How to Check for Bed Bugs in Your Florida Home (2026 Guide)

Given the weather we enjoy in Florida, it should come as no surprise that bed bugs feel at home here as well. Not only is Florida among the warmest states in America, but the humidity and the high population level create the ideal conditions for pest problems to emerge. The state now holds close to 24 million residents, and Visit Florida counted a record 143.3 million visitors in 2025 — 131.1 million from around the country and 12.2 million from abroad. Florida is also one of the most visitor-friendly states in the country, resulting in bed bugs being brought into our homes and businesses simply by latching onto people traveling.

Orkin’s 2026 bed bug cities list, which ranks the metro areas where it performed the most treatments between May 2025 and May 2026, put Tampa at #46 and Miami at #47. Tampa had dropped off the list entirely the year before; now it is back. When the industry’s own job data says the bugs are moving through Florida’s cities again, checking your own home properly is worth an hour of your time.

If you suspect you have bed bugs, the first thing to do is confirm it, because a lot of other household pests get blamed for bites that were never theirs. This guide walks through how we check a Florida home, in the order we check it.

You will often notice the evidence before you notice a live bug. Spotting bed bugs involves knowing what they look like, but it also revolves around being able to spot their patterns, such as the stains they leave, and looking out for molted skins and eggshells. Dark brown spots on bedding are fecal matter left behind as the bugs excrete their blood meals after feeding. Deep red spots are blood left over from the feeding process, and these can look almost reddish-brown once the blood has dried overnight. Look out, too, for a sweet smell that sticks to the air and clings to the furniture in the room — some say it is almost akin to ripe raspberries.

As for the bug itself, a bed bug is going to be something in the region of 4 to 5mm when it has reached full maturity, which puts it roughly in line with a seed you would find in most forms of seeded fruit, such as an apple. Color is a little less reliable, as younger bed bugs tend to be more translucent or tan, and turn the reddish-brown shade most of us expect only once they have fed.

Florida actually hosts two species: the common bed bug and the tropical bed bug, Cimex hemipterus, which has returned to the state after decades away. The two tend to look quite alike, so it is easy to mistake one species for the other — and the checking routine below covers both.

To help differentiate between bed bugs and other pests in Florida, we keep fuller guides to what bed bugs look like, the signs they leave behind, and what their bites look like.

If you worry that you have bed bugs, then it is important to look in the right places. Bed bugs give themselves away by where they choose to sit. When they are not feeding, bed bugs usually congregate near or at the bed of their hosts, on the mattress itself, and on the box springs. Generally, you should inspect any mattresses, bed frames, and furniture — anywhere someone sleeps or sits still for hours at a time. Most of an infestation stays within about five feet of that spot, which is why the kitchen and the bathroom come last on the list.

All you need is a flashlight, an old credit card or business card, and a few garbage bags for anything headed to the laundry. Due to their nocturnal nature, bed bugs usually are only seen active at night, so if you want to catch them moving, shine a light on the bedding at nighttime, as this is when these nocturnal parasites come out to feed.

Start along the mattress seams and piping, then work outwards to the bed frame, the headboard, and any nearby crack or crevice.

Strip the bed one layer at a time and check each layer as it comes off — pillowcases inside out, then the comforter, then each sheet — dropping everything straight into a garbage bag for a hot wash rather than piling it on the floor. You are looking for pin-head blood stains, the pepper-like dark spots, and shed casings caught in the fabric.

On the mattress itself, run the card slowly under every button, strap, and tag, and check the seams and folds bed bugs can wedge themselves into. Then lean the mattress against the wall and give its underside the same slow pass. The box spring deserves particular attention: the plastic corner pieces, and the mesh fabric stapled underneath, are two of the most reliable hiding spots we find on real jobs. On bare wood, droppings look like specks of dark ink soaked into the grain.

Bed bugs tend to look for more porous materials, so they are unlikely to be found in areas that are made from metal or plastic. However, even metal bed frames – so long as there is a mattress – can be a host for bed bugs. Check every joint, screw hole, and slat on the frame, and take your time behind the headboard; on wooden furniture, the screw holes, cracks, and joints are the sneaky hiding spots.

Look around the seams of your mattresses, baseboards, headboards, and any junctions between walls and ceilings. These are the most common places to find bed bug molted skins. Pull the nightstand drawers right out and check their undersides, then the inside of the empty cabinet and the back panel. Do the same for any dresser or desk within a few feet of the bed, and give the electrical outlets and the curtain folds a pass with the flashlight while you are at it.

One thing to note, too, is that bed bugs can fit through even tiny hairline cracks in your building. It is worth checking the home regularly, especially the beds, furniture, closets, carpet, and blankets, since the earlier you catch them the smaller the job is.

Despite their name, bed bugs do not always hang around on beds alone. They linger on any form of furniture or upholstery where they can otherwise remain undisturbed until a host settles down. In a Florida home that means the couch, the recliners, and the reading chair get the same treatment as the bed: cushions out, zippers opened, seams pulled apart gently, the card run through every crease. If the couch reclines, extend it fully and check the mechanism underneath with the flashlight. Tip the whole thing on its back last, and check where the fabric is stapled to the frame.

It’s highly common for guests to unknowingly bring bed bugs into the home, and it may not become evident right away. Bed bugs enter our homes and businesses by either entering through a gap in the building from another property or “hitching a ride” on a person or shipment. They could be brought in from a piece of furniture that you buy or hide in your luggage and emerge after you unpack.

With the amount of traveling this state sees, we treat the post-trip check as part of coming home. Vacuum the luggage in the garage rather than the bedroom, keep the bags away from beds and couches for a few days, and wash the clothes at the highest heat the fabric will take, since heat is what kills bed bugs. And if you spend the winters here and the summers up north, run the full room check the day you re-open the house — before the luggage comes back in, not after.

If your search turns up live bugs or their signs, there are a couple of home steps worth taking straight away while you arrange proper treatment. Make a habit of carrying out a weekly vacuuming session around your bed, and run your bedding and nearby clothing through a hot wash and a high-temperature dryer. These steps lower the numbers, though they will not reach the source on their own, which is where professional treatment comes in.

And if you found nothing but are still being bitten, do not assume the all-clear. Bed bugs do not care about the property conditions; they only care that there is a steady supply of blood for them to feast upon. They are as likely to settle into a dirty household as they are an impeccably cared for property. A bed bug egg can also sit through conditions that would finish off a grown bed bug, which is why we never treat only for the adults we happen to be able to see.

The published research puts the kill zone at 113°F to 140°F — adults die at 113°F after about 90 minutes, the eggs need 118°F for a little over 70 minutes, and every stage dies in under ten minutes once the air passes 122°F. That is why we pair our Heat Assault thermal treatment with a proprietary residual spray, and the two of them look after different parts of the problem. The heat takes care of the bed bugs and the eggs that are in the home on the day, at every stage of life, and the spray carries on working quietly for weeks afterward, ready to catch anything that slipped through or tries to make its way back.

Whether the infestation has just started or the numbers reach the hundreds or even thousands, we can provide a solution that is guaranteed to work. Treatment is priced by the size of the home, is usually done in a single day, and carries a minimum 60-day guarantee. Call (727) 591-4417 for a free quote, or start with our treatment pricing guide.