Category Archives: Canada Bed Bugs

Learning how to identify bed bugs will help any home owner or apartment tenant avoid an infestation. All it takes is one pregnant female to produce a population. Bed Bugs do resemble other bugs, so a close inspection is required.

Bed bug appearance will change based on where they are in their life cycle, as they pass through 5 nymph and 1 adult stage. Color and shape can also vary if the bedbug has just had a blood meal and if that meal has been digested. They will appear flat and light brownish if they haven't just eaten and will become reddish after feeding.

Bed bug infestations are increasing across the globe. Reports in many U.S. cities show a 2x increase in complaints over a 2 year period. Reports in Ontario Canada have increased 100%, while Germany has seen a year to year increase of 5 reports to 76 reports.

In its earliest stages bed bugs may be difficult to detect since red bumps on the skin and skin itch, the typical symptom, can have multiple causes. As an infestation grows, repeated bites and stains on the mattress make it obvious that bed bugs are the problem and indicates that you should bring in an expert to identify bed bugs in your home or apartment.

Bed bugs change in appearance depending on where they are in the bed bugs life cycle. A bed bug will pass through five stages before reaching the sixth stage which is adulthood. Baby bed bugs are referred to as nymphs.

The bugs are also difficult to detect since they tend to only leave their hiding places at night, with the only sign being mattress or furniture stains. When an infestation is small, must bugs can be found on or near a bed, hiding on a box spring, backboard on in cracks on a bed frame, particularly wood frames. Always look for light to dark spots which can be shed skins and feces .

At birth they are about 1/16 of an inch and have a light straw color appearance. After a blood meal they will redden in color and appear to be larger. As they get older they become darker in color, taking on a reddish/brown appearance and grow to 1/4 inch.

If you think you have bed bugs, but want to be sure, then you can send a bug you capture to the Cornell Insect Diagnostic Laboratory. The service costs $25.

Bed bugs tend to hide in many places around a room, with most hiding near or around the mattress. The following diagram shows common bed bug hiding places. It is possible to see a solitary bed bug that isn't near the location of the larger infestation.

When trying to identify bed bugs, look in the following places in the typical room:

Here are some bed bug identification tips:

1. Bed Bug Bites: The most telling way to determine if you have bed bugs is if you experience bites while sleeping. Bites can vary from just puncture marks on the skin to large red bumps. The bites themselves are an allergic reaction and vary from person to person. It is possible for the allergic reaction to worsen after each biting episode. When a person is being bitten they may only feel a slight tickle. Bed bugs tend not to bite the face or bottom of the feet.

2. Spots on the Mattress: Red blood smears, brown spots, or pale colored spots (fecal spots) on the mattress along the seams or on sheets, bed sheets or the head board. Look for clusters of spots, particularly on the head board, where the bugs might hide or rest.

3. Look for Bed Bug Eggs; A female will lay clusters of Bed bug eggs along the seams of the mattress and in other parts of the room. These are white pin sized specs that will be glued on to the mattress as the eggs are sticky when laid by a female bed bugs. When looking for a bed bug egg, use a magnifying glass and a bed bug detection flashlight.

4. Bed Bug Odor: Bed bugs sometimes, but not always give off a distinct odor that smells like coriander. The alarm pheromone is not always produced so bugs or rooms infested by them don't always smell like this. However, bed bug dogs can pick up odors that humans cannot.

5. Seeing the bugs themselves on the mattress: 90% will be near or around the bed.

6. Create Your Own Bed Bug Trap: Rutgers University Scientists have devised a simple make at home trap that can help you identify bed bugs (Science News, Jan. 16, 2010).

Start by putting 2.5 lbs. or dry eyes in a 1/3 gallon jug. A cooler (eg; Coleman type) with a flip top will be best. Leave the spout open a bit, so that as carbon dioxide is released, it leaves the container. Put the cooler in the center of a bowl such as a pet food dish. Tape a piece of paper to the outside of the dish.

The bed bugs will be attracted to the carbon dioxide, climb up the side of the dish or bowl and then get trapped inside. Place some talcum powder into the dish, which will kill the bed bugs when it sticks to the insect's back. This home made bed bugs trap should work within 12 hours if you have bed bugs.

As an alternative, you can buy a Climbup Interceptor (pictured below), and place one under each leg of the bed. This will work the same way, and trap any bed bugs heading toward the bed and the human host.

