Bed Bug Treatment: How to Spot Them and What to Do Next
Benefit Pest Management provides bed bug treatment across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter. Bed bugs are flat, reddish-brown insects about the size of an apple seed that hide in mattress seams, bed frames and cracks near where people sleep. They feed at night. A job starts with a thorough inspection and generally takes two to three treatments. Our head technician holds pest management technician licence 5083379, issued by the New South Wales EPA.
We get back to every enquiry within one business day.
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Pests we treat
How bed bug treatment works
If you’re awake at two in the morning with a fresh row of bites up your arm, you’re not imagining it, and you haven’t done anything wrong. Nobody who rings us about bed bugs has to explain how they got there.
Getting rid of bed bugs is a joint effort. Our part starts with a thorough inspection of the house: the cracks and crevices, around the bed and the bedside tables, the skirting boards, under the lounge and under the tables. That shows us where the bed bugs are living and how far they’ve spread.
Then we treat, generally with chemical. Heat treatment is available too, depending on how bad the infestation is. You get recommendations to follow at home as well.
Signs of bed bugs
Bites are the sign everyone notices, and on their own they prove very little. People react to them so differently that one person can wake up itchy while the person beside them shows no mark at all. When there is a reaction, the bites often run in a line across the shoulders and arms.
What settles it is the bug, or what it leaves behind:
The bugs. Reddish-brown, flat and usually tucked into a seam or a crack rather than out in the open
Dark spots. Small black or rust-coloured marks on the sheets, along the mattress seams or on the skirting, which are their droppings and digested blood
Shed skins. Pale, empty casings, left each time a young bed bug moults into its next stage
Eggs. Creamy white and about a millimetre long, laid into the same seams and cracks the adults hide in
A smell. A heavy infestation gives off a sweet, pungent smell that some people compare to rotting raspberries
If you’re being bitten at night and none of these signs turn up anywhere, read our page on bird mites before anyone treats the bedroom. Bites mainly around the ankles and lower legs can point to fleas instead, covered on common pests.
Where bed bugs hide in a bedroom
Their bodies are built flat, which lets them live in gaps nobody thinks to check. The mattress is the most common spot, especially along the stitched edge. After that come the bed frame, the bedside table, the back of a picture frame, loose wallpaper, the edge of the carpet, behind the skirting boards and the gaps between floorboards. Power points, suitcases and the couch can hold them too.
They stay close to whoever they’re feeding on. Most of their feeding happens between about midnight and five in the morning, and the rest of the time they’re out of sight within reach of the bed. A big infestation spreads outward, into the rest of the room and then beyond it.
A bug that spends its life inside a mattress seam or behind a skirting board rarely walks across a treated surface out in the open, so finding every hiding spot is the hard part of the job. That’s why the inspection comes before anything else.
How they got in, and how to keep the next lot out
Bed bugs are hitchhikers. They travel in suitcases, bags and clothing. They also come in with second-hand furniture, beds and couches especially. A visitor can bring them in, and in a block of units they can walk through to the place next door.
Two habits are worth keeping from now on. Check your luggage when you arrive somewhere and again before you leave, and check the stitching along the mattress edge in your room too. Look second-hand furniture over properly before it comes inside, and be wary of anything picked up off the kerb.
What to wash and bag before we come
When you ring, you get a real date for the visit. How soon we can come depends on where you are, the size of the job and the time of year.
Your instructions come in writing before every visit. On a bed bug job they carry more weight than usual, because the preparation is part of what makes the treatment hold.
The main step is the washing. Clothes and bedding go through a hot wash beforehand. Put them into garbage bags in the bedroom and carry them to the machine like that, because an armful of loose bedding can drop bugs into rooms that were clear.
Why bed bug treatment usually takes more than one visit
The eggs are the reason. A female lays up to three eggs a day, and they hatch within about ten days, longer when the weather is cool. The product we use doesn’t get through to the eggs. Heat and freezing both kill them, which is why your clothes and bedding go through a hot wash first.
A bed bug job is generally two to three treatments. The second usually comes a week or two after the first, by which time the eggs laid before the first visit have hatched or are about to. Newly hatched bugs aren’t ready to breed straight away. A young bed bug goes through five stages and needs a blood meal to move up each one, and the whole cycle, egg to adult, can take as little as 37 days.
Where we do this
We work from our base at Caves Beach across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Hunter, Port Stephens and the Central Coast, with no call-out fee.
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FAQ
Bed bug questions, including the awkward ones
What do bed bugs look like?
Flat, oval and reddish-brown, about the size of an apple seed once they’re grown. The young ones are smaller and paler, close to cream, and turn dark red after a feed. They have six legs and no wings, so they get around by crawling.
Why am I getting bitten and my partner isn't?
Your partner may well be bitten too and just not reacting. WA Health says about one in five people who are bitten show no reaction, and bites can take up to nine days to appear on those who do. One person’s clear skin doesn’t mean the bed is clear.
Are bed bugs a sign of a dirty house?
No. They feed only on blood, so a clean house isn’t a defence, and a lack of hygiene is rarely the cause. They arrive in luggage, bags and second-hand furniture, and they turn up anywhere people sleep.
Do bed bugs carry disease?
NSW Health says bed bugs are not known to spread disease and are not considered a public health hazard. What they cause is itching and lost sleep. Scratching can lead to a skin infection, so see a doctor if the bites are getting worse.
Should I throw out the mattress?
Not before you’ve spoken to us. Throwing furniture out is a last resort, for when other methods have failed. A new mattress on a bed frame that still has bugs in it can end up with them too.
How soon can we sleep in the bed after a treatment?
Legally, once the product has dried. That generally takes a few hours. We recommend waiting 24 hours if you can, with the room well aired.
Will they die off if we go away for a week?
Adult bed bugs can survive long periods without a feed, so a week away won’t kill them. Eggs laid before you left can hatch while you’re gone, too. An empty-looking bed when you get home tells you very little.
What should a photo of a bed bug show?
The bug itself, as close as your phone will focus. Failing that, photograph the dark spotting along a mattress seam or a pale shed skin, and we’ll tell you what we can see. How far they’ve spread is what the inspection is for.
Next step
What the first visit looks like
We start by finding where they’re hiding. Your instructions arrive in writing before we do, so you can have the washing done and the room ready by the time we knock. Email works too, if you’d rather write than ring: admin@benefitpest.com.au.
A quote costs nothing, and neither does the advice.
