5 Things you may not know about bed bugs.

Bed Bugs Can Live Anywhere

Most people think bed bugs only live on beds in hotels and motels. The reality is that bed bugs can thrive anywhere – apartments, townhouses, hospitals, seniors housing, college dormitories, family homes, vacation homes, schools, office buildings, trains, planes, buses, cars, and just about any place where humans live. It has been reported that bed bug infestations are very common in single-family homes and apartments/condos with infestation rate of 89 percent and 88 percent respectively.

Bed Bugs Don’t Care if your clean or messy

People often think bed bugs are only found in dirty places, overcrowded cities or third world countries. This is not true. Bed bugs are found in all towns and cities of the world. In fact, incidences of bed bug infestations are three times higher in urban areas than in the countryside.

All bed bugs care about is access to lots of people. It doesn’t matter if you take a shower every day, or wash your clothes regularly. You may still have bed bugs clinging on your clothes or luggage.

In short, any densely populated areas or places like high-end hotels, shopping malls, dorms, movie theaters, are all at risk of being infested with Bed Bugs. Clean places won’t deter them.

Bed Bugs Aren’t Always Nocturnal

Bed Bugs aren’t truly nocturnal creatures. It is true that most people report bed bug bites while sleeping during the night and they get scared when light, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t bite you in the daytime.

Bed Bugs are opportunists and crave for blood, and if they are hungry, they will come out and bite you during the day. Even more so, bed bugs are attracted to the body warmth of humans and to the carbon dioxide we exhale.

Bed Bugs Are Masters in Anesthesiology

People often wonder why they can’t feel the moment they are being bitten by bed bugs. The saliva of bed bugs works as an anesthetic which numbs the area of the bite and helps increase of blood flow in the area, making the feeding process smooth and almost painless.

After the feeding process is over, the bed bugs hide for 5-10 days in secluded places to digest the blood, mate and lay eggs. Also, bed bugs typically feed for 3 -12 minutes and gain as much as six times their body weight while feeding.

Bed Bugs Are Extremely Good at Hiding

BedBugs are smart, they are elusive too. They know when to stay out of view during the daytime and hide in the cracks and crevices in the walls, furniture joints, beds and mattresses, carpets, in picture frames, behind wallpapers and switchboards and electrical appliances. If your infestation level is low, you will miss the signs. In this case, you should consult a trained professional.

Check for some common signs of high bedbug infestation such as black fecal spots found in the bed or mattress linings, bedbug skins, or if you are lucky (or unlucky), you can find an actual bed bug.