Bedbugs are a hot topic in the news lately. There have been reports about people waking up with red bumps on their body, or sometimes with dozens of the horrid little bugs crawling all over them. And the frightening thing is it doesnt have to be a seedy hotel or facility to host them.

I hadnt thought about bedbugs much (since I rarely go anywhere two little kids definitely sedates the travel bug) until I wrote a story for the 2011 Farmers Almanac about unwanted exotic insect species. The issue hit the stands this summer just as the subject was heating up in the news.

Identifying Bedbugs

Here’s the fun part. If you wake up with red bumps on your body, particularly on exposed areas, how do you know you have bedbugs?

Look for fecal matter: little black or dark brown spots on the material. Bedbugs nestle down in folds and crevices of mattresses and fabric (including curtains) until late night feeding time arrives. Then they crawl out and head to the buffet namely you. They pierce your skin and suck your blood, typically without you even feeling it. And sometimes theyll hang out in the same area biting and feeding throughout the night. That is not a pleasant concept.

So, look for the areas that bedbugs travel from their diurnal resting place to their warm dinner. Besides poo stains, there might be tiny shed skins of the bedbugs, plus egg casings. If youre staying in an area with previous reports, its worth taking a close look around your room. At home, you can place sticky traps around the sleeping area to trap a few of them for positive identification.

Bedbug Bites

If you are bitten, it doesnt mean youll contract something awful like Lyme disease, but it can be very uncomfortable. In bad infestations, you can be bitten hundreds of times. The bites might itch so you can use an antihistamine cream might help relieve the discomfort. The primary complication is a secondary infection from scratching them.

How to Kill Bedbugs

Unfortunately, bedbugs are hard to get rid of because you dont want to use hard-core pesticides where you or your kids are going to spend a good hunk of the day. Mattresses often have to be tossed to be positive it wont be the breeding grounds for future bedbugs. Take apart the bed frame and thoroughly vacuum every little spot the bedbugs can hide. Theyre smaller than a grain of rice so you have to clean places youd never consider. There are mattress bags available that will fully protect your bed from future infestation, too.

There are a number of pesticides that will effectively kill bedbugs, the challenge is to dust or spray it into all of their hiding places. Follow the label precisely. Caulk and seal along windows and baseboard to make sure you dont encourage more to enter the room after you poisoned the previous nasty residents. Foggers arent recommended because it often doesnt kill all of them. You have to be diligent when it comes to keeping on top of the population or it can grow out of control very quickly.

Bedbugs are back, whether we like it or not. Keep after them so you dont have to mean it when you tuck in your children and say, Sleep tight. Dont let the bedbugs bite.