Bed bugs have always been nuisance in homes, buses, planes and hotels as long as these things have existed. The creatures cause discomfort and sleepless nights. These tiny pests are notorious for their ability to hide and attack us at night. But can you actually see bed bugs with the naked eye?
Bed Bugs’ Size and Hiding Abilities
Yes. It is indeed possible to see bed bugs with the naked eye, however, due to their small size and adeptness at hiding in minuscule cracks and crevices, seeing them can be quite challenging. Adult bed bugs typically measure about 5 to 7 millimetres in length, roughly the size of an apple seed. Their flat, reddish-brown, oval-shaped bodies make the adults bed bugs more noticeable on light-coloured surfaces.
Active Habits and Hiding Spots
Bed bugs are primarily active at night when they come out to feed on human blood. However, during the day, they can be found concealed in various locations. Common hiding spots include mattresses, bed sheets, box springs, bed frames, headboards, skirting boards, and even behind wallpaper or electrical outlets.
The best time to search for bed bugs is in the morning, when there’s good daylight, but soon after their nightly feeding. The bed bugs will often still be near the bed in the mornings hiding in sheets, pillowcases or by the headboard.
Some bed bugs are more difficult to see
When considering the visibility of bed bugs, we need to consider their life cycle and feeding habits. Bed bugs go through five nymph stages before reaching adulthood. During the early nymph stages, they are smaller and more challenging to detect compared to fully grown adults.
Newly hatched bed bug nymphs, known as instars, are roughly the size of a pinhead and nearly transparent so they are next to impossible to see with the naked eye, particularly on light-coloured surfaces. As they progress through each nymph stage, they gradually grow larger and darken in colour, becoming more visible.
Furthermore, a bed bug’s feeding status affects its size. After feeding on blood, bed bugs become engorged and visibly larger. Their bodies expand to accommodate the blood they have consumed. Conversely, unfed bed bugs appear smaller, making them harder to see and enabling them to hide in narrow cracks and crevices more easily.
Bed bug eggs also pose a challenge when it comes to visibility. The eggs are small, measuring approximately 1mm in size, and exhibit a whitish or translucent appearance. Resembling tiny grains of rice (but smaller), they possess a sticky outer coating, which allows them to adhere to surfaces. They are often laid in inconspicuous locations, usually on or close to the mattress, so that when they hatch they won’t need to travel far for breakfast!
Tips for bed bug hunting
Spotting bed bugs and their eggs requires a meticulous and patient approach. We recommend that you use a bright flashlight and magnifying glass to closely examine potential hiding spots, and conduct your search first thing in the morning. Pay particular attention to mattress seams, tufts, and folds, as well as cracks and crevices in furniture or walls. We’ve recently written a post about finding bed bugs here so go check that out.
How professionals find bed bugs
Most professional pest control companies face the same challenges in finding bed bugs as you would. They search for the bed bugs reliant on sight, and if they are lucky enough to find them, they will squirt the bed bugs with pesticide. It’s obvious why this approach is extremely flawed:
- Bed bugs (especially nymphs) are very hard to see. If the technicians can’t see them, they can’t squirt them with spray.
- Bed bug pesticide doesn’t kill bed bug eggs.
- Pesticide is not only toxic to pests, its toxic to humans too.
At Merlin, we use a different approach that is far more successful. We have a team of highly trained sniffer dogs that find the bed bugs based on smell. Sniffer dogs are categorically the most effective way to find bed bugs quickly and with extremely high success rate. When a Merlin technician finds bed bugs, he uses heat treatment to destroy the pest. Heat treatment is 100% effective on all stages of the bed bug lifecycle – including eggs.
If you need bed bugs removed by our team, anywhere in the UK or Ireland, drop us a quick message here.
What does a bed bug nymph look like?
Here’s a video recorded by one of our technicians of a young bed bug crawling on a bed.
