How to Identify Bed bugs

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Almost everyone has heard the phrase "don't let the bed bugs bite," but what is a bed bug and would you know one if you saw one?

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Step1

Check your bed linens in the middle of the night, when bed bugs are most active easiest to locate.

Step2

See movement? Bed bugs usually travel as groups of two or three in a row.

Step3

Look at the insects' bodies. Immature bed bugs are a light yellow color; adults are a reddish brown. In both cases, the middle part of their bodies will be darker after they have recently fed (they turn darker because they feed on blood).

Step4

Not sure based on the color of the insect? Look at their size: bed bugs are smaller than 1/4 of an inch long.

Step5

Still not entirely certain? Determine whether the bug has wings or not (bed bugs do not); look at its shape (bed bugs are oval and flat in shape).

Tips & Warnings

Not sure that you've found a bed bug? Consider collecting one of the insects that you have in a small jar of rubbing alcohol and sending it to an expert at insect identification.
Have bed bugs? Consider buying a bed bug tight cover; with one, new infestations will not occur and those trapped inside the mattress cover will suffocate and die off.
If you identify bed bugs and choose to abandon the mattress or sofa, make sure that it is clearly marked as infested with bedbugs.
Looking for bed bugs during the day can prove to be an exercise in futility: during the days, bed bugs hide in cracks and crevices in the walls and in your mattress.