Can Bed Bugs Bite Through Clothing?
Bed bugs, also known as Cimex lectularius, live in a variety of areas within a home, with mattresses being the number one breeding area. Clothing is unfortunately no different.
If the environment is right bed bugs can easily slip onto your clothes and get access to your skin.
Luckily though, bed bugs cannot bite through clothing. Their mouths aren’t strong enough to pierce through fabric. A bed bug’s mouth is designed to penetrate through the skin in order to consume blood.
Because bed bugs are so small, they can easily crawl through any holes or tears in the fabric of clothes. They can also crawl under clothes to access your bare skin where they can bite you.
However normally they don’t need to as they can simply bite the areas of your skin that are exposed.
Can bed bugs bite through bed sheets and blankets?
No, bed bugs aren’t able to bite through bed sheets or blankets, either.
Can you feel bed bugs crawling?
Since bed bugs are very light in weight, it’s nearly impossible to feel them crawling on you when you’re asleep. However, if you’re awake, you may be able to feel a crawling sensation generally but not while you’re asleep.
Where Do Bed Bugs Go After They Bite You?
Once a bed bug has bitten you they typically go between 5 and 20 feet away to feed on the blood. Once they’re done they return to hiding places.
These hiding places are usually the cracks and tighter areas on a mattress that you can’t easily access. More common hiding places for bed bugs include sofas, suitcases, chairs, closets, sheets, and cluttered spaces.
Other Hiding Places & Droppings
Other places to look out for bedbugs include dresser drawers, your laundry, desks, and loose wallpaper. Box springs are also another place they like to hide inside of mattresses.
Droppings are an essential clue of bed bug infestations. You can typically find bed bugs close by if you find their droppings since they’re attracted to chemical compounds in their feces.
Unfortunately, bed bug droppings also attract other bed bugs which means the chances are there are more of them close by than you might have thought.
Identifying Droppings
Bed bug droppings are usually very dark in color. They almost appear as black ink stains due to the blood they feed on being mixed in with the fecal matter.
It’s important to note the droppings have a liquid consistency meaning if any droppings you find are solid they’re from some other kind of pest.
One way to identify their droppings is by doing a smear test:
- First, take a q-tip and dampen it with water.
- Next, smear it across the droppings. If it smudges, it’s undoubtedly bed bug fecal matter.
If it also appears as a rusty color then it’s droppings. However, if it’s not smudging, it’s not droppings from bed bugs.
Droppings can be on various surfaces but they’ll appear the same. They’ll either be black or gray and look similar to dots made with a pen or a marker.
If the dropping stains are black then it’s fresh fecal matter. If they look gray then they have been there for a while and had time to dry out.
How Do You Tell if Bedbugs Are in Your Clothes?
Although it’s very rare to find them in hanging clothes, bed bugs love to live inside closets. Unfortunately, closets are very dark environments which makes them perfect for bed bug infestations.
They’re photophobic which means they avoid light at all costs. That’s one reason a closet (or similar darkened area) is an ideal place for them to feed, mate, live, and hide.
Once a female bed bug finds a closet she can live in without disturbance she’ll lay eggs and quickly begin a bed bug infestation.
Signs They Are in Your Clothes
In general, bed bugs like fabric. If they can find a snug pocket inside of clothes in a dresser drawer they’ll live there. If you suspect they’re in your clothes a few things to look for are:
- Skin shells
- Blood spots or stains
- Droppings
- Small sticky eggs
- The bed bugs themselves.
Despite them enjoying fabric and living in closets, it’s not often that they do. The best way to help avoid bed bugs getting in clothes is by hanging them.
This can help keep them out because it’s hard for bed bugs to reach clothes that are hanging up. These terrible pests prefer places that are easily and readily accessible.
Your bed’s mattress, for example, is a lot easier for them to access than other areas such as furniture and also often has your body heat to attract them as well.
How Do You Know if the Bites Are from Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs like to bite areas of the skin that are exposed while you’re asleep. These areas include the neck, arms, legs, shoulders, hands, and face.
When bed bugs bite they release a chemical that numbs the site while they feed. Unfortunately, because of this, many people overlook the bite until days later.
However, some people may be susceptible to the bites and may feel symptoms of them sooner than later.
Bed bug bites do take on a certain appearance and cause uncomfortable sensations. Here are symptoms to look for:
- Raised bumps with clear centers that itch
- Hives centered around small red bumps
- A zigzag line pattern of welts or red bumps
- Itching bumps that are red with dark centers
- Pain or burning at the bite site
Severe Symptoms
Although it’s rare some people can suffer from severe symptoms from their bites. If you or your loved ones have one or more of the following it’s always best to seek medical attention.
Severe symptoms include:
- Fever
- Tongue swelling
- Irregular heartbeat
- Blisters
- Flu-like symptoms and nausea
- Difficulty breathing
How Do You Stop Bedbugs From Biting You?
Luckily, there are several preventative methods that you can take to avoid bed bugs.
- Immediately cleaning your clothes after a trip
- Keeping the space underneath your bed clean
- Wash your linen in hot water
- Vacuum regularly
- Carefully inspect your living and sleeping quarters when traveling
- Consider using a protective mattress cover on your bed
- Decrease clutter in your home
- When buying secondhand furniture always check it thoroughly
If you’re dealing with an infestation it’s best to hire pest control to help get rid of them. Otherwise you can also get rid of them by washing your clothes and bed linen in hot water.
You can also try using a steamer as a heat treatment on infested areas as this will also help kill them quickly.