Can Bed Bugs Climb Wall?

When you think of bed bugs, you probably think of tiny creatures living inside your mattress. Well, it’s only partly true.

Did you know that bed bugs are adaptable creatures? The survival of bed bugs depends on their great hiding and hitch-hiking skills.

Curious to know how these little vampires move around? Do they swim? Fly? Jump? Crawl? Or do they climb walls? 

Well, you’re in the right place. In this article, we will discuss how bed bugs move around and whether or not they can climb walls, and how to prevent them from doing so. 

How do bed bugs move around?

Bed bugs are little oval, wingless creatures. Yes, you guessed it right, they DO NOT fly. So, consider yourself lucky that they cannot fly across the room and land on you. If you see a winged creature on your bed, then DO NOT confuse it with bed bugs.

Guess what? You’re in luck again! Because bed bugs DO NOT even jump. They have weak hind legs which do not support jumping higher or longer distances. So, if you encounter any insect jumping around your house, it is most likely to be a flea.

So the real question is then, how do bed bugs move?

Bed bugs crawl their way up to you at night to insert their jaws and feast on your blood. But contrary to popular belief, they are not fast crawlers. They move at a very slow pace to not wake their host up.

They can crawl their way slowly from room to room, door to door, onto your mattress and couch, and infest your home.

You might ask if bed bugs are slow crawlers then how do they travel so fast?

The truth is, bed bugs do not move at all to travel from one place to another. Bed bugs are clingy and stubborn insects. They’ll cling to a host and travel from place to place. So, if you’re facing a bed bug infestation at your home, it is likely that you have taken bed bugs to a lot of places!

Do bed bugs climb walls?

Now that you’ve learned how they move, the final question is whether they can climb walls or not.

Yes, sadly, the truth is, they can.

A good sign of telling whether your home is heavily infested is if the bed bugs have started crawling or living in the walls. And if they have, there is some serious trouble!

Bed bugs can climb almost any material to reach their food source, for example, wood, cement, curtain, walls, and even your ceiling. Not only can bed bugs climb walls, but they also climb electrical wires and house pipes bringing a huge problem to you.

Surfaces that Bed Bugs CANNOT Climb

Slippery materials like glass, plastic, and metals are the only materials that bed bugs cannot climb.

This is because such surfaces do not provide enough friction for bed bugs to insert their claws and support themselves up the material. 

If you’ve noticed bed bugs in the cracks or crevices of the walls of your house, then it is high time you do something about it!

How do bed bugs climb walls and stick to them?

Bed bugs have sharp and clasping claws at the end of their legs which they use to insert into any material or grab it in order to prevent falling. 

The bed bugs are very small and light-weighted due to which their sharp claws have no problem climbing against gravity. 

It is easier for bed bugs to climb up and live on your wall if there is peeling wallpaper, broken baseboards, loose sockets, cracks, etc. because these provide a living space for them. When they want to feed on you at night, they can easily get out of their living space and crawl down to your bed. 

Can bed bugs climb on your bed?

The answer is YES! 

We release more amount of carbon dioxide at night which bed bugs to be attracted to us. They are drawn towards this smell of a high amount of carbon dioxide, which causes them to hunt us down. This is why bed bugs mostly come out during the nighttime. 

So how do they make their way up to our beds? The answer is simple. As we have already identified that bed bugs can climb almost any surface, they slowly crawl up the side of our beds and feed on our blood at the night. 

Now, that we’ve identified what these notorious creatures can and cannot do, let’s find out how can you prevent these bugs. 

How to prevent bed bugs from crawling walls?

Firstly, to prevent them, you should know all their hiding places. There is an easy method to determine the hiding places of bed bugs.

You can use any credit card or business card for this purpose. The width of bed bugs is similar to that of a credit card. So, all you’ve to do is, try to insert your card in any crack you find in your walls or furniture. The places in which your card can fit are the places where bed bugs are most likely to be hiding!

Now, seal all these cracks either with professional help or temporarily by using duct tape.

After sealing all the crevices carefully, we strongly suggest you use a steamer to steam your bed, furniture, mattress, etc. Since bed bugs cannot tolerate high temperatures, steaming is an effective way to kill bed bugs.

You can steam-clean your house once a week to stay clear of bed bugs.

Another thing that can be done in order to prevent them from climbing your bed at night is to set up bed bug traps at the bottom of your bed. As we already know, bed bugs do not jump high distances. These traps are an easy and effective way to prevent them from climbing your bed and killing them. 

But remember this method will not help you to eliminate bed bugs completely as they have other ways to reach your mattress and some might even be living in it! 

Final words

Bed bugs are not easy-going creatures and neither are they harmless. They find their way into our homes one way or the other, and we don’t even come to know till the problem has grown!

Once they infest your house, you’ll find them in your bed and couch, but almost all areas of your home including the slightest of cracks or crevices which even might not be visible to us!

Bed bugs take up a lot of blood from you as their meal, to an extent that it can make you feel numb in the morning. So it is best to get rid of them as soon as possible!