Travel is now widely known to be the number one cause of bed bug infestations. People tend to become so excited about traveling that they fail to check their pets or another such detail. Also, often unbeknownst to their owners, bed bugs can hitchhike onto luggage, clothes, or other personal items and then be accidentally carried off to new destinations. However, bed bugs are not picky about what they feed on. They will feed on almost anything, so once they get into your luggage you may never find them.

Bed bugs are oval-shaped and reddish colored with a black dot pattern. They resemble the adult stages of mosquitoes, but their upper body is only covered with a thin little layer of skin. Because of this, they cannot jump as high as their cousins, the roaches or ants, which make use of their body height to leap from hiding to attacking, and they lack front wings. While their cousins fly around and come to the attention of humans, bed bugs move so slowly that they are nearly invisible to humans unless they leave a trail of excrement behind them.

Infestations may include warm and humid places like hotels, motels, and boarding schools. However, they can also be found in homes in both small and large quantities. The small amount of infestations seen in homes may include a few individual insects, but large infestations may include hundreds of tiny critters moving around at night. In larger cases, these insects may inhabit all or just a few rooms of the house. For example, bed bugs may be present in a child’s bedroom, in a living room, and in a couple of guest bedrooms.

If you think you have bed bugs and are in the Phoenix, AZ metro area contact our Bed Bug Experts for an inspection