Some people share vacation photos…
By jessinchicago on May 8, 2007 in bed bug bites, bed bug blood, bed bugs, bedbugs, blood, blood spots, blood stains, photos
Not people at bedbugger. These are photos of bloodstains on white sheets, courtesy of bedbugs. You know those rust-colored stains you’re supposed to look for in your bed? Here they are. These pictures were taken by a trustworthy bedbugger who wishes to remain anonymous. They depict the evidence you might find in your bed if you have bedbugs. I thought these photos would be particularly helpful to those of you who are trying to determine whether or not you have an infestation. If you’re waking up to these, it’s a good idea to start inspecting. Pronto.
Although you may not find such spots, they can provide a signal for someone who does not know what is causing their bite marks, or someone who does not react to bed bug bites.
*Editor’s Note: I’m sensing the title of the post may be misleading. These are NOT vacation photos of bedbug evidence. I was trying to be cute by saying that here, we tend to show each other photos like this as opposed to vacation photos, like other people do. These pictures were taken in the home and on the bed of a person who has(d) bedbugs.
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wantmyskinback | May 8, 2007 | Reply
THese don’t look like thin, see through “comet streaks” as some have described them to look like. They look like thick, solid “droplets”. What causes this? Is it from the actual bite bleeding or from the bug being smushed (wouldn’t you also see the dead bug then?) or is it from the bug’s mouth part that does the biting leaking? I have always been confused about that because when I’ve seen blood in my bed, it was always a droplet like this.
jessinchicago | May 8, 2007 | Reply
Hey WMSB-
I have seen both the little “comet streaks” and the larger drops like this. It was explained to me that these are all photos of the same area on the same day- some look much bigger because they were taken really closely to the blood marks. I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess this is from a squashed bug or from the actual bite bleeding.
Hopefully, we’ll get some more feedback from others who have experienced this.
wantmyskinback | May 8, 2007 | Reply
I’m sure the photographer was legit, but did they find the blood stains before sleeping or after awakening? Is it possible those stains were caused by a previous guest who just had gross skin and the hotel never bothered to bleach the sheets? Like I said, I’ve seen droplets like that in my bed, single droplets—twice. I never had a correlating scratch on my body that looked as though it were bleeding. I never figured out what or where the bug could be hiding.
jessinchicago | May 8, 2007 | Reply
These are NOT hotel photos. These are photos of a bed in a person’s home. I just added an editor’s note explaining this.
Bugalina | May 8, 2007 | Reply
If the bed bug was squashed Jess..then it would have been found dead on the sheet…I was under the assumption that the blood smear happened when the bed bug withdraws the probosis..its sucking straw..the smear I found was much lighter and had a little trail on it….
jessinchicago | May 8, 2007 | Reply
Hey guys-
I didn’t post these photos to debate whether or not they are pictures of blood marks from bedbugs. I know that they were taken by a rational and credible bedbug victim who wanted to help others by showing what evidence can look like.
I think it’s really important that, for the first time, we have photos of evidence. We’ve seen bugs and we’ve seen bites, but we’ve never seen evidence before.
And for the record, Bugalina, I was guessing when I said the blood could be from a squashed bug. The blood could have come from the bites themselves. We just don’t know.
S | May 8, 2007 | Reply
Hey guys,
The first time I had bedbugs, I saw little round dots of blood that looked, frankly, exactly like this. I know it was bedbugs, my bites were horrendous (just like my ‘bite test’) and my bloodstains looked just like these. Dark, almost black, small dots. We found three of them in the same general area, just below the pillows on a white fitted sheet. I found them when I finally realized what it was and inspected the bed - I think the inspection happened at night but I don’t think that matters.
I assumed these were poop stains, and that’s still what I think.
The second time I had bedbugs, I saw these things you describe as “comet streaks.” They were lighter, not dark, and they were more of a reddish-brown. They looked more like blood, and they were about an inch long. I found numerous “smears” on my pillow as well as near the foot of my bed.
I don’t know if these were a different kind of poop stain, or what. Maybe these bugs were moving faster, so their poop got “spread out” over an inch. Maybe these were nymphs, who poop more “lightly” than their parents. (Just guessing here, folks).
