If you have wooden furniture or a wooden bedpost, you may be concerned about bed bugs using these items as a hiding spot in your home. You may be especially concerned if you are looking into buying used furniture, since bed bugs often enter homes this way. But can bed bugs live in wood?
Q: DO BED BUGS LIVE IN WOOD?
A: Bed bugs are flat, reddish-brown insects that are about as small as a grain of rice. Their size and shape enables them to hide in many cracks and crevices, allowing them to stay near their host during the day and find quick blood meals at night. While certain wood pieces might make it easier for bed bugs to hide, eliminating wooden furniture from your room or house will not prevent bed bugs.
Q: HOW CAN YOU AVOID BED BUGS IN FURNITURE?
A: Bed bugs don’t chew through wood in search of a good hiding place. Instead, they depend on cracks, corners and other small spaces. For this reason, when picking out new furniture – especially used furniture – choosing pieces with hard flat surfaces can be helpful. Items that are cracked, or have intricate details, will make it harder to spot bed bugs.
Knowing how to properly identify bed bugs can help you search for them. There are a few bugs that look like bed bugs, and you will want to be wary of those.
When buying a new piece of furniture, or if you are concerned about bed bugs in furniture you already have, conduct a thorough search. Take out drawers and break down any pieces that can be disassembled, cleaning each piece individually. Signs of bed bugs include black spotting and molted skins. Be sure to inspect and clean items before you bring them into your home.
Can bed bugs live in wood furniture pieces? Absolutely. And, any other hiding place that they can squeeze themselves into. If you are concerned about bed bugs in your home, consider contacting a pest management professional.
