As bed bugs are nocturnal insects, they typically come out at night. Their peak feeding time is between 2 am and 5 am. However, the fact that they are mostly active during the night does not mean that they won't be moving around during the day as well.
Though these pests like to come out before dawn, don't think you can wait up all night to outsmart them. "A bed bug is an opportunist, and while their peak feeding time is between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., if you work nights they will come out and feed on you during the day," Furman says.
Common bed bugs are small, thin, and can hide deep in very narrow cracks. They are mainly active at night. They will routinely travel as far as a 20-foot radius from their hiding places (and back) in one night to take a blood meal.
Although bed bugs are most active at night, they can be found during the day if you understand what they need to live their best lives.
In most cases, a bed bug infestation will go unnoticed for a few months following a bed bug's initial introduction into a home.
Extreme temperatures are the best way to kill bed bugs. Washing your clothing and bedding in a high heat wash should effectively kill off any bugs, as well as any eggs they've possibly laid. It's important to exercise caution in moving infested linens during the process to avoid spreading the bed bugs to other rooms!
Don't count on bed bugs to go away on their own. In theory, they can. In practice, they don't unless several highly specific circumstances occur. Your best bet is professional bed bugs treatment.
To lure bed bugs out of their hiding spots, you can use a steamer or a hairdryer to heat areas such as mattresses. Neither of these is hot enough to kill the bed bugs, but it can trick them into thinking a human host is near. You can also keep an eye out at night to locate their nests when they are most active.
Those individuals who are not sensitive to bed bug bites may not know they have an infestation. Because bed bugs are nocturnally active, it's hard to see other signs of their presence—unless you're accustomed to waking up at 3 A.M. and taking a census.
It's best to keep the infestation localized to as few rooms as possible. This will also make remediation easier. Do continue to sleep in your bedroom after identifying a bed bug infestation. If you move rooms or start sleeping on the couch you run the risk of contaminating these other areas of your home.
Do Bed Bugs Usually Stay In One Room? Since bed bugs do not have wings and do not jump, some people incorrectly assume that they tend to stay in one room and not travel much. However, this is not true. Bed bugs move around quickly and seek any place where they can find their next blood meal (i.e. humans).
Around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard. If the room is heavily infested, you may find bed bugs: In the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains. In drawer joints.
Wash everything on a high temperature or sanitary cycle for at least 30 minutes. Placing everything in the dryer on the hottest setting for 30 minutes will also kill bed bugs and larvae. Immediately after you're finished putting clothing in the washer, tie up and throw out the empty garbage bag in an outdoor trash bin.
However, keeping the lights on will not prevent bed bugs from coming out from inside the mattress or bed and biting you. Although bed bugs don't like the light, they still need to eat. Additionally, light certainly will not kill bed bugs, or irritate them enough to make them leave your home.
Bed bugs live throughout the year, but there is a particular time during each year when bed bug infestations become more common. In normal years, bed bug “season” peaks in the months of August and September when most families have returned from their travels, and bugs have a chance to gain a foothold.
These night biters can be mites, fleas, mosquitoes, lice, spiders, and ticks.
Hogan said that if you don't see any bugs and haven't traveled relatively recently, you may want to consider things like detergents, medications you may be taking, allergy issues, and more because one of those other things might be what's actually causing the itchiness.
If no pests can be found and the irritation doesn't seem to match any of the most common bug bite pictures, you may be experiencing a skin reaction to a household product or environmental irritant. Consider the location of the rash. If it's on the hands and arms, think about what you've come in contact with recently.
Baby powder can be used to smother and suffocate bed bugs. A 70% isoprophyl solution will also kill bed bugs and their eggs on contact. Both of these methods, however, may require multiple applications to fully eliminate an infestation.
DIY treatments include high heat, bleach, alcohol, and diatomaceous earth. Rubbing alcohol, salt, baking soda, and boric acid are not effective. Certain essential oils repel bed bugs but won't kill them. Diatomaceous earth is an effective passive method of bed bug treatment.
Travel – Bedbugs may find their way onto luggage in hotels and motels with a high number of occupants. If you have stayed at a hotel or other home recently, leave bags and clothes in the garage or somewhere far from upholstered surfaces, suggests Allan Bossel, to avoid unintentionally transporting them to your home.
Other Homes and People – Just because you do not travel doesn't mean that you may not be exposed to bed bugs from visiting someone else's home, or having someone with a bed bug infestation visit your property. Buying Used Items – Bed bugs are outstanding hiders.
Search Beds and Furniture with a Flashlight
Using a flashlight, inspect every gap, crevice, or seam around your bed. Bed bugs try to hide themselves deep inside narrow spaces, so a flashlight will help you see them.
Bugs hanging out in a guest room, storage container, or mattress have the same challenge of having to survive longer without food and some won't be able to eat at all and then move into dormancy. In dormant states, bed bugs of course cannot breed and produce eggs but the bugs can survive for one to two years.