The symptoms

Adult bedbugs grow to 4-5mm long.
After a feeding they become round and a dark reddish brown before a feed they are a flat, oval shape and light brown.
Before feeding they move very fast, about the pace of an ant, after feeding they are very sluggish through over gorging.
They mostly come out at around dawn for a blood feed; they are attracted to the warmth of our bodies and carbon dioxide from our breath.
Bed bugs are such named not because they exclusively live in beds they are call bedbugs because that is where the feed and are often found. They live in any place where the fit, so any cracks and crevices is a safe haven for bedbugs to hide away in.
Bedbugs can be found in numerous places, in the seams of mattresses, in the bed frame, in and behind furniture surrounding the bed including the headboard, bed side tales, cupboards, draw runners, skirting boards where the wall meets the floor. Bedbugs can also be found in between floorboards, behind telephone points and electrical sockets in curtains and curtain poles, behind pictures hanging on the walls. The list is endless
Signs of an infestation of bedbugs can be associated with dark staining on the mattress and surrounding area from the excreta of over feed bedbug.
Small droplets of blood on bed sheets can be an indication of a bedbug infestation, this occurs when the bedbug has completed its feed, they often over gorge.
When bedbugs become well established they are also associated with an unpleasant, sweet & sickly scent.


Bed bug bites
Our bodies react differently to bedbug bites. Some people have little or no reaction; others can have a very bad reaction which causes significant swelling and itching. Some people mistake bedbug bites for mosquito bites, the mark is similar.
Bed bugs tend to bite several time in one feed in patterns following blood vessels.
A feeding bed bug is unlikely to wake its victim, as the bed bug injects an anaesthetic before drawing the blood from its victim. They bite and therefore feed anywhere on the body but commonly on legs, arms, hands and torso.
A sign of a significant infestation is where bites are found on different parts of the body this can indicate being bitten by several different bedbugs.