Are Bedbugs Visible to the Naked Eye in Hillingdon?

People often say they have searched the bed and found nothing, and then we find bugs in the first seam we open. It is rarely about eyesight. It is about knowing what size and colour you are looking for, and where they spend the daytime.

Adults

A grown bedbug is flat, oval and reddish-brown, about the size of an apple pip. After feeding it swells, turns darker and redder and looks rounder. You can see one clearly without any help if it is out on a pale sheet.

They are rarely out on a pale sheet. By day they press into seams, joints, screw holes and the gap behind a headboard, flat side down, and look like a speck of dirt or a fleck of wood. A still adult tucked into a dark timber joint can be passed over many times.

Nymphs

The young ones, called nymphs, look like smaller versions of the adult. The youngest are tiny and pale, almost straw-coloured, and close to see-through until they have fed. Against a cream mattress they all but vanish. After a feed they show a small dark red spot in the middle, which is often what gives them away.

Nymphs shed their skins as they grow, and those empty, pale, bug-shaped husks collect in the same hiding places. They are often easier to find than the nymphs themselves.

Eggs

Eggs are the hardest. They are pearly white, about the size of a pinhead, and stuck in place in cracks, folds and the rough underside of furniture, often in small clusters. On a white seam they are nearly invisible. You can see them by eye if you know exactly where to look and the light is right, but most people never notice them.

What a Torch and a Magnifier Add

A bright torch held low, so the beam runs along the surface rather than straight at it, throws shadows off anything raised. Specks, eggs and cast skins stand out in a seam that looked clean under the ceiling light.

A magnifying glass, or the zoom on a phone camera, helps you decide what you have found. A dark speck that turns out to have legs is a bug. A pale grain that is shiny and oval is probably an egg. A photo also lets us see what you are looking at when you ring.

Why People Still Miss Them

• Early on there may only be a handful, spread across several hiding places.
• People check the top of the mattress, where bedbugs rarely sit, instead of the seams and the frame.
• Spotting on the seams is taken for mould or dirt.
• They look in daylight, when everything is hidden, and do not lift or tilt anything.
• Bites are blamed on something else, so nobody looks at all.

Our London guide to where bedbugs hide that gets missed goes through the places people overlook. If you have checked carefully and still are not sure, an inspection from £120 confirms it either way. If they are found, the Hillingdon page covers the treatment options.

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