One of the notable things about bed bugs is that they’re nocturnal. At night, they come out from their hiding places and feed on human blood.
But where do they go during the day?
Bed bugs will make themselves at home in all sorts of nooks and crannies.
While they commonly live inside bedding material such as:
- The Mattress
- Springboard
- Headboard
- Around the bedframe
- Within the sheets
They will also build nests in small cracks within furniture or along walls.
Finding bed bugs during the day can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re up against.
Fortunately, there are specific ways you can spot these elusive little pests even in daylight.
Here are seven different methods for spotting bed bugs during the day.
- Check Your Bedding
- Thoroughly Inspect All Furniture
- Examine Walls, Baseboards & Floors
- Do Your Laundry
- Set Insect Traps
- Follow Your Nose
- Watch For Other Signs
On that note – Let’s dive into more detail.
Check Your Bedding
If you’re on the hunt for bed bugs, the bedroom is the first place you should look.
The reason bed bugs prefer to hide in bedding is because it gives them easier access to food at night.
The first step is to check every nook and cranny of the bed.
Use gloves and a flashlight to better help you identify bed bugs within hard-to-reach places.
If you find bed bugs on your sheets or in your pillows, make sure you wash and dry them on high heat. When moving infested clothing it’s best to seal everything in plastic bags to ensure bed bugs don’t escape and spread to different rooms.
Thoroughly Inspect All Furniture
Just because they’re called “bed bugs” doesn’t mean they live only inside bedding. Bed bugs are also known to live in between couch cushions and inside drawers.
Make sure you inspect all of the furniture in your home.
If you do spot bed bugs or signs of bed bug activity, clean the furniture thoroughly and be prepared to seal it in plastic bags.
Examine Walls, Baseboards, & Floors
Notice any small cracks in your walls or floors?
If you have bed bugs, then there’s a decent chance that they’re hiding out in these little types of nooks and crannies.
You can get rid of bed bugs here by simply going over the area with a vacuum, then carefully emptying the vacuum bag outside once you’re finished.
Do Your Laundry
If you let laundry build up on your bedroom floor, then you’ve given bed bugs another place to hide.
Bed bugs tend to latch onto clothing, which is partially what allows them to infest homes in the first place.
Any clothing that has bed bugs on it should be washed immediately. Put it in the dryer on the highest heat setting.
This is because intense heat (anything over 120 degrees F) will kill bed bugs in all life stages.
Set Insect Traps
There’s no better way to spot these pesky insects in the act than with bed bug traps. Bed bug traps are designed so that bed bugs can crawl in, but not out.
Some traps emit small amounts of carbon dioxide, which tricks bed bugs into thinking there’s someone asleep nearby.
Be sure you leave out your traps before nightfall, since bed bugs aren’t going to be as mobile during the day. Leave them wherever you suspect bed bugs are hiding, then check the trap in the morning to how many you caught.
Follow Your Nose
During a bed bug infestation, you might notice a musty odor in and around the room where bed bugs are nesting. This scent is caused by alarm pheromones, which bed bugs produce whenever they feel threatened.
In essence, the larger the colony, the worse the odor.
If you can trace the odor back to its source, then you’ll have found the exact spot where bed bugs are nesting.
Watch for Other Signs
While you might not see bed bugs right away, it’s easier to spot signs of bed bug activity during the day than at night.
Keep an eye out for bed bug feces, eggs and discarded shells.
These things are common in and around the sites of bed bug nests. You can use them as clues to narrow down where bed bugs are in your home, then take necessary action from there.
Can You See a Bed Bug in the Daytime?
As tiny as bed bugs are, you can see them with the naked eye during the day.
Bed bugs will have reddish-brown skin, and are about ¼ inch long. If you do spot bed bugs, then there’s a chance you’ll see them surrounded by eggs and feces.
Bed bug eggs are about the size of a pinhead and translucent in color. It can be difficult to tell a hatched egg from an unhatched one, since both look identical.
Looking for more photos of bed bugs? Check out our robust gallery of bed bug photos and close up images.
What To Do After Spotting Bed Bugs During The Day
So, you’ve found out where bed bugs are hiding in your home.
The next step… Operation murder all bed bugs.
Bed bugs are notoriously difficult to deal with, even for professional exterminators.
However, there are plenty of methods you can use to kill bed bugs or drive them out of your home.
Here are a few:
- Extreme temperatures can kill bed bugs, especially heat. Higher temperatures are known to not only kill adult bed bugs, but also larvae and unhatched eggs. A laundry dryer on the highest heat setting is a great DIY method, but pest control experts may also use specialized equipment to raise a room’s temperature to remove an infestation.
- Plastic mattress covers can be put over your mattress to trap bed bugs inside. Without access to the outside world, any bed bugs caught in the cover will slowly starve to death.
- Diatomaceous earth is a powdery substance used to kill many insects, including bed bugs. The particles will embed themselves in a bed bug’s exoskeleton, slowly eating away at it and dehydrating the insect from the inside.
- Bed bugs, like many insects, detest certain scented objects. Placing things like lavender or citrus around your home will overwhelm a bed bug’s senses and eventually drive them away.
Bed Bugs On The Walls During The Day
Notice bed bugs on your walls?
That’s because they’ve likely made a nest inside them.
Bed bugs will build colonies anywhere that’s remote and within easy distance of a food source. Nesting inside your walls fills both of those needs: bed bugs will be easily able to feed at night, and have a completely remote place to hide during the day.
Check for any cracks in your walls where bed bugs might be hiding. You can solve the problem by sealing off the crack, trapping the bed bugs inside and slowly starving them to death.
What Are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs are tiny, nocturnal insects that make nests inside of people’s homes. They feed exclusively on human blood, and come out to eat when people are asleep.
On average, a bed bug’s lifespan is 4 to 6 months, though some have been reported to live for as long as 1 year.
A female bed bug will lay an average of 200 eggs in its lifetime: it only takes a few weeks for larvae to fully mature.
There’s no particular season where bed bugs are more or less active: because they live indoors, they aren’t affected by the weather that much. However, bed bugs do tend to thrive better in warmer climates than in cooler areas.
Bed bugs can be found in every single state in the US, and are part of a global pest epidemic.
These insects are considered by pest control experts to be some of the most difficult pests to remove (mainly due to how reclusive they can be).
How to Find a Bed Bug Exterminator
If you’re dealing with a bed bug infestation, the best method to get rid of them is to contact a bed bug exterminator.
Most pest control organizations offer bed bug removal services. These services include the following:
- Heat treatments
- Furniture and mattress cleanings
- Chemical treatments
- Bed bug-detecting dogs
Below are some resources for finding an exterminator in your area:
