To effectively handle an infestation of bed bugs you must recognize the signs of bed bugs: how to locate them and what to do when you locate them. In order to make bed bug removal as simple as possible certain steps have to be done.

Bed bugs are very small, only about a quarter of an inch when they are adults. There preferred source for food is the blood of humans but have been known to lunch on animals when no human is available. Although they are not airborne, they can move very quickly. These small but problematic creatures spread from their origin on the Asian continent to the rest of the world, making the bed bug problem a universal one.

If a female bed bug gets into your house, that is all that it takes, to develop a bed bug infestation. The female and most dreaded due to her capabilities of producing an enormous amount of offspring. She may lay up to 500 eggs in her lifespan, carrying eggs that have already been fertilized. They usually live for close to a year. If not caught early, it can be very difficult be successful with a bed bug removal process.

Bed bugs are not generally seen in daylight hours since they conceal themselves in dark places in the house. They are the busiest in the early morning, so you will have to set the alarm to about 3AM to catch them in action.

They leave trails, so if you are wise to these, you will be able to determine if you have bed bugs. Bed bug bites are your fist clue.

The bugs feed on blood during the night. These cleaver bugs have unique feed tubes that are inserted into the skin and you do not even feel them biting. A person is generally is unaware they are feeding these bugs while they sleep.

Feedings last for an average of 10 minutes, a typical bed bug feeding will leave a few people with a red welt. Symptoms can differ between cases. The red welt – a confident indication – may bloat and is likely to itch continually, meaning annoyance and anxiety to the victim.

However, often these welts are mistaken as mosquito bites, particularly when mosquitoes are most active. Scabies produce similar symptoms. It is a regular occurrence for cases of bed bugs to be misidentified or ignored. This can lead to a growth in the infestation, and that makes bed bug removal more difficult. The more bugs, the larger the problem.

Exposed skin areas typically are most vulnerable to bed bug bites. Common bed bug bite locations are the face neck, arms and legs of its victim. Another indicator is having a series of bites in a row or line. This will happen because the bug was disconnected from the skin, and had to reposition in order to continue feeding. If left alone, these spots will become very itchy.

So if you need proof of bed bugs, set your alarm to rouse you up about 3 or 4 am and catch them when they are moving. The faster you address the problem and begin the bed bug removal process, the easier it becomes to fix.