Bed bugs have become synonymous with the first word that makes up the insects’ name: beds. It is true that bed bugs will predominantly infest the beds of humans to have an easy and undisturbed access point for both food and harborage areas, yet a bed is far from the only structures these insects will harborage in.
This fact can make measures to eradicate the elusive insects even more complicated and mentally exhausting for those undergoing an infestation. Walls are dark and undisturbed and are usually not too far from a bed or regularly used piece of furniture where people spend lots of time.
Can bed bugs live in walls? Bed bugs will typically live in beds and furniture, yet there are instances where bed bugs will branch out to live in hidden voids inside of walls to evade being eradicated. This is also indicative of large infestations.
Why Do Bed Bugs Live in Walls?
Bed bugs only have one overwhelming trait in terms of survival and that is finding the most habitable place necessary that provides the insects easy access to human blood. This trait is usually identified as the bed since this is the structure that provides many things to the survival of the bugs.
Once the bugs are brought into the home, the insects will typically follow a person’s carbon dioxide to a place that sees the host spending long hours of undisturbed activity. Bed bugs prefer a bed due to the dark and mostly undisturbed areas of the box spring and underside of a mattress, which allows the bugs to hide from detection, reproduce, and feed on human blood while the host is asleep.
Sometimes an infestation can go undiscovered for months at a time, which will see the colony begin to branch out to other structures due to overcrowding. Additionally, bed bugs may begin to infest the interior of walls when control measures are underway to eradicate the bugs.
Bed bugs can also live inside of walls and underneath baseboards in shared living structures such as apartment and condominium buildings. This can likely cause spreading throughout units when only one apartment receives treatment as opposed to an entire building.
How Do You Get Bed Bugs Out of Your Walls?
Once bed bugs have established a foothold inside of the walls, eradication methods can become even more complicated than removing the bugs from beds and furniture. For DIY measures, there is a certain methodology that must be practiced to kill the bugs but any DIY method inside of a wider infested building may be ineffective.
If you are in an apartment or shared building, contacting a pest control professional is the best method for attempting to address bed bugs inside of walls. There are certain regulations that must be followed and property management will have to make the final decision.
The bugs will simply run from unit to unit to escape poisons or heat, therefore prolonging the problem and passing it on to somebody else. If you ever find yourself in a situation where management will not act, do not feel compelled to immediately move, as this will only cause the bugs to move right along with you and infest your new residence.
Apart from and in addition to seeking legal help, there are some methods you can take to work towards killing the bugs as much as possible. Bed bugs typically feed every 3-7 days, which means the bugs will eventually have to come out from the walls to seek blood.
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- Fast Acting - Insects coming into contact with the powder will die within 48 hours of initial contact
- Long Residual - Continues to kill bed bugs for weeks after application as long as it's kept dry
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If Crossfire insecticide is available for use in your area, you can administer this along with Cimexa dust or diatomaceous earth powder all along the gaps of the baseboards and into all cracks and crevices in the walls. These powerful bed bug products are proven to kill the parasites in a short amount of time, which means the bugs will have to cross through the products in order to reach a host.
For homeowners, the same method applies and is truly effective, yet there are also great benefits to considering more complex procedures such as heat treatment or tent fumigation in destroying all of the bugs.
Why Are There Bed Bugs On My Wall?
Seeing bed bugs crawling across the walls or ceiling is not uncommon and many people report seeing this activity after treatment procedures have begun. When the bugs are left undisturbed, you will likely never see this kind of activity since the bugs have no reason to be on the run.
Additionally, bed bugs have also been reported to crawl up walls and onto the ceiling to fall into a person’s bed when procedures are undertaken to prevent the bugs from crawling onto the bed. This is why it is crucial to treat an entire house or living unit when bed bugs are discovered.
If you see bed bugs crawling on the wall, you can easily kill them with the right amount of pressure or, collecting the bugs in a container and disposing of them outdoors.
Related Questions
What Brings Bed Bugs Out of Hiding?
Bed bugs are perfectly content to live their entire life cycle in undisturbed hiding. The only thing that brings them out into the open are when they need to seek blood. This is part of the reason why these insects are mostly nocturnal, since this is the time of day when people are sleeping, thereby making the process of drawing blood much easier.
This is the only time you could ever expect to see the bugs crawling out of the harborage area since the best defense the insects have is to hide to avoid detection. If you are seeing bed bugs crawling out in the open, this is likely due to treatment procedures or the sign of an infestation that has gotten out of control.
How Do You Get Bed Bugs Out of Baseboards?
Getting bed bugs out of baseboards is part of the larger elimination process as a whole. If you have bed bugs in your home, measures have to be taken to ensure that every single bug is eliminated.
Bed bugs in the baseboards can be flushed out, although this is not advisable since it will only send the bugs looking for other difficult places to hide in. Applying a strong pesticide or dust into the baseboards will work towards killing the bugs living in the gap and also work to prevent bugs from crawling out of the wall and reaching you.
What Happens If You Ignore Bed Bugs?
Ignoring bed bugs is the worst mistake you could make since this will never work towards eliminating the bugs from your home. Second to this is deciding on a whim to move, which is a common mistake that people make once they are in shock upon discovering they have an infestation.
Ignoring bed bugs will simply allow the bugs to continue to multiply at rapid rates and infest a staggering amount of spaces and structures within your home. It will also allow the bugs to continue to prey on you and others inside of your home as well.
Consult with a pest control professional immediately upon discovering bed bugs. Certain DIY measures can also be effective, but this takes a massive amount of work and time to find success.
In Summary
Bed bugs can live inside of walls since the dark and peaceful confines of this type of structure provide them a safe space to live and reproduce. It is a common misconception that bed bugs only live in beds.
Having bed bugs inside of the walls and baseboards could also be a sign of a larger infestation that has spread out to multiple parts of a home. The insects can be removed with a number of methods and treatment procedures should always seek to address the entire home due to the skilled precision with which these bugs hide.
