Where Do Bed Bugs Hide on Your Body?
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Bed bugs are pesky little critters, and in spite of being called bed bugs, they can hide in a range of places. Their name comes from the fact that they bite you while you are sleeping in your bed at night. However, they only need to feed once a day, and they spend the rest of their time hidden away digesting their meals. However, people often wonder if they can hide on your body. Read on to learn where they can hide.
Do Bed Bugs Live on Your Body?
When people discover that they have bed bugs, they can feel as though the little bugs are creeping around all over their bodies. The good news is that bed bugs do not live on your body the way that lice or ticks do. They come out of a hiding spot and feed on your blood while you are sleeping. They swell up to almost three times their normal size after eating, and then they go back to a cool dark spot to digest their food.
Bed bugs only feed once a day, which occurs while you are sleeping. You can’t feel their bite, but you will notice the bumps and the itching the next day. Many people are left wondering where they go. They also wonder how they entered the house if they don’t live on your body.
How Do Bed Bugs Get Into Your Home?
Bed bugs can get into your home in several different ways. If you have recently moved in, they may have already been there. Bed bugs can survive as long as six months to a year without a meal, so they could have been hiding in floor cracks or other dark hard-to-reach places.
You can read about the most common ways to get bed bugs. If you purchase an old mattress or other used furniture, they could be hiding in it. You need to be very careful and should never buy a used mattress or box spring. If you do bring used furniture into the home, you should steam clean it thoroughly before you bring it into the house.
One of the most common ways that bed bugs get into your home is by getting a ride on your clothing or in your personal belongings. Places where you are likely to pick these critters up are hotels, apartments, nursing homes, and other places where they may be living. The problem is that it doesn’t take many bed bugs to quickly create an infestation wherever it ends up. Females lay between 200 and 500 eggs in their lifetime, and the eggs hatch after 10 days. The larvae immediately begin feeding. They reach adulthood in five or six weeks, and the cycle continues. In just a few months, you can have a full blown infestation.
Where Do Bed Bugs Hide on Your Body?
So that leads to the question, “Where do bed bugs hide on your body?” Because they don’t live on your body, they do not need to hide while they are feeding the way that ticks or lice might. They look for the easiest skin to access. They are likely to feed on your neck, face, arms, legs, or anywhere that is not covered while you are sleeping.
They usually stay away from your scalp or other areas covered in hair because it is more difficult to bite. They are drawn out of hiding to feed when they sense your body heat and the carbon dioxide from your exhaling. They look for the easiest spot, feed, and return to hiding.
The answer is that they will not hide on your body. If you get up in the middle of feeding, they may go with you, but they are unlikely to hide in your hair or behind your ears.
Where Do Bed Bugs Hide?
If you have a bed bug infestation, there are a number of places where you will find them. First, they will hide around the bed, under the bed, around the seams or tags of the mattress or box spring, and anywhere where it is cool, dark, and there is little to disturb them.
They will also hide under other furniture or in the upholstery. You might find them in the seams of the furniture. They will go in your drawers and hide in your clothes. They also hide in electrical outlets or in the cracks in the floor. If they can get behind anything you have hanging on the wall, this is another spot they enjoy.
Bed bugs will hide anywhere that is quiet and dark, and once you realize that you have an infestation, you won’t have too much trouble discovering their hiding spots. In fact, you may even see them moving, or you could find their shedding left behind.
How to Get Rid of Bed Bugs
Even though bed bugs won’t hide on your body, you will want to get rid of them. They will continue to feed on the blood of those living in your home, and they will continue to reproduce and grow their population. If you do not get rid of them, the problem will only grow worse.
The most effective way to eliminate bed bugs is to kill them with heat. You can call an exterminator to do a heat treatment on your home. They will raise the temperature in your house to between 160 and 180 degrees because bed bugs will die on contact. This will kill their eggs as well.
If you prefer and have access to a steam cleaner, as long as it reaches a high enough temperature (you want it to be capable of heating the water to above 200 degrees), it can effectively kill bed bugs and their eggs on contact.
Final Words
Although bed bugs do not hide on your body, you can bring them home with you on your clothing or other belongings. It only takes one bed bug to start an infestation.
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