Risk Factors for a Bed Bug Infestation

What are bed bugs?

Bed bugs are tiny, thin, reddish-brown insects about the width of a credit card. While they are not known for spreading disease, they feed on blood, and their bites can cause discomfort, itchiness, and allergic reactions.  

Bed bugs are notorious travelers and will go great lengths to feed on blood. Their size and thinness make it easy for them to travel completely undetected, and many people do not know they have brought bed bugs home with them from places like the laundromat, vacation, or even public transportation.

What increases your risk of infestation with bed bugs?

There are a wide variety of factors that could increase your risk of a bed bug infestation, including but not limited to:  

1. Living in a crowded area, such as an apartment complex or family home 

   • If you happen to be residing in an apartment or family home, this can mean that there are a lot of people entering and exiting the property, and since it is easy for bed bugs to get onto belongings or latch on clothing, they can move freely between building residents. If one person in the apartment or family home brings bed bugs with them, they can travel throughout the entire home or complex.  

   • The same applies to other locations with high concentrations of in-and-out movement, like schools or dorms, homeless shelters, hotels, motels, cruise ships, trains, and buses, all of which put residents and travelers at a greater risk of a bed bug infestation.  

   • Apartments can also be full of secondhand furniture, or furniture that has been lived in before, which could be infested with bed bugs brought in by a previous tenant. Although they tend to feed every 5-10 days, bed bugs, if determined, can go months without food. In general, second-hand furniture is another item that puts someone at risk for an infestation.  

2. Being a frequent traveler or living with one

   • Traveling frequently also puts one at a higher risk of a bed bug infestation, as they can latch onto clothing and luggage and travel great distances. If you live with someone who is frequently traveling, they could have unknowingly picked up bed bugs during their travels and put the home at risk of an infestation.  

3. Clutter

   • Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs are impartial to unsanitary environments. Rather, they are attracted to hiding places where they can wait in peace until feeding time. If your home is full of random objects, boxes, books, and other miscellaneous items that take up space and are full of dark corners and crevices, this clutter allows bed bugs hiding places wherein they can survive for long periods of time undetected.  

4. Cracks and Crevices

   • Since beg bugs are about the width of a credit card, they can fit anywhere that a credit card can, and they use this ability to hide in cracks and crevices. If your house has lots of little cracks and crevices, these make perfect places for bed bugs to hide. Bed bugs usually hide in mattresses (near the piping, seams, and tags, and under box springs), in drapes, peeling paint, loose wallpaper, under carpeting, and under light switch plates and outlets. They also hide in the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains, in drawer joints, electrical receptacles, under wall hangings, and in the crack (if uninsulated) between the wall and ceiling.

   • When traveling, they tend to latch onto clothing, folded clothes, luggage, overnight bags, bedding, and furniture.  

Precautions you can take

If you are worried about getting bed bugs because your lifestyle puts you at a higher risk, there are a few ways you can bring down the likelihood of an infestation. 

1. Be vigilant

   • The sooner you catch an infestation, the sooner it can be remedied; so keep your eyes peeled for live bugs, rusty, reddish stains on bed sheets and mattresses (caused when they are crushed), bed bug excrement (black stains about the size of a bullet point) and white or pale yellow eggshells and skins.  

2. Reduce Clutter

   • If your home is clean but full of hiding places, you are still at risk, so make sure to clean up clutter, and keep your eyes peeled for small clumps of brown dots in cracks and crevices in your home–these could be bed bug clusters. Reducing clutter reduces hiding spaces for bed bugs.

   • The best way to know if you have bed bugs is to look for them using the signs above, since bed bug bites like similar to most other small bug bites, figuring out if you have bed bugs by looking at bites can be a flawed approach.  

3. Stay Clean

   • Although bed bugs are not attracted to dirt, vacuuming regularly can help catch lingering bed bugs, especially in hard-to-reach or hard-to-see spots in the home.  

4. Protect yourself in public.

   • If you use a public laundromat or shared laundry facilities, transport your dirty items in plastic bags, and fold everything at home. Bed bugs die when their body temperature is higher than 113 F, so if you have sheets with bed bugs in them, you may be able to kill them with a dryer set to high heat. 

What do you do if you have bed bugs?

If you have a bed bug infestation and you live in an apartment, the first step is to alert your landlord immediately, on the phone and in writing so you have a record of this interaction. 

If you believe that your landlord failed in their duty to provide you with habitable living conditions, per California’s “Implied Warranty of Habitability”  you may have cause for a suit; check out this tenants blog post to learn when a tenant can sue for bed bug injuries, or reach out to us with any bed bug or tenants law related questions, and we will advocate for you in your time of need. You can contact us by calling (310) 432-3200 or by using this form.