Inspecting for bed bugs
Part of an effective treatment is knowing where bed bugs are, and treating those locations strategically with the appropriate tools and pesticides.
Bed bugs will typically begin living on or very near the bed, and spread out as the population increases.
If you think you have bed bugs you will need to either hire a pest company to inspect your home or workplace, or try to inspect on your own. Most competent pest professionals will not treat your home without a specimen or convincing evidence that bed bugs are in your home. If you can capture one, dead or alive, put it in a sandwich bag in the freezer.
Thinking about doing it yourself?
Before doing your own bed bug inspection it is very important that you don't move furniture, boxes, or other items around your home. Inspect at the object using a flashlight and magnifyer, if needed. If you do have bed bugs, moving things around your house may result in you spreading bed bugs around your home, making the infestation worse.
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If you decide to inspect your own home, start at the bed. It's closest to the source of food, you. Things you will need to inspect for bed bugs are a flashlight, a magnifier, and a spray bottle of 90% or better rubbing alcohol to kill anything you do find.
Note: this will not kill eggs, which are the approximate size of a grain of salt. The magnifier will help identify that which is too small to know conclusively what it is. This means the sooner you determine that you have bed bugs, the easier and faster it will be to get rid of them, because there will be fewer of them.
Inspect the entire bed, headboard, including screws, screw holes, mattress piping, tags, box spring and pillow. You are looking for either bed bugs, bed bug poop (looks like black felt tip marker spots), little bloody spots, or castings from molting (graduating) bed bugs.
*bedbugsnorthwest.com and the owner of the website, are not responsible for any damage to people or property resulting from any treatment, chemicals, or information you read about or use from information provided on this website. Personal behavior is such a determining factor in success, no one can guarantee any one method will be effective in your own personal infestation.
