Where do bed bugs come from?
Bed bugs don’t come from dirt, and how clean your home is has nothing to do with it. They travel with people and their belongings: a suitcase back from a trip or a hotel stay, a used sofa or mattress, clothes from shared housing, or a guest who sat on your bed. One fertilized female is enough to start a full infestation within weeks.
So our first question is always the same: what changed at home before the bites started? A trip, new or secondhand furniture, someone who stayed over. The answer tells us where to begin the inspection.
Where do they hide in the bedroom?
Bed bugs like to stay close to where people sleep, usually within about 2.5 meters of the bed. These are the places we check first:
- Mattress seams, on top and underneath, and the area around the label.
- The bed frame: the joints, the cracks and the wood behind the headboard.
- Sofas and fabric chairs where someone often sleeps or sits.
- Behind picture frames and peeling wallpaper, and the power outlets next to the bed.
- Nightstands and drawers nearby, especially wooden ones with gaps.
If you find signs in any of these places, don’t move the item to another room before treatment. Moving a mattress or a sofa can carry the bed bugs along with it.
How fast do they multiply?
A female bed bug lays hundreds of eggs over her life. At normal home temperatures the eggs hatch in about a week. Each nymph goes through 5 stages and needs a blood meal before each one, and it can reach adulthood in about a month. In other words, a small infestation today can reach several rooms within two months if nobody treats it.
Adult bed bugs can also go months without food. If you lock the room and sleep somewhere else, the bugs don’t die. They wait, and sometimes they follow you to the new room. Our guide to getting rid of bed bugs at home goes through this in more detail.
When should you call a bed bug exterminator?
You’ve washed the sheets and vacuumed the seams, and two weeks later the bites keep coming. Or you’ve found signs in more than one room, or the bugs are in a sofa or a bed that’s hard to take apart. Any of these means it’s time for professional treatment. Every week you wait means more eggs and more places to treat. Call or WhatsApp us on +201007892200, any time of day.