Bedbugs: The signs that betray their presence — and what to do immediately

Returning from a trip and waking up with a string of bites? Before blaming mosquitoes, it's worth a careful check of your mattress. Bed bugs have been making a comeback in recent years — and the earlier they're detected, the easier they are to eradicate.

It's not a cleanliness issue.

Let's be clear from the start: bedbugs don't come to "dirty" homes. They're stowaways. They travel in suitcases, clothes, used furniture, and mattresses, and in apartment buildings, they can also move through cracks, pipes, or shared walls from neighboring apartments. All they care about is our blood — which is why they always set up shop near where we sleep.

The 6 signs you need to know

• Stings in a row or zigzag, usually on the arms, neck, back, and legs — the areas that are left uncovered during sleep.
• Small dark spots on the sheets: traces of crushed insects after their meal.
• Black spots like the tip of a pen in the seams of the mattress and on the boards — their droppings.
• Tiny white eggs (about 1 millimeter) glued into slots.
• Sweet, musty smell in the room — appears only in major insults.

Where exactly to look?

Take a flashlight and methodically check, in a radius of about two meters around the bed: the seams and labels of the mattress, the bottom sheet of the box spring, the frame and boards (especially at the joints), behind the headboard, baseboards, sockets and behind frames. Bedbugs love narrow crevices — they can fit anywhere a card can fit.

Why commercial sprays aren't enough

Bed bugs have developed significant resistance to common insecticides, their eggs are extremely durable, and their hiding places are almost inaccessible to amateur spraying. The result of a cursory spraying is usually one: the insects disperse deeper into walls and furniture, and treatment becomes more difficult.

The right approach combines a thorough inspection, steam or heat treatment of nesting sites, residual formulations in cracks and crevices, and scheduled re-inspection after 10–15 days to catch any eggs that hatch in the meantime. At the same time, fabrics are washed at 60°C or tumble dried at high temperature.