Bed bugs in Kentucky: how to tell if you have them
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By John Stopka, Co-Founder & CEO · Reviewed by John Stopka
Bed bugs are not a housekeeping problem. They arrive on luggage, secondhand furniture and belongings, they hide in the seams and cracks closest to where people sleep, and a spotless home is as open to them as any other. What settles it is physical evidence rather than a guess — which is why the work starts with an inspection and is quoted after it, instead of being arranged sight unseen.
How do you know if you have bed bugs?
By finding physical evidence. Nothing else settles it.
The EPA puts it plainly: "A more accurate way to identify a possible infestation is to look for physical signs of bed bugs" [2] — rusty or reddish stains on sheets and mattresses, dark spots "which are bed bug excrement and may bleed on the fabric like a marker would", eggs, shed skins and live insects [2]. University of Kentucky entomologists give the same list [1].
Two pieces of folklore are worth putting down. A smell is not evidence: UK reports the odour is "seldom apparent except in extreme infestations" [1]. A reaction on the skin is not evidence either — the EPA's guidance is to look for physical signs [2]. If a reaction concerns you, contact a healthcare provider.
Evidence can be hard to find. "Confirmation requires finding the bugs and/or their signs, which often requires a professional" [1].
What do bed bugs look like?
Small and flat. "Adult bed bugs are about 3/16-inch long and reddish-brown, with oval, flattened bodies" [1], "similar to an apple seed although their size is closer to a lentil" [1].
They are easy to get wrong — UK notes they "are sometimes mistaken for ticks, cockroaches, carpet beetles or other household insects" [1], and immature ones are smaller and lighter in colour [1]. If you find one, keep it: a specimen settles an identification faster than a photograph.
Can you see bed bugs?
Yes. An adult bed bug is easy to see once you know where to look — about the size of an apple seed, reddish-brown, and redder and plumper right after it feeds.
The young ones are harder. A newly hatched bed bug is about the size of a pinhead and nearly colorless until it has fed, and the eggs are tiny, pearly white and glued into seams and cracks. Both are visible to a careful eye, but not at a glance.
What makes bed bugs hard to see is not their size but their habits. They spend the day packed into seams, joints and cracks and come out at night to feed, so people often find the stains and shed skins before they ever see a live bug.
What do baby bed bugs look like?
Baby bed bugs, called nymphs, are the same flat, oval shape as the adults, only smaller and paler. A newly hatched nymph is about the size of a pinhead and nearly colorless, a pale straw color that is very hard to spot on a light sheet. After it feeds, the blood shows through its body as a bright red or dark spot, and that is often what gives it away.
A nymph molts five times, growing larger and darker each time, until it reaches adult size. Finding nymphs or eggs means bed bugs are breeding in the home, not that a single bug came in on a bag.
What are bed bug shells?
They are shed skins. A young bed bug grows by molting, five times before it becomes an adult, and each time it leaves behind an empty skin shaped exactly like itself: pale, see-through, tan to golden, and hollow.
The shells collect where bed bugs hide — along mattress seams, in the joints of the bed frame, behind the headboard. Finding them means bed bugs have been living and feeding there long enough to grow. Like the dark spotting, they stay after the bugs have moved, so they tell you where to look rather than how many are there now.
Is it a bed bug or a tick?
The two get confused because both are small, flat, oval and brownish, and both feed on blood. A few things tell them apart:
- Legs. A bed bug is an insect with six legs. Adult and nymph ticks have eight.
- Antennae. A bed bug has two visible antennae. A tick has none.
- How it feeds. A bed bug feeds for a few minutes and then walks away to hide. A tick attaches and stays attached for days.
- Where you find it. A tick is picked up outdoors — tall grass, brush, woods — and is found on a person or a pet. A bed bug is found in the bed, the furniture and the seams around them.
So a bug stuck to your skin is almost certainly a tick. A bug in a mattress seam is almost certainly a bed bug. If you can, keep the specimen; it settles the question quickly. Ticks are handled outdoors, as part of mosquito and tick control; bed bugs are an indoor treatment of their own.
