Bright Red Bugs In The Bed

Need to get rid of bed bugs? Read on to learn the answers to all of your important questions. Need help? Call our professionals today to get started.

Bugs In Your Bed

Bed bugs are awful pests and a terrible thing to share your bed with. They are parasitic and feed on human blood, leave behind itchy red bites and can cause a lot of mental anguish and sleepless nights. Before you lose a lot of sleep over the thought of bed bugs in your bunk, it’s a good idea to make sure what you’ve seen is actually a bed bug.

The Many Bugs That Look Like Bed Bugs

Bed bugs are notoriously hard to see. They move quickly, are adept hiders and are mostly only active at night. These traits make spending enough time looking at your elusive red bugs to really know if they are bed bugs or not a difficult task. Adult bed bugs are light brown to reddish-brown, but can also appear black. They are tiny, flat and oval-shaped. They can be anywhere from 1.5 to 4 or 5 millimeters in diameter with six legs and two antennae. 

Baby bed bugs, or nymphs, are translucent and can look white or very light brown. After they have eaten a blood meal they will appear to be bright red because you can see the blood meal through their translucent skin. After a while, this will fade to a darker brown and eventually to an opaque black.

Bed bugs are flat when they have fully digested their blood meal, but are bright red and look a big like a tiny blown-up balloon when they’ve just eaten. 

Clover Mites

If you are seeing lots of bright red bugs that are very small (no larger than the size of a pin head) and have eight legs (unlike the bed bug’s six), you’re probably seeing clover mites. Clover mites are true mites from the arachnid family, just like spiders and ticks. They feed on clover, grass, weeds and other plants. They are a common household pest that often invades homes in large numbers in the spring and fall. Clover mites do not bite, are not dangerous to humans or pets and do not cause any structural damage to homes, though they do sometimes stain furnishings, curtains, and cloth items with their red pigment.

Who Can Help With My Bed Bug Problem?

If you are still unsure if you have bed bugs or some other bug, don’t hesitate to call a pest control service as soon as possible. Bed bug infestations can quickly get out of control, and you are always better discovering one early on before it becomes too established as those are particularly difficult to completely eradicate. Don’t know where to start? Call Pest Control Experts to help you find the right pest control specialist to inspect your home and discover what bugs are truly being a pest.