Travelers know bed bugs can live and hide in many places besides the bed itself. Bed bug infestations can also spread to upholstered couches and chairs, not to mention trains, buses and other areas. Bed bugs can also crawl up walls, hide behind picture frames or headboards or sneak into the cracks and corners of furniture drawers.
Bed bugs tend to hide in cracks and crevices of furniture, under the floor boards, inside carpets, in the lining of mattresses and sofas, on curtains, window sills, sockets or electrical outlets and so on.
As much as hygiene and bed bug infestation have no close relationship, it is a factor determining how long bed bugs will find comfort in your clothes. A recent study done in the University of Sheffield indicated that bed bugs are attracted to soiled clothing and will thrive for long in such clothes.
Since bed bugs can hide in between your clothing in the closet, it is necessary to ensure that the clothing you choose for the day isn't ferrying any bed bugs. This, you can do through physical inspection especially along the corners of sections sewn together and thoroughly doing so for dark colored clothes.
I found signs of a bed bug nest near the top of a closet door frame. Definitely higher than my hanging clothes. Granted, it may be MORE unlikely to find them on hanging clothes than drawered clothes, but impossible? no. In general, I think the infestation can be centered around where you breathe while not moving for long periods.
If you pick up clothes and place them individually in the dryer, the bed bugs can infest the laundry area. If clothes ball up in the dryer, the inside garments will be cooler. In that case, leave the clothes in longer.
