If you want to know how to tell if a mattress has bed bugs, you have three signs to check. First, we’ll discuss what stains to look for and even what bed bug eggs and droppings look like. Second, we’ll also go through what bed bug bites look like.
After the confirmation, we recommend that you bookmark this guide on how to fumigate a bed. It might help you redeem your mattress.
How To Tell If Your Mattress Has Bed Bugs
Stains on the mattress
Be on the lookout for stains on the mattress, mainly reddish or rusty spots all over the bed. These stains can indicate bed bugs because you might have crushed them when you used the mattress. The sheets can also have these rusty stains and other areas of the bed where they can hide, such as underneath the pillows or covers.
You might even see the red stains on the clothes you wore that night. Therefore, always check all the fabrics you use at night for any unusual red spots. Some people even notice a musty odor similar to coriander.
Bed bug eggs, droppings, and exoskeletons on the mattress
It might be hard to see live bed bugs on the bed, but they leave other evidence like eggs, droppings, and exoskeletons. As gross as it seems, look for tiny eggs and eggshells all over the bed and even the box spring. Bed bug exoskeletons, on the other hand, look clear to yellowish skin castings.
What do bed bug droppings look like on the mattress? Besides looking for rust-colored spots that might mean crushed bed bugs, you should also look for marker-like spots all over the fabrics and beds. These tiny bed bug excrements can easily be mistaken as ink stains.
Bed bug bites on the skin
Familiarize yourself with what bed bug bites look like. They may look like another familiar insect bite, but more often, bites from bed bugs are swollen, itchy, and red. In addition, bed bug bites are quite small, but different people react to these bites uniquely, so the size of the bed bug bite won’t be the same for everyone.
You can look for bites around your face, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, and legs. These parts of the body are what is quickly exposed when we sleep on the mattress. However, do note that your body’s reaction to the bed bug bite might take a few days to show symptoms.
Will I See Bed Bugs If I Have Them?
Bed bugs are small, but they are not invisible to the human eye. You should easily see them if you know how to identify a bed bug and you’re sure that it’s not another insect. Unfortunately, some people can easily mistake a bed bug for a small cockroach, head lice, tick, or even flea.
What do bed bugs look like?
Bed bugs have no wings, and their bodies are reddish-brown. They are also flat and oval, and you’re more likely to catch one on the mattress at night. Note that they typically feed once a week, usually between 12 am to 5 am.
Can Bed Bugs Live Inside A Mattress?
Bed bugs can live inside a mattress because it will give them easier access to their food, especially with the common bed bug that prefers feeding on humans. But unlike other insects like ants, bed bugs don’t have nests. Instead, you might find bed bugs around and inside the bed, such as the areas around the mattress seams, piping, or even tags.
Furthermore, the box spring, bed frame, and headboard have cracks and crevices that make an ideal bed bug hiding place. So how do you draw bed bugs out of hiding? There are bed bug lures, but you can also provide heat to get them to come out.
Can You Get Bed Bugs From Touching A Mattress?
If you touch a bed bug-infested mattress by sitting or sleeping on it, it’s possible that you can catch and spread the critters when you arrive at home. However, bed bugs can’t spread from one person to another like lice. Instead, bed bugs can hitchhike on your clothes or other items that have touched the bed.
How Fast Do Bed Bugs Spread?
Bed bugs only need a few minutes to travel between surfaces to find new hiding areas. Therefore, bringing any affected furniture or item into the room can quickly lead to a possible bed bug infestation. However, bed bugs don’t reproduce as quickly because the female typically only lays one egg per day, and it will take for that egg ten days to hatch.
Conclusion
Do you suspect critters on the bed? In this article, we talked about how to tell if a mattress has bed bugs and discovered three signs. They are rusty spots and musty odor from squished bugs, pen-like stains from excrements, and even exoskeletons and eggs.
You might also notice bed bug bites on your skin or the bed bugs themselves, especially in the inner parts of the bed. Once your suspicion is confirmed, we recommend treating everything in the room or even calling a professional. If all else fails, please learn how to dispose of a bed bug mattress to prevent reinfestation and causing trouble to others.