Bedbugs are a common household pest that will take up residence in any soft fabric or surface within your home, not just your bedding. Bedbugs are notoriously prolific in their breeding, and a small population can quickly swell to a massive infestation if not address immediately. In order to prevent this from happening in your home, you should keep an eye out for these four early warning signs associated with having bedbugs in your home so that you can contact a pest control specialist as soon as they show up.

Bites

The most common and noticeable sign that you have bedbugs in your home is if you experience a series of bites on your skin. These bites will be small and red, and will usually track in a straight line or collect in small clusters across your skin. They mark where bedbugs have feed on your blood, and can be itchy and painful – and will usually show up in the morning.

Shells

Another common and hard to miss sign of a bedbug problem in your home is if you notice that there are discarded shells in your bedsheets or around other soft fabrics. These shells are molted off of bedbugs as they age, and are a sure sign that your bedbug population is growing quickly.

Staining

Beyond shells, bedbugs will also leave a series of stains on your sheets or other pieces of furniture that they inhabit. There are two main types of staining: red stains from blood that they drink from bites, which can affect both you and your pets, and darker brown or black stains that are from fecal matter after they feed. Both stains will usually show up in similar locations, and can even mix together to the point where they are hard to make out, but any sort of staining on your bedsheets or other soft surfaces, especially when coupled with any other symptom listed here, points to a growing bedbug problem.

Unpleasant Smells

Though it may be impossible to notice for smaller populations of bedbugs in your home, as the problem turns into an infestation you may notice a strong musty odor permeating the rooms where bedbugs have taken up residence. This will be a wet and musty odor, almost similar to the smell of mold, which will overpower other smells in your home. Since the bedbug population must be fairly large for this to become noticeable, you should contact a pest control specialist as soon as you notice it.

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