Bed bugs are oval in appearance and can look like a tick or small cockroach. They follow a life cycle where they change in appearance. They appear to be flat if unfed or far on in digesting a blood meal. Atfirst, Instars are whitish and yellowish or straw-colored and nymphs (young bed bugs) will be plump and red if they have taken a blood meal. They are not so red in color if digesting the meal.

After a meal a bed bug will become enlarged by approximately 30%.

There are 92 species of bed bugs in the world, with 16 of the 92 found in the United States. Sometimes it is very difficult to identify bed bugs vs. other bugs. These include:

Bugs vary by their natural host and where they are found. Several bugs need to be collected and examined by a pest control specialist in order to confirm that an infestation exists.

A pest control expert will have the experience for how to identify bed bugs. We suggest starting with a call to Home Advisor (1.877-233-1145), which is a network of local pest control experts that are pre-screened by the network before being accepted as members. They will provide up to 4 free quotes and certify that each member is licensed and insured.

You can also search our database of local bed bug experts here. If you'd like to read consumer reviews of bedbug exterminators in your area, a helpful service is Angie's List.

Someone that frequently treats bed bugs infestations will know where in a home or apartment to look for hiding bugs. Expect to pay $50 to $500 for an on site inspection ($500 is a dog is used) plus the cost of the treatment which can cost $750 or more.

As an alternative, a do it yourself kit, containing the multiple products you need, such as the one offered by Naturasil for Bed Bugs (uses organic methods) or Bed Bug Supply (insecticide based) will cost $160 for everything you need (spray, steamer, fossil dust, mattress covers).

Each of these free brochures provide additional information on how to identify bed bugs in your home or apartment.

How to Identify Bed Bugs

Tips on how to identify bed bugs in your home, office or when traveling..

Written by: Dini M. Miller, Ph.D.

Available in a free Ebook

Bed Bug Identification and Inspection

One page summary of how to identify bed bugs and inspect your home, apartment, office or hotel room.

Written by: Illinois Department of Public Health

Available in a free Ebook

Do you have a question or great story about bed bugs? Share it!

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

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Identify Bed Bugs: Pictures and Descriptions

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Bedbugs are small, wingless insects that feed on the blood of people and animals while they sleep. They are easily moved from room to room on infested objects. Bedbugs cannot easily climb metal or polished surfaces and cannot fly or jump.

Adult bedbugs can be as long as 10 mm. They have an oval, broad, flat body and a short, broad head. Adult bedbugs are brown, but darken to a blood red colour after feeding. Young bedbugs are shaped like adults, but are smaller (1.5 mm long) and lighter in colour. They also darken after feeding.

Bedbug eggs are white, about one millimetre long, and are almost impossible to see on most surfaces. The female bedbug lays at least 200 eggs in her lifetime, at a rate of about two to four each day. The eggs have a sticky coating and are laid in cracks and crevices, behind woodwork and other hidden locations. They usually hatch in 6 to 17 days.

Bedbugs come out at night to feed, attracted by the carbon dioxide we exhale. They will feed on both people and pets. Bedbug bites may not be noticed right away because bedbugs typically feed at night when people are asleep.

Bedbugs prefer locations where they can hide easily and feed regularly, like sleeping areas. Their flattened bodies allow bedbugs to hide in extremely small locations: under wallpaper, behind picture frames, in electrical outlets, inside box springs, in mattress pads, and in night tables.

Newly hatched bedbugs feed as soon as food is available. Bedbugs can live from several weeks to up to a year and a half without feeding. Older bedbugs can go even longer without feeding.

Adults usually live for around 10 months, but can live for a year or more in a home where the environment is good for reproduction (with temperatures ranging between 21C and 28C).

A bedbug bite can take as long as 14 days to appear, depending on the person. While bites can happen anywhere on the skin, they are often found on the face, neck, arms, legs, and chest.

Some people do not react at all to the bites, while others may have small skin reactions. In rare cases, some people may have severe allergic reactions. To avoid infection, try not to scratch the bites and keep the bite sites clean. Using antiseptic creams or lotions, as well as antihistamines, may help. Talk to your health care provider for advice.

For more information on pesticide use and regulation, contact Health Canada's Pest Management Information Service.

