Bed bug eggs resemble grains of rice, but much smaller. Most are pearly white-gray in color with an elongated oval shape that's only about 1 millimeter long. At the front end of each egg is a hinged cap, which opens up to create an opening that a newly hatched bed bug nymph comes out of.
Squashing a bed bug egg isn't exactly a pleasant experience for most people, but it's one way to check if what you've found is really a bed bug egg. If it's dry and crumbles, then it's most likely some other sort of debris.
Yellow flakes are actually moltings from juvenile bed bugs that have become adults–not dandruff from a previous guest. Bed bug eggs look like uncooked grains of white rice. They're somewhat sticky and are typically found in small clumps.
Bed bugs are usually a reddish-brown color. After a bed bug feeds, the body will swell and turn red in color because they feed on blood. Bed bugs don't have wings, so they don't fly; instead, they crawl. As mentioned above, bed bugs are often mistaken for crumbs, apple seeds, and other small seeds.
If you're in bed and it feels like you've got little crumbs all over, it might be the exoskeleton or eggs of the bed bugs. Signs of these intruders can also be found while doing laundry if you happen to see poppy seed sized grains, they are probably eggs.
Dust Mites
They thrive in warm and humid environments and are usually present in mattresses, upholstered furniture, carpets, and curtains. As scavengers, they don't directly feed on humans as bedbugs do. Instead, they feed on dead skin, pet dander, pollen, and bacteria.
If you see small flakes all over your bed or clothing, you have a home bed bug infestation. The molted skins are a clear reddish-brown with an oval shape.
Bed bug eggs, in general, are: tiny, the size of a pinhead; pearl-white in color; and. marked by an eye spot if more than five days old.
Mealybugs
Mealybugs are small, soft-bodied insects that typically measure 1/10 to ¼ of an inch in length. They have a white, waxy coating on their bodies which gives them the appearance of lint or dust particles.
Every hour we shed approximately 1,500,000 dead skin flakes. An average night of sleep can yield over 12,000,000 dead skin flakes, and it all ends up in YOUR MATTRESS EACH DAY! Dust mites eat your dead skin cells (called “dander”) which is why they absolutely thrive in your bed.
What do bed bug larvae look like? After the bed bugs hatch, they are referred to as bed bug larvae. Although adult bed bugs are very small, the bed bug larvae are even smaller. They appear like tiny grains of pepper and you can only see the eggs or other parts of their body by looking at them under a microscope.
Bed bug poop appears as clusters of tiny spots on your bed. The droppings consist of digested blood, so they will no longer be red once they dry. The spots will be darker, rust colored or black, and are about the size of a dot from a marker.
If you don't know what you're looking for, you might overlook them or mistake them for something else. Bed bug eggs resemble grains of rice, but much smaller. Most are pearly white-gray in color with an elongated oval shape that's only about 1 millimeter long.
Second, you need to know that bed bug eggs are sticky and adhere tightly to surfaces. Thus, although vacuum may remove many bed bug adults and nymphs, vacuuming will likely not remove the bed bug eggs. It's mainly because bed bug's eggs are very difficult to remove only with a vacuum cleaner.
In general, the bed bug eggs are small in size and white in colour. People usually see them at the spot of the infestation, where adult bed bugs hide as well. The eggs are most often clustered very close to one another. There are also eggshells all over the area.
Springtails, also known as snow fleas, thrive in wet or damp areas, where they gather in large clusters. From far away, they can look like little specks of dirt or particles of pepper in the snow.
Mealybugs is the name given to a type of tiny bugs that loves to infest houseplants. If you take a look at your plants now, do you notice a white powder anywhere, perhaps looking a little bit like fungus? If so, you might have just found a mealybug colony.
Dust mites
These tiny white mites are microscopic and nearly impossible to spot in low numbers. They enter homes through thin gaps and cracks in the walls, windows, and doors. Dust mites are attracted to damp conditions and typically gather on moist surfaces like walls, floors, and furniture inside the house.
Immature bed bugs (there are 5 immature or nymphal instar stages) can also be seen with the naked eye but they are smaller than adults, and translucent whitish-yellow in color. The most difficult life stage to see is the first instar nymph. This is the youngest life stage that hatches out of the egg.
Heat is non-toxic, and can kill all bed bug life stages including bed bug eggs. However, heat treatment of any kind (except your home clothes dryer) is still relatively expensive and has no residual (long lasting) activity. The lack of residual activity means that bed bugs can re-infest again the day after treatment.
If the eggs are more than five days old, they will have a conspicuous dark mark on them that resembles an eye. Their size and color means they can easily be camouflaged in some of the insects' favorite hiding spaces, including mattresses, especially against light-colored fabrics.
Bed bug droppings are typically found around the areas in which they are nesting. However, if you have a very heavy infestation, then it may be possible to see them near your bed or other furniture. The droppings resemble smallblack or brown dots and they tend to be smeared across surfaces.
In the same study, scientists found that dirty socks on the bed are just “sleep zest.” A recent study out of Cornell has found that food crumbs in bed are “just sleep pulp.”
In contrast, dust mites can really only be seen under the microscope. House dust mites are about 0.1–0.4 mm long [2], less than one tenth the size of a bed bug, at least. House dust mites are translucent to white in color and have been described as “globular” in shape [3].