Bed bugs do not truly live in books — they live in hiding spots near where you sleep. But they hitchhike, so they turn up in odd places: tucked into a book spine, along carpet edges, in a car, trapped in a bathtub, or riding on towels. They are passing through, not setting up home.
Bed bugs in books sound strange, but it happens. The tight, dark gap inside a spine or binding makes a fine hiding spot, which is why used books and library copies sometimes carry them. They do not eat paper — bed bugs feed only on blood — they simply use the book as cover and a way to travel. To picture the insect itself, see what bed bugs look like: an adult is about 5 to 7 mm, roughly the size of an apple seed.
The key idea that ties this whole roundup together is one we will call The Hitchhiker Rule: bed bugs do not really live in books, carpet, cars, tubs, or towels. They live in cracks close to a sleeping host and only appear in these places because they were carried there. Understanding that rule explains every surprising spot below. For the bigger picture on how they arrive at all, see where bed bugs come from.
Bed bugs in carpet are real, but they behave differently than most people expect. Rather than spreading across the open middle of a room, they cluster along carpet edges and under furniture close to the bed, because they want to stay near a sleeping host.
The idea of bed bugs living in carpet long-term is untypical. A carpet does not give them what a mattress seam or bed frame does: a tight, dark crack right beside their nightly meal. When they do use carpet, it is usually the perimeter, the tack strip area, or the fibers directly under a bed or sofa.
What helps with carpet:
If you are not yet sure what you are seeing, the early signs of bed bugs can help you confirm before you treat.
Bed bugs in your car almost always arrive the same way: they ride in on luggage, bags, or clothing, then get left behind. A car can keep them alive for a while, but it is not a place they choose to settle, because there is no nightly sleeping host to feed on.
This matters for treatment. People often hope a hot, closed car will bake the bugs out. A parked car in the sun can get very hot, but that heat is uneven and hard to control, so it is not a reliable way to kill bed bugs. Some will survive in shaded seams and crevices.
Practical steps for a car:
Because bed bugs reach the car by crawling and riding rather than flying, the same containment logic applies everywhere; you can read why in can bed bugs fly.
Bed bugs in the bathtub are usually a sign of a trap, not a home. A tub has smooth, steep walls that bed bugs cannot climb, so a bug that falls in often cannot get back out and ends up stranded in the basin.
You can turn that weakness into a tool. When you arrive in a hotel room or want a safe staging spot, setting your luggage in a dry, empty bathtub keeps it out of reach — bed bugs simply cannot climb the slick sides to reach your bag.
How to use the bathtub trick:
Bed bugs on towels are a transport problem rather than a nesting one. A folded towel left near an infested area can pick up bugs or eggs and carry them to a new spot, which is how they move between rooms or homes.
The good news is that towels are one of the easiest items to clear. Bed bugs and their eggs do not survive sustained high heat, so laundry handles them well.
To treat towels:
Towels, bedding, and clothing all respond to the same hot-wash-and-dry approach, which is a core part of how to get rid of bed bugs.
Finding bed bugs in a surprising spot leads to some shaky conclusions. Keep these straight:
Wherever you find them, the fix is the same: contain the item, treat it with heat or thorough cleaning, and focus on the cracks near where you sleep.