Where do bed bugs hide?
Close to where people sleep and sit, where nobody looks.
"Bed bugs often hide in seams, folds and crevices of the mattress, box spring, bed frame and headboard" [1]. After that, "Upholstered chairs, recliners and sofas are the next most likely areas for bed bugs" [1].
They fit almost anywhere: "Their flattened bodies enable them to fit into tiny crevices no wider than a toothpick" [1]. The EPA offers a test anyone can picture — "If a crack will hold a credit card, it could hide a bed bug" [2].
UK's list runs well past the bed: carpet edges, wood molding, ceiling-wall junctures, outlets and switch plates, closet clutter [1]. And it grows — "As numbers grow larger, the bugs tend to move beyond beds into other locations" [1].
How do bed bugs get into a home?
They are carried in. That is nearly the whole story.
"The bugs are efficient hitchhikers and are easily transported into dwellings on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture, and belongings" [1]. Secondhand goods are the other route: "Acquiring secondhand beds and furniture is another way they can be transported into buildings" [1].
"This is a particular problem for hotels and apartments, where turnover of occupants is constant" [1] — and once they are in a building, "they can crawl from room to room, or floor to floor via cracks and openings in walls, floors and ceilings" [1].
The EPA's precautions are about arrival, not cleaning: check secondhand furniture and beds before bringing them home, inspect the luggage rack in a hotel room, reduce clutter [3].
Where do bed bugs come from?
From another place that already has them. Bed bugs do not come from dirt, and they do not appear out of nowhere: every infestation starts with bugs or eggs carried in from somewhere else — a hotel room, an apartment, a dorm, a bus or plane seat, a visitor's bag, a secondhand mattress, couch or nightstand.
Once a few arrive, the numbers come from inside. A female lays eggs a few at a time in the seams and cracks near where people sleep, the eggs hatch into tiny nymphs, and each nymph needs blood meals to grow through its five molts. That is why an infestation that started with one suitcase can be in every bedroom a few months later.
What bugs look like bed bugs?
Several, and it is worth being sure before anything is treated.
- Carpet beetle larvae and adults. Small and oval like a bed bug, but beetles have hard, patterned wing covers and the larvae are hairy. See our carpet beetles page.
- Bat bugs. Nearly identical to bed bugs without magnification. They come from bats roosting in an attic or wall; see bats.
- Young cockroaches. Similar size and color, but longer, faster, with long antennae — see cockroaches in Kentucky.
- Ticks. Flat and oval too, but with eight legs, and they attach to skin, covered in the tick section above.
- Fleas. Much smaller, narrow from side to side, and they jump; see fleas in the home.
- Booklice and spider beetles. Tiny pale or round insects found near stored paper, food or damp spots, not in mattress seams.
A bed bug is flat, oval, reddish-brown, wingless and about the size of an apple seed, with no jumping and no hard shell. If you are not sure, keep the specimen in a sealed bag or on clear tape.
Does a clean house get bed bugs?
Yes. This is worth saying without hedging.
The CDC is blunt: "How clean a place is does not determine whether bed bugs are present" [4]. The same page notes that bed bugs turn up in five-star hotels [4].
UK explains why. "Unlike cockroaches and flies that feed on filth, there is often no relationship between bed bugs and cleanliness" [1] — these insects feed on blood, not on anything a kitchen leaves behind, so "pristine dwellings can be as vulnerable to infestation as are places of squalor" [1].
If you have them, it is not a verdict on your housekeeping.
Why does this start with an inspection instead of a booking?
Because what the treatment must do depends on what the inspection finds.
A real inspection is not a glance at a mattress. UK describes it as work: "A thorough inspection requires dismantling the bed, and standing the components on edge" so every seam and surface can be examined [1], and "A thorough inspection and treatment may take up to several hours" [1].
"Bed bugs are challenging to eradicate. Since they can hide in so many places, inspections must be thorough and elimination is not always a certainty" [1].
