there be just one bed bug? It's impossible to say that there's never only one bed bug, but it's unlikely. Even if there is just one, if it's a pregnant female, it won't be long before there are many, many more.
The longest life span observed in Polanco's research was an insecticide-susceptible 5th instar nymph, which lived 143 days without a blood meal. Field strains of resistant bed bugs did not live longer than 80 days.
