How to Check for Bed Bugs

Scratching yourself awake from mysterious, itchy bites covering your arms and legs is hardly the ideal start to any morning, especially if your phone display is showing that it’s 3 am.

You’ve already checked for mosquitoes and ruled out spiders, and now you’re lying awake and frantically Googling ‘what do bed bug bites look like?’. The thought of these tiny invaders sharing your sheets is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.

Learning how to check for bed bugs properly is the first step. If your inspection reveals evidence of an infestation, contacting professional pest control immediately will save you time, money, and sleepless nights.

Contents:

• Telltale Signs You Have Bed Bugs
• Where to Look and How to Check for Bed Bugs
• Bed Bugs or Fleas? Is It Actually Bed Bugs?
• What to Do If You Find Bed Bugs

Telltale Signs You Have Bed Bugs

These distinct clues can help you identify the presence of bed bugs.

Unexplained Bites and Skin Reactions

Bed bug bites typically appear as small, red, itchy welts that often form distinctive patterns on your skin. Unlike random mosquito bites, bed bugs tend to bite in straight lines or clusters, earning them the nickname “breakfast, lunch, and dinner” bites.

Learning how to check for bed bug bites is important, as these bites commonly appear on exposed areas like your arms, shoulders, neck, and face.

Blood Stains on Your Bedding or Walls

Look for small spots that are darker red or brownish in colour, typically no larger than a few millimetres. You’ll usually find these stains near where your head or torso rests on the bed, as this is where bed bugs are most likely to be feeding when crushed. Recognising these early signs of bedbugs can help you catch an infestation before it becomes severe.

Bed bugs are clumsy creatures, and they sometimes get crushed against walls near your bed. Look for small brown or reddish stains on the wall behind your headboard, particularly if your bed sits close to the wall.

These marks may also appear on nearby furniture, picture frames, or electrical outlet covers. The stains are usually smaller than a five-cent coin and may appear slightly smeared, indicating the bug was moving when it was crushed.

Dark or Rust-Coloured Stains

Bed bugs leave behind dark spots of excrement that look like small dark brown or black ink stains/ rust marks about the size of a pen tip.

Check the mattress seams, headboard, and bed frame joints carefully. These stains often appear in clusters and may bleed slightly into the fabric, creating a small halo effect around each spot. Unlike blood stains from crushed bugs, these excrement marks are typically darker and more concentrated.

Sweet, Musty Odours

A heavy bed bug infestation often produces a distinctive sweet, musty smell that’s sometimes described as similar to coriander or almonds. This odour comes from the bugs’ scent glands and becomes more noticeable as the population grows.

If you detect an unusual, sickly-sweet smell in your bedroom that can’t be explained by other sources, particularly around the bed area, this could indicate a significant infestation. Knowing how to check for bed bugs includes recognising this telltale scent, though this sign typically only becomes apparent once the problem has developed substantially.

Eggshells and Shed Skins

As bed bugs grow, they shed their outer shells, leaving behind translucent, hollow casings that look like empty bed bug shapes. These shed skins are typically found in the same areas where the bugs hide during the day.

Bed bug eggs are tiny, white, and about the size of a pinhead. They’re often found in clusters in mattress seams, bed frame joints, or other hiding spots. The eggshells remain behind even after the bugs have hatched, providing evidence of breeding activity.

Live Bed Bugs

Perhaps the most obvious, spotting actual bed bugs is often the most definitive sign that you have an infestation. Adult bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed, brown or reddish-brown in colour, and have flat, oval-shaped bodies that become more rounded and darker after feeding.

They are experts at staying hidden but are most likely spotted during active feeding times between midnight and 5 am. Use a torch to check mattress seams, box springs, and bed frame joints. Newly hatched bed bugs (nymphs) are much smaller and lighter in colour, making them harder to spot but still visible to the naked eye.

Where to Look and How to Check for Bed Bugs

A thorough inspection of your home in the late evening or early morning, when bugs are most active, will give you the best chance of finding these elusive pests.

1. Strip and Inspect Your Bed

Remove all bedding carefully, without shaking it out — shaking can scatter bugs and eggs into other parts of the room. Lift each item away slowly and check for:

• Small bloodstains on sheets and pillowcases
• Dark spots or stains (bed bug excrement)
• Any bugs, shed skins, or eggs in the folds and seams

Place suspicious bedding straight into sealed plastic bags as you remove it.

