Bed Bug Feces

After a blood meal, bed bugs often aggregate together in clusters around the room including along the seams of mattresses, along the edges of carpets, furniture, inside walls and other cracks and crevices. While hiding in these clusters, bed bugs accumulate fecal matter, leftover bed bug skins and live or hatched eggs. These clusters, once developed, are easy to spot making identification of an infestation more obvious. Bed bug fecal matter is dark in color made up of digested blood from their host. Bed bug feces is smooth to the touch unlike roach feces, which is more granular in feel. The fecal matter is easy to smear and can quickly stain mattresses, sheets, drapes, furniture, sofas and chairs. Below are some bed bug feces pictures.

Below: (Bed bugs and their feces inside a television stand)

Below: (Close-up of bed bugs and their fecal matter along the edges of carpet)

Below: (Close-up of bed bugs and smeared bed bug feces along the seams of a mattress)

A hot spot for finding bed bugs and bed bug feces is along the seams of the mattress. The seams and tufts of a mattress provide an ideal hiding spot for bed bugs to thrive and wait for their next blood meal. This is another reason why certified bed bug encasements are so important during treatment and for prevention (encasements help remove cracks and crevices on and in mattress and box springs). As illustrated in the picture, the fecal matter left behind by bed bugs can easily smear leaving behind dark marks on whatever it comes in contact with.