Bed bugs usually start by hitching a ride into your home as stowaways.
Here's a breakdown of common ways bed bugs enter your living space:
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Travel: Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers. They can easily crawl into luggage, backpacks, purses, and clothing while you're traveling, especially if you're staying in hotels, hostels, or other accommodations.
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Secondhand Furniture: Used furniture, particularly mattresses, box springs, couches, and upholstered chairs, can be infested with bed bugs. Thoroughly inspect any secondhand items before bringing them into your home.
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Visiting Infested Areas: If you visit a friend's house, movie theater, or any other location with a bed bug infestation, bed bugs can crawl onto your clothes and hitch a ride back to your home.
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Shared Laundry Facilities: Bed bugs can transfer from one person's laundry to another in shared laundry facilities like apartment complexes or laundromats.
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Through Walls: In multi-unit dwellings like apartments, bed bugs can sometimes travel through walls, cracks, or electrical outlets to infest neighboring units.
Once inside, bed bugs will seek out dark, secluded hiding spots, typically near where people sleep. They are attracted to the warmth of your body and the carbon dioxide you exhale. Then, they start breeding and the infestation begins to grow.