2. Examine Your Mattress Thoroughly

Keep your eyes peeled for dark stains, blood spots, eggs, shed skins, or live bugs when looking for early signs of bed bugs in these key areas:

• Head of the mattress
• All seams and corners
• Mattress label and tags

3. Inspect Your Box Spring and Bed Frame

The box spring is often more infested than the mattress:

• Flip the box spring over and examine underneath
• Check all joints where frame pieces connect
• Look inside screw holes and any cracks in wooden frames
• Examine headboard attachment points

4. Check Furniture Around Your Bedroom

Focus on items within a few metres of your bed, like:

• Bedside tables
• Upholstered chairs
• Curtains
• Picture frames

5. Look for Signs in Other Rooms

In severe infestations, check:

• Lounge furniture where people rest frequently
• Guest bedrooms and other sleeping areas
• Carpet edges leading from the bedroom

Bed Bugs or Fleas? Is It Actually Bed Bugs?

In most circumstances, suspected bed bug cases actually turn out to be fleas. Correctly identifying your pest is the foundation of successful treatment.

Key Differences

• Location preferences:
  • Fleas: Thrive in carpeted areas throughout your home, particularly living rooms and hallways with soft furnishings
  • Bed bugs: Stay close to sleeping areas, rarely venturing beyond the bedroom

• Travel habits:
  • Fleas: You can pick them up virtually anywhere – open offices, public transport, and schools are very common places. They spread quickly throughout homes.
  • Bed bugs: Most commonly picked up from travel and short-stay accommodations, e.g. motels, hotels, AirBnBs or when travellers stay with you. Bed bugs generally stay contained to one room and don’t move around easily. If you run a short-stay rental yourself, see our guide to keeping bedbugs out of your Wellington Airbnb.

• Bite patterns:
  • Fleas: Often bite around ankles, lower legs, and the waists, where they jump from carpets onto people.
  • Bed bugs: Typically bite exposed upper body areas like the arms, shoulders, neck, and face while you sleep.

• Main habitat:
  • Fleas: Carpet fibres provide the perfect environment for their lifecycle
  • Bed bugs: Mattress seams, bed frames, and furniture joints near sleeping areas

If you don’t find clear evidence of bed bugs during your inspection, then fleas are the most likely culprit for your bites, and flea treatment is what you need. Seek professional identification from a local pest control expert if you are still unsure. Treating fleas as if they are bedbugs will only allow them to continue their spread around your home and to houses you visit.

What to Do If You Find Bed Bugs

Your response in the first few hours after discovery can make the difference between a quick resolution and a prolonged infestation.

Immediate Steps

• Contain the problem immediately:
  • Don’t shake out bedding or clothing, as this can scatter bugs to other areas of your home.
  • Physically remove any bed bugs or eggs found by vacuuming them up to reduce their population.
  • Place any suspicious bedding or clothing in sealed plastic bags until you can wash them.
  • Avoid moving items from the affected room to other parts of your house.
  • If possible, keep sleeping in the same bed, as moving to another room may cause bugs to spread with you.

• Document everything:
  • Take clear photos of live bugs, stains, shed skins, or eggs you’ve found
  • Note the specific locations where you discovered signs
  • Record when you first noticed bites or other symptoms – knowing how to check for bed bug bites will help you provide valuable information to pest control professionals

• Isolate affected items:
  • Wash clothing and bedding on the hottest setting the fabric allows (60°C or above) and dry on high heat for 30 minutes
  • Items that can’t be washed can be placed in the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes
  • For items that can’t handle heat, double-bag them and keep them sealed for at least 12 months, or until your treatment has been confirmed successful

The listed action steps above are only containment steps. They will only prevent making the infestation worse while you seek treatment. Immediate action to treat bed bugs will be required; they will never disappear just from washing your bedding as this is not their main source.

Problems with Over-The-Counter Solutions

• Bed bugs have developed significant resistance to many common insecticides found in retail sprays
• Surface sprays can’t reach deep into mattress seams, furniture joints, and wall crevices where bed bugs actually hide
• Different life stages require different treatment approaches that single products can’t address
• Incorrect application can cause bugs to flee to new areas of your home

Always Call Professional Pest Control

With a lot of effort and diligence it is often possible to eliminate 80-90% of a bedbug population yourself. This still won’t stop the bites and it will only take a short while for that remaining population to recover again, providing only short-lived relief, if any.

Call a professional pest controller immediately if you are experiencing bites. As experts, we can correctly identify whether you’re dealing with bed bugs, fleas, or other pests, ensuring you receive the correct treatment from the start.

The quicker you act, the quicker you will have relief avoiding a traumatising experience. Bed bugs are one of the most challenging pests to eliminate, but with professional help, complete eradication is absolutely achievable. Don’t waste precious time and money on DIY solutions that will only delay the inevitable professional treatment while allowing the population to grow and bites to multiply.

Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite

When it comes to protecting your home and family from these unwelcome guests, it’s time to call in the professionals.

With our easy online booking system, getting help is just a few clicks away. Contact Combat Pest Control today for your bed bug treatment and sleep soundly knowing you are in expert hands.