Bought a Used Couch: How to Check for Bed Bugs
Before bringing any used furniture inside, inspect it thoroughly in good light: check the seams, folds, tufts, and underside for live bugs (flat, reddish-brown, apple-seed sized), tiny dark fecal spots, shed skins, or pale eggs. Pay special attention to seams and the frame underneath. If you see any signs, don't bring it in — used furniture is a leading way bed bugs enter a home.
Where to look
Bed bugs hide in tight, dark spaces. On a couch, that means the seams and piping, under and around the cushions, in the folds and tufts, along the frame, and underneath. Use a flashlight and, if you have one, a thin card to run along seams. Look for the bugs themselves, dark pepper-like fecal spotting, translucent shed skins, and small pale eggs.
If you find signs
Don't bring it inside — it's far easier to skip an infested piece than to eliminate bed bugs from your home afterward. This is exactly how bed bugs spread through college towns like Ithaca, where used furniture changes hands constantly, especially around move-in season.
If you already brought it in
If you suspect a piece you've already moved in is infested, don't move it around the house (that spreads bugs) and don't rely on store sprays. A professional inspection and treatment, with the necessary follow-up, is the reliable way to handle it. We can confirm whether you have an infestation and treat it.
Where to actually look
Work in good light and take your time — a proper check is ten minutes, not thirty seconds. Start with the seams, piping, and welting, which are where bed bugs harbor by preference. Then the underside of cushions and the fabric where they meet the frame. Then tip the piece over and check the underside of the deck, the frame joints, the staples, and any dust cover — the underside is where they hide and the place people skip.
You are looking for four things: live insects, flat oval and reddish-brown, roughly apple-seed sized; shed skins, which look like translucent empty bed bugs; small dark fecal spots that look like marker dots and often appear in clusters along seams; and, in heavier cases, tiny pale eggs in crevices.
If you are not sure
Do not bring it inside to inspect it further. That is the mistake that turns a maybe into an infestation, and once a piece of furniture is in a bedroom the question stops being academic.
Curbside furniture in a college town deserves particular caution. In Ithaca and Cortland, the couches that appear on curbs in late May and late August are being discarded during exactly the move cycles that spread bed bugs, and some of them are being discarded for that reason. Free furniture in those weeks is the highest-risk furniture of the year.
If you are unsure and still want the piece, inspect it outdoors thoroughly, and if any doubt remains, let it go. Treating an apartment costs far more than a couch.
Common questions
What exactly am I looking for?
Four things: live bed bugs — flat, oval, reddish-brown, apple-seed sized; translucent shed skins; small dark fecal spots clustered along seams; and pale eggs in crevices. Check seams, piping, cushion undersides, the frame, and especially the underside of the deck.
Is curbside furniture in Collegetown risky?
In late May and late August especially, yes. Those are the move-out weeks, and some of what appears on curbs is being discarded because of bed bugs. Inspect outdoors, thoroughly, and let it go if there is any doubt — treatment costs far more than the furniture is worth.
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