Grab your phone, turn on the flashlight, and get ready to play detective. Bed bugs leave behind three main calling cards. First: dark or rusty spots on your mattress, sheets, or headboard. These are their droppings—basically, digested blood. Gross, yes, but undeniable. (Side note: if it smears when you wipe it, you’ve got a problem.)
Second: tiny, pale yellow skins that look like miniature exoskeletons. Bed bugs shed their skin as they grow, like creepy little snakes. You’ll find these in the seams of your mattress, behind the headboard, or even inside the folds of your curtains. Third: actual live bugs. Adults are about the size of an apple seed, reddish-brown, and flat—until they feed. Then they plump up like a tiny, bloated raisin. (Charming image, I know.)
Where to Search: The Bug’s Favourite Hideouts
Bed bugs are master hiders. They don’t just live on your bed—they crawl into cracks and crevices that are 2mm wide or more. Start with your mattress, especially the seams, tags, and piping. Then, check your headboard—unscrew it if you can. They love the tiny gap between the wood and the wall.
Bed Bug Awareness Week 2019 | Preventative Measures & Advice
Don’t stop there. Look behind picture frames, inside electrical sockets (carefully!), under loose wallpaper, and along the edges of your carpet. They’ll even hide in the folds of your curtains or inside your luggage if you’ve recently travelled. If you find a single bug, assume there are more. They reproduce fast—a female lays up to five eggs a day.
