How do you find a hidden bed bug?

It’s frustrating to wake up with bed bug bites only to find out that there are no bed bugs around.

After having their blood meals, bed bugs retreat to their hiding places during the day. And during the night, they come out again, and leave nasty bites on your body.

Finding hiding places of bed bugs is essential to determine the infestation intensity and to eliminate bed bugs.

So, if you don’t where bed bugs are hiding then you might use elimination techniques in the wrong places. That’ll only make things worse.

In this guide, you’ll find out four steps to find bed bugs during the day.

You’ll get to know where bed bugs are more prone to hide. And why daytime is the right time to find bed bugs.

You’ll also find out what should be your immediate steps after finding those bed bugs in their hiding places.

And a much more. Keep reading.

Do Bed Bugs Come Out During The Day?

The answer is both yes and no.

When the bed bug infestation is severe, and there has been no host, bed bugs will come out during the day looking for bloodmeals.

It’s because they’re starving. And on finding a host, bed bugs will bite to feed on the blood.

But in most cases, bed bugs in homes hide during the day.

Bed bugs are nocturnal bugs. They undertake their feeding activities during the night when the host is around.

Bed bugs hate bright lights. So, during the day, they’ll hide.

Bed bugs retreat to their hiding places after having their blood meals. You wake up with bite marks in clusters only to find no bed bugs.

The best time to ascertain if there are bed bugs in your home is to look for them during the day.

Bed bugs are inactive and, to an extent, a bit sluggish in the daytime, especially when they’ve had enough bloodmeals.

If you know where bed bugs hide, you can quickly zero in on those places.

That’ll help you to determine the intensity of the infestation.

Do Bed Bugs Only Come Out At Night?

In most cases, yes. Bed bugs are nocturnal and come out at night to draw blood from their hosts.

They prefer to bite hosts when they’re stationary and asleep.

The carbon dioxide that you emit attracts bed bugs. They use it as a cue to reach their host, insert their mouthparts, and feed on their blood.

Where Do Bed Bugs Hide During The Day? – Bed Bugs Hiding Places

It’s quite difficult to spot the bed bug infestation during the early stages. They’re tiny, the bites are not regular, and the signs of bed bugs are not that apparent.

Bed bug infestation takes some time to manifest. But if you’re getting bed bug bites and seeing some of the signs of infestation, you can look at the places where bed bugs hide.

Any thin cracks and gaps not farther than eight feet from the host’s location can be hiding places for bed bugs. 

So, cracks on the bed frame, headboard, hardwood floor, furniture, walls, box springs, mattress seams, and even your dresser drawers can be bed bugs hiding places.

These are the places where bed bugs nest.

So, the key to finding bed bugs during the day is to know how far from the bed they hide and where they hide. 

Now you know both. So, let’s get into how to find bed bugs during the day.

You now have the knowledge to track and unearth the bed bugs. All you’ve to do now is follow the four simple steps to find these bloodsuckers hiding in your home.

1. Take tools that you need to find bed bugs
2. Brighten up your room
3. Look for bed bugs’ signs or tracks
4. Inspect the bed bugs’ hiding places

Let’s get into each of them in detail.

Brighten Up Your Room

Bed bugs hide in those thin dark corners and crevices in your room. And to ensure that you find them, you must have enough brightness.

So, the first step to finding bed bugs during the day is brightening the room. 

Remove drapes and curtains and turn on the lights. Ensure that you can see every corner of the room.

Take Tools To Find Bed Bugs

Now that your room is bright enough, you’ll need certain things to find them. 

These things might be in your home right now. 

The things you’ll need to find bed bugs are a torch (preferably a headlamp), a card (an old expired credit card, a piece of a hardback book cover, or even a small piece of plywood), and a magnifying glass.

Look For Bed Bug Signs Or Tracks

No matter what type of tiny biting bugs infest your home, they always leave the signs of infestation.

And bed bugs are no different. 

Bed bugs will leave behind signs that will help you in your search.

These are the signs of bed bug infestation that you must be looking for while searching for bed bugs during the day–

1. Blood stains
2. Bed bug feces
3. Bed bug eggshells
4. Baby bed bugs
5. Molted bed bug skin
6. Bed bug stench or odor
7. Alive and dead bed bugs

Blood stains are the stains of your blood that splashed out from the bed bugs because your body weight crushed them.

These blood stains are primarily on the bedsheets or in soft furnishings like couches and carpets.

Bed bug feces are tiny blackish spots on the fabric. Bed bugs discard their feces in the liquid form because it’s only human blood that they consume. 

So, when they discharge their feces, the fabric soaks them. And the poop turns into a tiny black spot.

You can also find bed bug poop on hard surfaces like bed frames and furniture.

Bed bugs’ egg cases are tiny off-white dust-like particles that are normally inside the gaps and cracks where they hide.

Bed bugs molt too. That means they’ll discard their exoskeleton, or outer skin, multiple times till they become a fully grown, mature adult. 

These molted skins are at the hiding places or near the places where bed bugs are hiding.

Both bed bugs’ eggshells and bed bug skins indicate that bed bugs are hiding in the crevices or a few inches from where you found them.

Baby bed bugs are hard to spot. It’s because they’re tiny and off-white. So, they can camouflage well with white bedsheets and fabrics.

However, baby bed bugs look like tiny red dots when they have their bloodmeals. It’s because baby bed bugs are translucent, and you can see through them.

So, the presence of baby bed bugs, bed bug egg cases, and bed bug skin indicates that a bed bug infestation is thriving in your home. 

