Bed bugs can be an almost invisible threat. If not for the bed bug bites they leave behind, you may not even realize bed bugs have infested your home. This is mainly due to the fact that bed bugs are small, with adults only reaching a quarter of an inch in length, and their liking for tight, cramped spaces. While bed bugs rarely make themselves known until a full-fledged infestation has begun, we can anticipate and check several places where bed bugs hide.

There are many ways bed bugs enter our homes unnoticed. These pests can be introduced to your household from an infested location your pet or you have visited, hitching a ride into your home with you as an unsuspecting vehicle. If a nearby home has a bed bug infestation, they can spread to your home through pipes or air vents. Bed bugs can remain dormant for months and can stowaway on secondhand belongings like furniture or clothing, so by thoroughly inspecting each item your bring into your home, you can prevent introducing bed bugs in the first place. When traveling, bed bugs can hop into your luggage or transfer from hotel bed sheets to your clothing, so wash clothing quickly upon arriving back home, and inspect your luggage carefully to make sure no bed bugs are hiding inside.

To understand where bed bugs hide, we need to know what type of environments bed bugs gravitate towards. Certain environments can cause bed bugs to flourish. Bed bugs are attracted to our homes for three reasons—our blood, which the parasitic bed bugs feed upon, the carbon dioxide we exhale, and the warmth of our homes. Due to these factors, bed bugs prefer warm, enclosed environments that make it easy for them to feed during the early morning hours (usually an hour before dawn), and allow them to hide and procreate without risk to their young. They tend to hide in cramped, confined spaces like around the seams of couch cushions or along the bottom of box springs, and will travel up to twenty feet from their hiding place to feed on a host. These places are where their hosts are likely to rest during the hours bed bugs feed, and are easy to go undetected. Make sure to check small, unlikely spaces like the corners of rooms or inside drawers. These tiny pests can fit into small cracks the width of a credit card, so they can hide in carpets, cracks in walls, or even inside light sockets! During treating your home for bed bugs, some people caulk cracks or move infested beds away from walls to prevent bed bugs from hiding in by walls or in floors.

Bed bugs are hardy little insects that can thrive in a variety of climates ranging from 46°F all the way up to 115°F, so temperature is usually ideal for them in most households; however bed bugs are unlikely to settle in spaces without insulation, like garages or attics in the winter. Additionally, spaces in your home without foot traffic are unlikely to have the pests introduced into them, and rooms lacking clutter are less likely to provide prime hiding places for bed bugs, or even house them to begin with.

There are a few signs to look for in order to find where bed bugs are hiding in your home. Live bed bugs are about the size of an apple seed, flat, and range in color from pale gold to a deep brown, while nymphs, or juvenile bed bugs, can be semi-translucent when they have not fed. Aside of searching for live bed bugs, look for small rusty-colored stains left behind when bed bugs are crushed, or small dark spots of excrement. When looking for hiding bed bugs, you may find eggs, which are the size of a poppy seed and milky white in color. Since bed bugs tend to hide in tight spaces, it’s a good idea to use a pocket flashlight to shine light into cracks and better search for the pests. Also, if you smell a musty, sweet aroma similar to coriander, you may be close to a bed bug infestation. This smells is given off by the glands just below a bed bug’s thorax, and exterminators even train dogs to find bed bugs based on the smell. After you’ve located bed bugs and their hiding spots in your home, you can take steps to remove these hiding places.

Removing the places bed bugs hide is a great first step to drawing the pests out and fighting the infestation in your home. As mentioned before, caulking cracks in the wall or floor prevents bed bugs from finding a place to hide, but also carefully checking seams of couch cushions, tags of mattresses, and any and everywhere close to where you sleep is a smart precaution. Remove clutter to prevent bed bugs from slipping in between papers, underneath storage boxes, or anywhere a credit card could wedge into. Bed bugs tend to follow their host, so wherever they are feeding is likely close to where they are hiding, so if you frequently rest in rooms other than your bedroom, make sure to check those rooms as well. There products specifically made to prevent bed bugs from hiding in spots like your mattress or bed frame, Bed bug interceptors trap bed bugs so they are unable to crawl up bed posts, and mattress protectors seal you mattress to not allow bed bugs in, or out. If you choose to purchase preventive measures like this, make sure to sanitize and inspect these items regularly so they maintain effectiveness.

Bed bugs are one of the most troublesome pests you can find in your home—and some of the most difficult to detect. By carefully checking the spaces listed in this article, and by removing as many factors bed bugs gravitate towards as possible, you can gain control over a bed bug infestation, and take steps to eliminate them from your household.