Bed bugs are small, flat, reddish-brown insects that feed on blood, usually at night while people are sleeping or resting. They hide in tight cracks and crevices close to beds, couches, and other resting areas. Bed bugs do not fly or jump, but they are excellent hitchhikers and can spread quickly through personal belongings and furniture.

Yes. Anyone can get bed bugs. Bed bugs do not care if a home, apartment, hotel, or business is clean or dirty. They are an exposure pest, which means they are usually brought in from travel, used furniture, shared laundry areas, visitors, or nearby infested units in multi-family housing.

No. Bed bugs are not caused by poor housekeeping. They can be found in clean homes, cluttered homes, hotels, apartments, offices, dorms, and many other types of buildings. Clutter can make them harder to find and treat, but clutter does not cause bed bugs.

Bed bugs commonly travel by hitchhiking on luggage, backpacks, purses, clothing, shoes, furniture, mattresses, couches, and boxes. They can also move between apartments, condos, duplexes, and hotels through shared walls, hallways, utility penetrations, and neighboring rooms.

Bed bugs can be picked up almost anywhere people rest, sleep, or bring personal belongings. Common places include hotels, motels, vacation rentals, apartment buildings, dorms, offices, public transportation, movie theaters, waiting rooms, shelters, secondhand furniture, and shared laundry facilities.

Bed bugs are attracted mainly to people, body heat, and carbon dioxide. They are not attracted by dirt or food scraps like some other pests. Their goal is to stay close to a blood source and hide in tight protected areas during the day.

Conditions that make bed bug problems easier to establish include frequent travel, used furniture brought indoors, shared walls in apartments, clutter around sleeping areas, high resident turnover, delayed detection, and untreated neighboring infestations. Bed bugs thrive anywhere they have consistent access to people and hiding places.

A female bed bug can lay about 1 to 7 eggs per day and may lay roughly 200 to 500 eggs in her lifetime, depending on conditions and access to blood meals. This is one reason why small infestations can grow into larger problems quickly if left untreated.

In normal indoor conditions, bed bug eggs usually hatch in about 6 to 10 days. After hatching, the immature bed bugs begin looking for a blood meal so they can continue developing.

The bed bug life cycle includes three main stages: egg, nymph, and adult. After hatching, bed bugs go through five nymph stages. They need a blood meal between each stage before becoming reproductive adults. Under favorable indoor conditions, bed bugs can develop from egg to adult in roughly 5 to 8 weeks.

Bed bugs can reproduce quickly indoors because stable temperatures and regular access to hosts allow their population to keep growing year-round. Since females lay eggs regularly and multiple life stages may be present at once, an infestation can expand significantly in a short amount of time.

Bed bugs commonly hide in mattress seams, box springs, bed frames, headboards, nightstands, dressers, couches, recliners, baseboards, wall voids, outlet areas, cracks in furniture, picture frames, and other tight protected spaces near where people sleep or rest.

Common signs include live bed bugs, shed skins, tiny white eggs, dark spotting or staining near seams and cracks, blood spots on sheets, and bite complaints. Not everyone reacts the same way to bites, so the best way to confirm a problem is with a professional inspection.

No. Although they are commonly found around beds, bed bugs can also live in couches, chairs, nightstands, dressers, wall voids, baseboards, and many other hiding areas close to where people spend time resting.

Yes. Bed bugs can spread between apartments, condos, duplexes, hotels, and other shared structures. They may move through wall voids, shared utility openings, hallways, furniture movement, laundry transfer, and personal belongings.

No. Bed bugs usually do not go away on their own. Without proper treatment, they often continue breeding and spreading into more rooms, furniture, and belongings.

Bed bugs are difficult to eliminate because they hide extremely well and multiple life stages may be present at the same time. Professional treatment helps identify the extent of activity, target hidden harborages, and reduce the chance of the infestation spreading.

Yes. OutLook Pest Management offers one-time bed bug services as well as maintenance and monitoring options for certain higher-risk properties such as apartments, rentals, hotels, and recurring exposure environments. Services are based on the level of activity, the layout of the property, and the areas affected.

We service homes, apartments, condos, duplexes, rental properties, hotels, motels, offices, and other commercial or residential spaces needing professional bed bug inspection and treatment in the Oregon area.

OutLook Pest Management provides bed bug services in Canby, Oregon City, Salem, Keizer, Wilsonville, West Linn, Tigard, Tualatin, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Woodburn, Newberg, Molalla, and surrounding Oregon communities. Contact us if you need help with bed bug control, inspection, or treatment in your area.