Know the Enemy

Adult bed bugs are wingless insects about one-quarter of an inch long and oval in shape. Their color is nearly white after molting, then ranges from tan to burnt orange. After a blood meal, they'll appear dark red or black.

Their flat bodies enable them to hide in dark, cozy cracks and crevices in beds, baseboards, sofas, and drawers, and even behind wallpaper and electrical switchplates. That's where they nest during the day, typically not far from where they'll find their host -- that's you -- at night.

Amazingly, these sneaky little bloodsuckers dine on you without causing you to lose sleep. The next morning, you'll discover lesions that resemble the bite of a mosquito or some other insect.

Bed Bug or Imposter?

If bites occur while people are sleeping, suspect a bed bug infestation but don't leap to conclusions.

Forget everything you've heard about being able to tell the biter was a bed bug by looking at a bite. "I feed all kinds of bloodsuckers on my body, and in the vast majority of cases you can't look at a mark and tell what made it," says Pollack. "I recently gave a talk to physicians and quizzed them on pictures of bites, and their batting average was zero. The bites resemble those of other blood-feeding insects, such as mosquitoes, fleas, biting gnats, or mites."

He recommends the following steps for identifying the culprit:

1. Search the bedroom. Look in folds and creases in mattresses and box springs, pleats of curtains, behind loose wallpaper, in spaces of wicker furniture, behind cove molding, and in corners of drawers. You may notice dark-brown or reddish fecal spots on bed linens, mattresses, or walls near the bed.

2. When you find an insect, compare it with a good reference image, such as the one on the Harvard School of Public Health web site, or place it in a plastic bag or pill bottle, and take it to an entomologist at an extension agency for identification.

Make a positive identification before going to the expense of hiring a licensed pest control operator. "In many markets, it costs several hundred dollars to treat a one-room apartment, and don't be shocked at spending a grand or more to treat a single-family house," says Pollack. The cost is in expertise and labor. "If they're doing a quick look-see and they're out the door, you're not getting what you paid for."

What to Expect From a Pest Control Professional

Mannes says that the NPMA's member pest control companies who used to receive one or two bed bug calls a year now report one or two each week. "That's 50 times more calls."

When you call in a professional, they'll spend a lot of time looking for hiding places with a flashlight. "Bed bugs are very elusive," she says. "The pest control professional will look under box springs and in mesh that covers the box springs, go through drawers, and remove sofa cushions.