Infestations are typically found in short-stay travel (example backpacker, motel and hotel) accommodation. The incidence of bedbug infestations is increasing probably due to increasing international travel, pesticide resistance and difficulties in controlling them with standard pest management techniques.

Bed bugs tend to shelter in dark locations close to where people sleep and respond to warmth and carbon dioxide. They are more likely to feed at night when people are sleeping. Areas of shelter include under mattresses, floorboards, paintings, carpets, behind skirting boards, in various cracks and crevices of walls, within bed frames, behind power points and other furniture and behind loose wallpaper. Blood spotting on mattresses or nearby furnishings and a distinctive “sickly sweet” or “stink bug” smell in the room is often a tell-tale sign of an infestation.