If you have found a bed bug in your hair, you might be worried that your whole head is infested. The experts at Truly Nolen are happy to report that while bed bugs may end up in people’s hair, they do not make their homes there in the same way lice do. Here is an explanation of how bed bugs get in your hair, what they do there, and how to get them out with bed bug pest control.

How Do Bed Bugs Get Into Your Hair?

Bed bugs are small insects that hide during the day and come out at night to feed on human blood. They attack people while they are sleeping, injecting an anesthetic into the skin so that their victims do not wake up. They most often bite the arms, legs, and face, and occasionally venture beyond the hairline to bite the scalp.

Bed bugs do not purposely seek out your hair. To them, your scalp is just another source of blood. If you wake up before they finish feeding or before they have made it back to their daytime hiding places, you will carry the tiny insects with you out of bed. From there, the bugs may hitch a ride to other parts of your home, into your car, or even to other buildings.

Will Bed Bugs Nest in Your Hair?

Apart from drinking human blood, head lice and bed bugs are adapted to very different lifestyles. The short legs and formidable pincers of head lice allow them to live their entire lives clutching human hairs. Males and females mate on the scalp and the females lay eggs at the base of a hair shaft. Bed bugs, on the other hand, do not have any special adaptations that would allow them to live successfully in your hair.

A bed bug’s legs are best suited to crawling on flat surfaces. They cannot attach themselves to your hair follicles and instead must maneuver through your tresses the same way they would through blades of grass. When it’s time to mate, bed bugs prefer to congregate in dark, protected crevices. They usually lay their eggs in or around the bed in places like mattresses, bedposts, and nightstands, not on people’s bodies or in their hair.

How Should You Remove Bed Bugs From Your Hair?

If you find a bed bug in your hair, simply remove it and flush it down the toilet. If you are concerned there may be more, comb through your hair with a fine-toothed comb or have a friend look through your hair for you. Washing your hair with regular shampoo should be sufficient to remove any bed bug excrement or exoskeletons. You can blow dry your hair if it makes you feel better, but doing so is not necessary, because there are not likely to be any remaining insects in your hair to kill with heat.

While it might be tempting to wash with lice-killing shampoo, doing so will not help and chemicals in the lice treatment may further irritate any bites on your scalp. You also should not apply commercial pesticides directly to your body. However, you may consider temporarily switching to an anti-dandruff shampoo or another variety that soothes the scalp until the bites heal.

Truly Nolen Bed Bug Pest Control 

When you go to sleep at night, you shouldn’t have to worry that you will wake up with a bed bug in your hair. The best thing you can do is to contact Truly Nolen for a home inspection. Our technicians will show you where bed bugs hide and then create a personalized treatment plan to get rid of them for good.