Signs of Bed Bugs: How to Check Your Bed and Room

The most common signs of bed bugs are rows of small, itchy bites on exposed skin, tiny blood spots and dark ink-like marks on your sheets, and shed skins or live bugs tucked into the seams of your mattress and headboard. Because bed bugs hide so well, knowing exactly where and what to check makes all the difference.

The tell-tale signs

• Bites: small, itchy, often in a line on skin exposed while you sleep.
• Blood spots: rust-coloured smears on sheets where a bug was squashed.
• Faecal marks: tiny dark dots (like felt-tip) along mattress seams and headboard.
• Shed skins: pale, translucent cast shells.
• Eggs: tiny, pale, 1mm ovals in cracks and seams.
• Live bugs: flat, reddish-brown, apple-pip-sized adults in seams and joints.

How to check your bed

Strip the bed and inspect the seams, tufts and folds of the mattress with a torch, especially the corners and piping. Check the headboard, the frame joints and behind it, then the skirting, carpet edge and bedside furniture. Bed bugs stay within a few feet of where you sleep.

Where bed bugs come from

Bed bugs aren't a sign of a dirty home — they're hitchhikers, travelling in on luggage, second-hand furniture and clothing. Catching them early, when it's a few bugs near the bed, makes treatment far quicker and cheaper.