Bed bugs are not the most pleasant neighbors to have in the house, especially when they bite and leave us with scratchy bumps in the morning. Bed bugs are not purely nocturnal insects, but they are more active at night when they can feed on the host without getting noticed. The bugs spend the day in places hidden from human sight and light, like furniture cracks and seams, behind the paintings, wallpaper, and at night they go hunting. They leave behind a nasty-looking bed bug poop on the infested items.
It’s easy to confuse the bug dropping with the dirt, however, if you know what it looks like, you’ll be able to tell the difference and know f you have bug excrements in front of you.
The poop of bed bugs looks similar to the ink stains and can have a black or brown color. You can easily spot it on the sheets and mattresses. Bed bug poop can also smell pretty hard, and below we’ll see in detail how to spot the excrements and remove them easily.
What Does Bed Bug Poop Look Like
The most common sighting of excrement is on the bed. They are released soon after feeding, and the bug usually drinks blood when a person is sleeping. But this is not the only place. Same as for carpet beetles, the main location of bed bug feces will certainly be the insect’s nest, along with the laid eggs and bug “skins” after the molting.
To know for sure whether the stain that you found in the morning is from the bed bugs, you can take a picture of the poop and compare it to the other stains. This will help you to figure out whether it’s usual dirt or a bed bug poop.
Bed bug feces are similar to the cockroach excrements, which makes them easy to confuse, so you need to pay attention to an additional sign of the presence of bedbugs in the apartment – another waste product of insects, located in the same place as feces in large quantities – skins (chitinous shells). Parasites leave them after the molting.
- Shape
Bed bug poop has a round shape. Externally, bed bug excrement looks like tiny black dots, slightly resembling the poppy seeds.
- Color
The color of the feces can be either blacking or brown/dark brown. Since they feed only on blood, their poop has a very consistent color (not like other animals).
- Size
The size of the bed bug poor is tiny, and it can be compared to the size of the ink stain. It’s basically the same size that’s left by the ball ink pen poke stain, which is around 1 mm. The bugs have a habit of pooping in the same place all the time, so the size of the overall stain may be larger.
Is Bug Poop Dangerous for Health?
Physical Health Dangers
When you’ve spotted a bed bug at your home, the most important and logical question that you may ask yourself is “how dangerous is the bed bug poop for my health?” No wonder, that’s really good to know.
According to the bedbugs and infectious diseases research, blood-sucking bugs feed on humans and their bites may even lead to the skin reactions, such as macular lesions, up to 5 cm in diameter. These bites can even grow into the wheals. Moreover, these bites are itchy like hell. If many bites have attacked you, they can lead to eczema. Very often these bites are in one line, happening as the bug moves on the body.
When the bites are numerous, a person can also experience anemia, and the allergens may even cause asthmatic reactions. Unpleasant, isn’t it?
However, bug poop itself does not spread diseases, and is not dangerous for your health! Not good looking, indeed, but it won’t cause any irritation or damage your skin in any other way.
Psychological Harm
Also, another significant and widespread harm caused by bed bugs is the psychological oppression of a person. You cannot rest properly, become irritable, and have mood swings. The very idea that some harmful creatures crawl over the body at night and suck the blood can deprive you of peace and sleep. And when there are too many bugs and you see a real invasion, the only thing you might wish to do is leave the room.
Can Bed Bug Droppings Spread Disease?
The short answer is – no.
Where Can You Find Bed Bug Feces
The parasite usually defecates shortly after eating, so bed bug poop can be found even on the bedding, especially if it is light-colored, where black dots are clearly visible. Their favorite place to hide is fabrics, and the claws that they have at their legs help the bug navigate the rugs, mattresses, sheets, and even walls.
- Bed bug poop on rugs
Bed bugs always defecate near their harborage, and when they are walking around the bed, they may poo on the rugs. If you have bed bugs in the apartment, you will almost certainly find their poop on the corners of the rugs near the bed.
- Bed bug stains on sheets
As the name suggests, bed bugs spend most of their time hunting and pooping in bed, that’s why sheets are the most common place where you can spot the remains of their suppers. These insects like to poop right after they eat your blood (actually they can even combine the two processes), so it’s very likely to find the bed bug poop on your sheets.
How to know if the black spots are the feces? They look like tiny dots similar to the ball ink pen marks, left on your sheets.
- Bed bug stains on the mattress
The mattress is one of the places where the bug poop accumulates the most. However, this is the place where you notice it only during the bedsheets change or a thorough inspection. Oh, bed bugs love mattresses! Such a perfect place to hide and wait till you fall asleep and they can come out to feed. Once done with their dirty job, bed bugs will crawl back to their mattress hiding spot and wait for the next night. Pay special attention to the corners of the mattress, they like it most.
How to Prevent Bed Bug Fecal Stains
This is probably the most important question that this post addresses. As soon as you have identified the bed bug poop, and you know what problem is on your hands, it’s time to think about how to prevent it from happening again after the disinfection and pest removal. Even while you are waiting for the pest control, or your home removal methods, there are a few things you can do to avoid being bitten. You should do a few things:
- Get a mattress encasement.
It will act as a barrier, that will prevent bed bugs from coming inside your mattress, or coming from the mattress to your sheets if they are already there. Of course, this is just a temporary solution, but will help you to slow down the infestation and limit their habitat.
- Use a bed bug detergent.
Bed bugs and thor poop are tough and annoying to remove. However, one of the simplest ways to eliminate bed bugs is washing bedding and clothes with special detergents. Even after the great development of science, there are just a few particular and dedicated cleaners for bed bugs available in the market.
How to Remove Bed Bug Poop
Luckily for us, bed bug poop is quite easy to clean, and you can do it with the common material found at home. We recommend one of the 3 methods listed below, you can try them easily and they provide the best results you can reach in DIY cleaning, without addressing to professional help.
Hydrogen Peroxide Bug Poop Removal
What you need:
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Dish soap
- Toothbrush
- Clean cloth
- Water
- Spray bottle
- First of all, you have to mix the hydrogen peroxide solution. Mix the 2 parts of hydrogen peroxide with 1 part of usual dish soap. As an alternative, you can also use liquid hand soap, but we recommend dish soap since it’s more effective.
- Put some of this mixture on the dirty spot, and leave it there for a few minutes.
- Using a clean cloth, blot the solution on the stain, until the dirt is removed.
- In order to remove the soap residue from the carpet, spray some water on it, and blot again until there is no more soap left on the carpet.
Dish Soap with Water Stain Removal
If you have found the bed bug stain on the sheets or clothing, it will be enough to wash them regularly. However, if you have a carpet or a mattress stain, the mix of dish soap and water will help you remove it.
- Mix the soap with water, approximately 1:1. Pour the solution into the affected area.
- Using a clean cloth, blot the stain, until the poop is completely removed. Be careful not to rub the surface, as it will only spread the stain instead of removing it.
Steam Cleaning the Bed Bug Poop
This type of cleaning is perfect for plush areas, such as carpets. Good steam cleaning machines are able to achieve high lethal temperatures that will kill the bed bugs effectively. In order to kill the bed bugs, the temperatures on the surface must be at least 160 °F. So if you are looking for a steamer for bed bug control, make sure that the output temperature can be high enough to do the job.
Conclusion
If you found a bug poop or an insect suspiciously similar to a bed bug in your home, it requires immediate action. The first and most important rule in such a situation is to quickly find out who exactly you are facing. The faster to act the better before the infestation becomes too widespread to handle. Treating a mild bed bug infestation and removing their poop is also less costly. Looking for the black dots of feces will help you indicate their habitat. This may take a lot of time but will save you a lot of nerves.