If you find yourself suddenly developing red, itchy welts when you wake up, you may just have learned how to find bed bug bite symptoms. This is particularly common when people have used furniture or beds. However, there are other symptoms of bed bugs to be aware of as well, such as small blood stains on your pillowcase or sheet, rusty spots of excrement on your bed, walls, and mattresses and sheets, fecal spots, shed skins, and egg shells in hiding places, and a musty, offensive smell in the infested room.
How to Find Bed Bug Bite Symptoms And Signs:
If you think that you may have bed bugs, you are probably right. It is always better to not take any chances, so take off all your bedding and check it for signs. Make sure you also check the areas where the wood frame and fabric is stapled together, and the seams in wood framing.
Next, you need to look all around the bed, which includes radios, telephones, books, electrical outlets, the carpet edges, and so on. Search inside your closet, as the bugs may have attached themselves to your clothes. If you're not sure how to find bed bug bite symptoms, then phone an exterminator right away. They will be able to confirm or deny the presence of these insects.
If you believe an infestation is present, you have to make sure that you do all you can to get rid of the bugs, and stop them from coming back. This means you must thoroughly clean anywhere they may have taken up residence. As such:
– Remove and clean all fabric materials, including clothes, curtains, linens, and bedding. Wash them in hot water and dry them with high heat. Anything that can't be washed, like shoes and stuffed animals, should be placed in the dryer, on hot, for at least half an hour.
– Get a stiff brush and scrub the seams on your mattress so that you can take off all the bed bugs and eggs.
– Vacuum the bed itself, and everything around it. Empty the vacuum after each time you use it, and make sure you do this by emptying it in a separate plastic bag, closing it, and put it out in a garbage can. Don't be afraid to vacuum several times every day.
– Purchase zippered, tightly woven covers for your box springs and mattresses, and encase them in it. This will stop existing bed bugs from escaping, and new ones from entering the mattress. Be aware that these bugs can live as long as a year without a feed. Hence, you need to keep that cover on for at least a year to really kill the bugs.
– Find any cracks and problems in your plaster and fix it, and glue back any areas where the wallpaper has come off. These are great hiding places for bed bugs.
– Declutter the area around your bed.
– If you have an infestation in your mattress, cut your losses and get rid of it, and purchase a new one. It really isn't worth dealing with a constant infestation.