5 Places To Look For Bed Bugs Besides Your Mattress

They survive on your blood, they come out while you sleep, and they can sense when your warm body is nearby—bed bugs are a serious problem, and they are seriously scary. If you are planning to have your home treated by a professional bed bug service, you should get a jump-start on the process by tracking down the buggers in all of the nooks and crannies of your home. Here are a few places to look. 

1. Under Carpet - It's no secret that bed bugs will have a blast in a home that has carpet; it gives them ample space to hide. However, most homeowners don't realize that bed bugs won't just be a surface problem. These critters will actually slip their way through tiny crevices into the padding below the carpet in severe cases. You will oftentimes find them crowded together around the baseboards as well.

2. Behind Outlet Covers - Grab a screwdriver and pull off those cover plates. Bed bugs love to hide out here for two reasons: One, it's dark, and, two, it's warm. When you hire a professional for treating your home, don't be surprised if they have you pull off all outlet and light switch covers. 

3. Inside Books - Getting cozy between the cover of a good book takes on a whole new meaning with bed bugs. These pests love to hunker down in tight places, and books and magazines serve the purpose well. During treatment, it is best to have any books in your home heat treated if you cannot part with them altogether.

4. Behind Wall Paneling - If the paneling in your home has slight cracks where bed bugs could get through, they will not hesitate to get behind the panels and stow themselves away. You may have to remove a few pieces of paneling to check, but getting whatever bugs are behind the walls is going to be important to completely eradicate the problem. 

5. In Your Shoes - Most people realize bed bugs will hang out in their clothes but forget shoes are also a good spot to hide. Pull all the shoes you have out of your closets, from under the bed, or from anywhere else in the house and bag them in air-tight bags. Your exterminator may be able to heat treat your shoes, or if possible, you can also toss them in the dryer. 

Bed bug eradication must be a thorough, investigative process, or the problem can persist for many years. Talk to a bed bug control service like American Pest Professionals to find out more about where to look for bed bugs in your home.