Bed bugs are now spreading and negatively affecting the whole world. It is said that they came from Europe way before, then were transported and became common pests in the United States and had later spread to the rest of the globe. Regardless where their location is though, they must be found and eliminated before they can cause more of their worse effects.

Basically, bed bugs are insects that feed on blood. They often come out at night to stealthy bite and suck blood from their victims, the reason why their presence is not that easily detected. The human parts they often attack are arms, face and neck as these are more open or exposed when sleeping. After the bite, these pests leave swelling on the skin to which the length of development and severity usually vary from one person to another.

It is not actually just the bite marks that could give you a hint of these bed insects’ presence. Blood stains on fabrics, walls and furniture and the pungy-sweet smell that they give off can also indicate that they live with you in your home. To be aware of those things is a big help in effectively implementing the first step of the bed bug control process which is locating where they had been hiding.

That step can also be considered as the foundation of the whole bug removal process. After all, how will you be able to get rid of them if you can't find them first? But then, finding them is definitely included in the “easier said than done” task list. And so, you must really exert an effort to get the process implemented the right way to avoid repeating it over and over again.

To make it easier for you to search for those bed insects, here are some of the tips that can be of help.

• Know what they look like. It will make you correctly identify if what you have found are indeed bed bugs or not as there are other pests that closely resemble them as the swallow bugs. Adult bed bugs usually are of brown color and they somehow darken into reddish-brown after a meal. They are very small creatures with hairs all over their oval-shaped and flat bodies. Their young look the same only that they are colorless and turn into darker color after their meal too.

• Check on gaps, crevices and cracks. As flat and small as they are, bed bugs can easily hide in those spots to avoid being easily seen. They don’t exclusively live on cracks or gaps on beds. They can also be found on crevices in furniture and walls and even on folds of fabrics. So whenever there is a crack, a gap or a crevice, wherever or on whatever item, it must be inspected as they could have already transformed it to their breeding camp.

• Use helpful tools. Visual inspection of gaps and breaks on almost anything is not enough to know if there are indeed bed bugs or not. A flashlight and a stick are needed to make a thorough and clear checking. The flashlight will be needed on dark crevices while the stick will be used to deep or hard to reach cracks.