The second time I had bedbugs, the only other “bed evidence” I found was a bloody smear, but much darker (similar in color to these) with a little chunk at the end. I never had it confirmed, but I think it may have been a smushed bug. I have a photo and can send it in if it helps, although it is unconfirmed so I hesitate to do so.
Either way, this is what my blood stains looked like the first time I had bedbugs. So yeah, thanks for posting this.
Bugalina | May 8, 2007 | Reply
Thank you for posting these Jess….you are right…this is the kind of valuable visible info we need…these pics beg the question ..how and why do they leave blood stains….do they “drip” blood if disturbed while pulling out their probosis??? Does the probosis leak some blood when it’s retracted??? Does the bite bleed immediately after the probosis is removed?? .. Why do you think it is Poop S.??? I was under the assumption that they pooped hard little poppy seeded balls…not liquid blood…I heard that the blood spots came from the excess blood in the probosis..I don’t know if this blood staining happens in a lab setting….
dawn | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
Hi S,
Can you please post the photo of the ’smear’ you are referring to? The one with the chunk at the end. I’d love to see what that looks like.
Thanks
Dawn
Dawn | Nov 9, 2007 | Reply
funny thing is, when i sent this to sean at bedbugresource he said these were NOT from bed bugs. i just don’t get it.
nyjammin | Nov 10, 2007 | Reply
I had only two blood spots. That is actually how I found out that I had bbs. Googled bloodspot which came to the conclusion - bedbugs. The google stated bedbugs, but said something to the effect of “it’s most UNlikely that you do NOT have bbs. Check other reasons”. OK!! Never even heard of a bedbug before. A lotta people STILL have not heard of bedbugs. The education out there su.ks!! I thought that the bloodspots were from the window. My bed is close to an open window. One of the googles said to look at the mattress. Well, there they were…..gross! I believe that my bloodspots were from crushed bugs ’cause that’s what the google said and when I covered my mattress/boxspring w/mattress encasements is when those dark bloodspots stopped.
Think people think. Is there anything that causes spots like these? I never encountered bloodspots before bbs, never!! 99.9% of bloodspots are from bbs, unless there’s a medicial condition like ecezma (spelling?). Even so, like my son got bloody noses sometimes. Still the bbs bloodspots do look different to me.
Dawn | Nov 10, 2007 | Reply
did your blood spots look like these pictured above? and blood spots CAN be caused by many other things, like shaving knicks, cuts, pimples, hangnails, etc. of course, they don’t look like the pictures above if they are caused by these things. i think the pictures above are the result of bed bug feces, but that’s just my opinion.
cammie | Aug 21, 2008 | Reply
the bloodstains are from full/over-fed bugs. they are seldom from the actual bite. i know because 4 days ago we realized my daughter had bedbugs. we couldn’t figure out why her sheets had red spots. we thought it was red marker. she wasn’t bleeding and there was no dried blood on her. compaired to the ones we found on my daughter’s sheets, these photos look over exaggerated.
nobugsonme | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
cammie,
Thanks for your comments. I can tell you that a Bedbugger editor verified these were from the home of a person with bed bugs.
However, you are correct that bed bugs do seem to expel some blood from time to time. Blood marks on sheets may not come from bleeding bite marks (though it is not the norm, some people do have bites that bleed).
JD | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
I’m staying at a motel in Edgewood, MD. I woke up around 5 this morning because a bedbug was crawling on me. I turned on the lights and found another *very* small bedbug crawling on the bottom sheet. I killed the first one in a piece of tissue paper. It was very tough, taking three attempts to completely squash the life out of it. It excreted a sort of brownish liquid when it died. The smaller one looked sort of like a little red dot moving across the sheet. I reacted instinctively to that one and squished it with my finger. The resulting stain looks EXACTLY like those in the pictures above. The interesting thing is that the little bastard completely disintegrated when I squished him. I can’t find any remains other than the red stain.
nobugsonme | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
JD, please read the FAQs in our travel section about how not to take bed bugs home after being exposed in a hotel.
JD | Sep 1, 2008 | Reply
Well, I followed some of your tips after I left the hotel. The hot water tip was probably the best thing I got from your site. It works. For the rest of my belongings that couldn’t be washed, I left them in a cargo van with an entire box of Raid fumigators. I had to leave the windows open for a few days to get rid of the smell, but it was worth the effort. Nothing could have survived that. I’m still bug-free anyway. Thanks.