The Invisible Infestation

Since we were children, we have had an inexplicable fear of some hidden threat lurking beneath our bed as we lay in the dark. Call it the boogeyman or boogey monster or whatever it was named in your neighborhood. Now that we're grown up, we have learned that monsters exist that really can live under our bed and are scary enough to evoke in us that childhood fear again.

Bed bugs unfortunately are not just a figment of our imagination but a real world pest and the risk of encountering them seems to keep rising with every year. So it's natural that we have some level of paranoia around the thought of discovering them under our bed or on or around it. And something that makes them even scarier is that they are so hard to find. What if they are there but we can't see them yet? Every day they could be multiplying like a volcano that's gradually building up pressure until one day, BOOM! It erupts with bugs everywhere and now there's too many to control! If only we would have acted sooner.

...they could be multiplying like a volcano that's gradually building up pressure

As I've read thousands of posts in bed bug forums, I've seen this idea repeated over and over. The fear of an "invisible infestation". It usually starts with discovering a mark on their skin that looks like a bite or multiple bites. Or maybe they've been exposed to bed bugs at someone else's house or while traveling and now they're convinced that they've brought them home. But they just can't seem to find them no matter how hard they look. They know that if you wait too long to take action against bed bugs, they can quickly grow out of control. So what should they do? Is it possible to have bed bugs but never see them? Let's talk it through.

Many decide that the right response is to immediately go on the attack. Some seek professional treatment but after an inspection is done, no bugs or signs of bugs are found. The pest control expert refuses to do treatment (as any reputable company should do). But the homeowner won't accept that answer so they decide to go at it themselves. They start throwing everything they can at them, soaking their beds in alcohol and dumping dusts and powders all over the floors. They spend large amounts of money buying an assortment of chemicals to spray on the walls or worse yet, foggers and bug bombs in the hopes of killing them wherever they may be hiding. Sometimes the bites seem to stop and other times, they continue. Then, they fall into the trap of thinking they are "fighting them back" with their efforts and that if they were to stop, the infestation would flare up with a vengeance and their home would be quickly overwhelmed by bugs. So they're stuck fighting for months and even years in some cases I've heard, never completely finishing them off or winning the battle. If you've never seen the enemy, how do you know if they're really beaten?

So how likely is it for someone to not find a single bed bug during an infestation? Not very. It's true that if you had a single male or immature bed bug that made its way into your home, it may be able to elude your sight until it dies by being crushed or eaten by something or finishes out its short lifespan of less than a year. But an infestation would not be able to hide for long. In spite of what most people think, infestations start very slowly as you can see in the graph below.

This is due to bed bugs requiring 5 nymph or instar stages before reaching maturity. If a single pregnant female wandered into an apartment and began laying eggs, it would take over a month before those new bugs would hatch and reach adulthood to be able to reproduce. But after 6 to 8 weeks, things start to noticeably pick up as the new generations begin laying eggs too. The first bug is usually spotted somewhere around this time or sooner. After 12 to 14 weeks, if left untreated, we would begin to see an exponential growth rate with the population reaching a thousand bugs or more. And every one of those bugs is pooping every day and shedding 5 skins during their lifecycle. So after this much time has passed and with that many bugs in the home, it would be virtually impossible not to have noticed a bug or their fecal stains and cast skins. So if you think you've had bed bugs for 6 months or even a year but haven't seen one yet...then you don't have bed bugs.

"But isn't it true that they can go for a year without eating? So maybe they're just hibernating."

That's not how they work. Bed bugs can go for at least a few months without feeding if they have to and can go dormant in a state called diapause if they are stuck in a very cold environment. But in your home, where it's a comfy 70 degrees or so, they will stay very active and will seek out a meal about every 5 days if you're around. They would never choose to not eat when a perfectly good human is in the room. So there's no need to worry about dormant bugs lying in wait for months and suddenly waking up from sleep. They will keep feeding and reproducing and you won't have to wait too long to see bugs walking around, even during the day.

So what CAN you do if you're getting bit by something but can't find any signs of bed bugs? Focus your efforts on monitoring. Educate yourself on what the signs look like and how to recognize bugs, their shed skins, and fecal stains. Study pictures of each and pay attention to where they are located so you know where to inspect on your bed and furniture. There are a few products that I recommend that don't cost much but make spotting bed bug activity much easier. Bed bug proof mattress encasements are great for simplifying the environment, taking away hiding spots and providing a nice blank canvas to see the signs if any appear. And interceptor or pitfall traps are effective when placed under the bed legs or even next to the beds and furniture. I've caught one or two bugs a day with them during infestations I've helped with in the past. They'll show up in the traps much easier than spotting them during an inspection. (Find some good options for encasements and traps here).

Do a daily inspection at first and later a weekly inspection. If 4 weeks go by and you still haven't found any evidence of bed bugs, consider other possibilities for your skin irritations. Do they appear mostly on your feet and ankles? That's more typical of flea bites. Can you find signs of carpet beetles on the floor or corners of the carpet? Their larvae have hairs that can get into our clothing and linens and cause skin irritation and red bumps. Could you try changing your laundry detergent or fabric softener in case it's causing an allergic reaction? And don't discount good old fashioned anxiety. I've had hives before that looked exactly like bed bug bites just from stressing about wondering if I have bed bugs. Fight the urge to start treating just in case you have them. Let the data guide you and trust the results.

What if you do confirm that you have bed bugs during your inspections? Well, now at least you can be sure of what you're dealing with and how to fight them. And you already have some tools in place to continue inspecting and measuring changes in activity for better or worse.

So if you've been worrying about having bed bugs for months but haven't seen any evidence, I hope this article gives you some comfort and reassures you that you don't need to start investing time and money in treatments. If you've already started treatments, pause them until you can get confirmation. Time and time again, I've heard similar cases that end with the homeowner finding another cause or the skin irritations just stopping on their own. I hope that's true in your case too.