You’ll need a magnifying glass to ascertain that tiny white moving bugs in the room are bed bugs.

However, don’t confuse baby bed bugs with spider mites. Some spider mites are also translucent white and small as baby bed bugs.

But spider mites resemble spiders, not bed bugs.

Bed bug stench is a musty odor that permeates homes with a severe bed bug infestation. 

If you can smell it, then things have gotten worse. Reach out to a pest controller asap for bed bug treatment.

And finally, there’s no assured sign of bed bug infestation than the sightings of dead or alive bed bugs.

Some bed bugs can get adventurous and come out during the day. That happens when their numbers are growing and there’s a shortage of space in their current hiding place.

So, they venture out during the day looking for new cracks and crevices to hide. That’s when you see bed bugs crawling on the walls too.

Sightings of bed bugs on walls crawling during the day should ring your alarm bells. 

The infestation is spiking up, the bed bugs are multiplying, their numbers are growing, and it’s time for you to pick up your phone and call an exterminator.

Inspect The Bed Bugs Hiding Places

Once you spot these signs of bed bugs in your home during the day, it’s time to look out for them.

But remember, don’t try to remove things inside the room. Let everything remain where they’re now.

Take the tools and inspect all gaps and cracks in your room, especially near the crevices where you found bed bug signs. 

Insert the piece of cardboard or old credit card into the crevices. And slowly pull it out.

You’ll notice bed bug shells, molted skin, and even baby bed bugs stuck on the card. 

You may use a pincher or screwdriver to split open the crevices to dig a bit more to find bed bugs.

But do not forget to inspect the mattress to unearth hidden bed bugs.

Bed bugs hide in mattress seams, between the threading on the mattress’s surface, underneath the mattress, and in the gaps between the mattress and headboard.

It’ll be best to take the mattress off the bed and inspect it. If there’s a bed bug infestation, then you’ll surely find bed bugs in these places on the mattress.

Then inspect the box springs and bed frames. Bed bugs from the mattress spillover on these places and hide in the gaps and fissures. 

Inspect your carpets and rugs, too, especially the edges. Check the gaps on the wooden floors underneath these soft furnishings.

Flip them over to find bed bugs underneath. Tiny bugs like bed bugs, fleas, ants, and even termites hide underneath the carpet. 

Use the magnifying glass if you have a problem looking at those gaps and spotting bed bugs.

What To Do After Finding Bed Bugs?

The above three steps will help you unearth bed bugs during the day.

If you don’t find any bed bugs, then there can be two reasons –

1. The infestation level is very low. And there are probably a few bed bugs.
2. There are no bed bugs. There are other bugs like fleas or microscopic bugs that bite you.

Sticking on the topic, let’s assume you’ve found bed bugs. And there’s a significant number of them. 

Call a pest controller asap. 

Bed bugs are hard to eliminate. And many DIY ways fail to get rid of them.

It’s because DIY ways don’t cover your entire home. They also fail to remove the eggs and nymphs essential to eliminating a bed bug infestation. 

Bed bug removal can be expensive. So, if your money is tight, you can refer to our guide on how you can cheaply get rid of bed bugs.

But you must know what you shouldn’t do to get rid of bed bugs.

1. Don’t use a bug bomb
2. Don’t use bed bug sprays
3. Don’t dispose of bed bug-infested furniture like couches and mattresses till you hire a pest controller

Bug bombs and bed bug sprays make matters worse. Bug bombs are risky for you and can be hazardous to your home.

Both bug bombs and bed bug sprays have low residual toxicity and reach. They might eliminate a few bed bugs.

But they’ll alert the other bed bugs causing them to hide elsewhere in your home. So, they’ll cause the infestation to spread.

Disposing the bed bug-infested mattresses and furniture like couches is risky for your neighborhood too. That makes the bed bugs spread into other homes.

But here are the things you can do to alleviate your suffering under bed bugs.

1. Spray rubbing alcohol
2. Use a steam cleaner
3. Use a mattress protector

Rubbing alcohol is an efficient bed bug killer. You can spray them around your bed or in the places where you’ve found bed bugs.

Steam cleaner is the best bed bug eliminator that many people disregard. Steam cleaners produce heat, and bed bugs can’t withstand extreme heat and cold.

Pros use heat treatment and pesticides to eliminate bed bugs in homes.

Cleaning your bed mattress, couches, soft furnishings, dresser drawers, hardwood floors, carpets, and rugs with a steam cleaner will eliminate the bed bugs in these places.

The steam cleaner’s heat will also eliminate baby bed bugs (bed bug nymphs) and their eggs. 

So, if you’re getting bed bug bites while asleep, use the steam cleaner to clean your bed mattress and headboards. 

Also, use freshly washed bed sheets and pillow covers. 

You can also use mattress protectors to cover the mattress. Mattress protectors will shield your skin from the bed bugs in the mattress and protect you from bed bug bites.

However, a piece of warning. These are only makeshift arrangements and not the solution for bed bug infestation.

You’ll need the help of a professional exterminator to remove the bed bugs from your home.

Summing It Up

Bed bugs have specific hiding places that they use when they’re not scouting for blood meals.

These hiding places are not far away from their host or from your bed.

The trick to finding bed bugs during the day is to follow the bed bugs’ signs and zero in on their hiding places.

You now know how to do that step-by-step. 

After finding bed bugs, your best bet is to take professional help to remove them. 

We are Mark and Jim. We dabbled with bugs and pests for most of our lives. And we provide information and hacks that work in making your home pest free.