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Bedbugs - What are they? - healthycanadians.gc.ca

There are hundreds of different types of household pests, many that are easy to spot and others that are not. You may have been invaded by ants in the past or seen cockroaches scurrying away when you turn the lights on; you may have found mice or rats. All these bugs are large enough to see with the human eye, and just like bed bugs Toronto they are not necessarily interested in how clean your home is.

If you think rats you think sewer, if you think cockroach you think of the garbage cans, and if you think of bed bugs you will think of cheap motels. However, just because you have pests in your home does not mean that your home is not clean, or that you necessarily stayed in a hotel that was not clean. Bed bugs are pesky little mites that will go unnoticed in even the cleanest of hotel rooms; that is until you start to itch at night.

Bed bugs are very tiny, they have no wings, and instead of being black in color like many pests, they are actually light brown. What this means is that they are often hard to spot and unless you have a really good eye you may never see one even if you know they are there. Their eggs are around the size of a poppy seed, and these may be easier to spot; however bed bugs hide in crevices and this is where they will generally lay their eggs.

Bed bugs have the name they do as during the night they will come to your bed and feed off your blood, leaving red itchy marks. You may wake in the morning to find that you have been bitten, or you may find little blood stains on your sheets; at first you may think that you have been bitten by fleas from a dog or cat. There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about if you find bugs in your home; but when you do you need to act quickly.

If you think your home may be infested, it is important that you call on your bed bugs Toronto team to ensure a correct diagnosis. These pesky mites are not just hard to spot; they are hard to get rid of too. As they live in crevices and are tiny, it is impossible to eradicate them without professional help. If you are experiencing bites and itching at night and have recently stayed in a hotel or travelled abroad, you need to call in your bed bugs Toronto experts to get a real diagnosis on the situation.

Once the presence of bugs has been confirmed by your bed bugs Toronto expert, you need to ensure that they are eradicated by fumigation and that you take all the other necessary steps such as steaming all your soft furnishing and ensuring your suitcases are not harboring bugs. Ask the advice of the professionals and you can be bug free in no time at all.

We are focused exclusively on bed bugs. We have experimented with countless bug control and extermination methods. We are the best bed bug exterminators in Toronto and Ontario region. Call Bed Bugs Canada now to schedule your service!

(416) 854-7060

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Bed Bugs Canada - Bed Bug Extermination Toronto

Bed Bug SOS is Canada's premium bed bug product retailer offering prevention, monitoring and detection tools against the most dreaded pest of our time. Our goal is to provide every customer with the best possible service during a time of crisis. Over the past decade, reported cases of bed bugs in Canada have increased significantly in cities like Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver. The need to control their population is essential to our national well-being. Whether you're already infested or have a fear of a bed bug infestation, we have the solution. Bed Bug SOS Canada and it's products provide an integrated pest management approach to eradicate bed bug infestations of all kinds. We want to reduce the spread of bed bugs, minimize the risk of bed bug bites and lessen the financial burden of repeated visits from exterminators. In addition, we know that proper bed bug protection will reduce mental distress, prevent expensive extermination treatments and restore comfort in your home.

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Bed Bug SOS | Canada's source for bed bug treatment products

Your One-Stop Shop for All Things Bed Bugs

Bed bugs have become a major pest control concern as their populations have continued to rise over the last decade. If you're looking for expert advice on how to get rid of bed bugs, you've come to the right place.

Bed bugs are more common than you think. The 2015 Bugs Without Borders survey, conducted by the National Pest Management Association and the University of Kentucky,found that bed bug infestations in the United States continue at high rates, with 99.6 percent of respondents having treated for bed bugs in the past year. That number which has been consistent for the past few years is significantly higher than 15 years ago, when only 25 percent of pest professionals reported treating for bed bugs.

Understandably, the continued rise in bed bug populations has many people concerned.Learn all about bed bugs - from bed bug basics to prevention tips. All Things Bed Bugs is your resource for bed bug information, best practices for handling an infestation, current bed bug news, frequently asked questions, bed bug photography, videos and more.

With the busiest travel day of the year coming up next week, over 42 million people will be flying, driving and riding the rails for Thanksgiving and to celebrate the start of the holiday season, according to AAA. But whether going to grandma...Read more

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Bed Bugs: Pest Control Info from Bed Bug Exterminators