How do you tell if you've got bed bugs?

You can tell if you have got bed bugs by looking for multiple signs including bites, physical evidence on bedding, and finding live bugs in hiding places, though bites alone are not definitive because they resemble mosquito and flea bites. Signs include itchy, red welts on exposed skin that appear overnight, often in a line, zigzag, or cluster pattern on arms, shoulders, neck, and legs, though some people do not react. More reliable signs are physical evidence on your bed, such as small rust-colored or reddish stains on sheets and pillowcases from crushed engorged bugs, tiny dark spots that look like ink dots from bed bug feces on mattress seams, sheets, box spring edges, and walls near bed that smear when wet, and a sweet, musty odor in heavily infested rooms. The most definitive sign is finding live bugs themselves, which are small, flat, oval, reddish-brown insects about apple seed size that do not jump or fly, hiding during day in mattress seams, box spring cracks, headboard crevices, behind baseboards, and in furniture joints within 5 to 8 feet of bed, plus translucent shed skins and tiny white eggs about 1 millimeter in cracks. To confirm, inspect mattress seams with flashlight at night between 2 AM and 5 AM when most active, use interceptor traps under bed legs overnight to catch bugs, and collect suspected bugs in sealed bag for pest control professional to identify under microscope.