Store shelves do not shortcut it: UK notes these insects "are becoming increasingly resistant to pesticides" [1], and its advice is to "enlist the services of a professional" [1].
How does Liberty handle bed bugs?
Separately from everything else, and in that order: look, quote, treat.
Bed bugs are not a plan pest. Bed bugs aren't part of our plans, so bed bug treatment is arranged on its own. The ants, spiders and mice a pest control plan covers are a separate service.
Bed bug treatment starts with an inspection. Your Service Specialist inspects first. Nothing is treated before that. You get a preparation sheet, so you know what to do before your treatment.
It is quoted, not listed. Bed bug treatment is quoted after the inspection and arranged by text or call, rather than online — the office will set it up. Text or call our office to discuss treatment and pricing.
When to call a professional
Call when you have found physical evidence — dark spotting along a mattress seam, shed skins, eggs or a live insect — or when secondhand furniture came home and something changed after.
Call as well if you live in an apartment building, because the openings that let bed bugs move between rooms let them move between units. The inspection settles what you have and where it has reached; the quote follows from that.
Common questions
How do I know if I have bed bugs?
Look for physical signs rather than anything else [2]: rusty or reddish stains on sheets and mattresses, dark excrement spots that bleed into fabric like a marker, tiny eggs, shed skins, and live insects in seams and folds [1][2]. A smell is unreliable [1], and confirming an infestation often takes a professional [1].
Can a clean house get bed bugs?
Yes. The CDC states that how clean a place is does not determine whether bed bugs are present [4], and University of Kentucky entomologists note there is often no relationship between bed bugs and cleanliness: these insects feed on blood, not filth [1].
How do bed bugs get into your house?
They are carried in on luggage, clothing, beds, furniture and belongings, and on secondhand beds and furniture [1]. The EPA calls them great hitchhikers that travel to a new home on furniture, bedding, luggage, boxes and clothing [3]. Once inside a building they crawl from room to room and floor to floor through cracks and openings [1].
Can you see bed bugs with the naked eye?
Yes. Adults are about the size of an apple seed and reddish-brown. Newly hatched bed bugs and eggs are pinhead-sized and pale, so they take a careful look.
What are bed bug shells?
Shed skins. Young bed bugs molt five times as they grow, and each molt leaves a pale, hollow skin shaped like the bug. They collect in mattress seams and bed frames where bed bugs hide.
How can you tell a tick from a bed bug?
Count the legs: bed bugs have six and visible antennae, adult ticks have eight and no antennae. A tick attaches to skin and stays for days; a bed bug feeds for minutes and goes back into hiding.
Where do bed bugs come from?
From another infested place: a hotel room, apartment, secondhand furniture, luggage or a visitor's belongings. They do not come from dirt or appear on their own.
What bugs look like bed bugs?
Carpet beetles, bat bugs, young cockroaches, ticks, fleas, booklice and spider beetles are the usual look-alikes. A bed bug is flat, oval, reddish-brown, wingless and about the size of an apple seed.
What do baby bed bugs look like?
Tiny, flat and pale: about the size of a pinhead and nearly colorless until they feed, when the blood shows as a red or dark spot inside the body. They grow larger and darker with each of their five molts.
Are bed bugs covered by a pest control plan?
No. Bed bugs aren't part of Liberty's plans, so bed bug treatment is arranged on its own: an inspection first, a preparation sheet before the treatment, and the work quoted afterwards and arranged by text or call rather than online.
Sources
- University of Kentucky Entomology. Michael F. Potter. "Bed Bugs" (ENTFACT-636). https://entomology.mgcafe.uky.edu/ef636 (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "How to Find Bed Bugs." https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/how-find-bed-bugs (opens in a new tab)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Protecting Your Home from Bed Bugs." https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/protecting-your-home-bed-bugs (opens in a new tab)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "About Bed Bugs." https://www.cdc.gov/bed-bugs/about/index.html (opens in a new tab)