Got a black or red duvet cover? You might want to reassess your bedding situation, as scientists have discovered the colours are a favourite of bed bugs.
Researchers from the University of Florida and Union College in Lincoln made small tent-like structures from coloured card and placed them in Petri dishes.
Bed bugs were then placed in Petri dishes and were given 10 minutes to choose one of the coloured tents.
A few variations of the test were also conducted, such as testing bed bugs in different life stages, of different sexes, individual bugs versus groups of bugs, and fed bugs versus hungry bugs.
The results showed that bed bugs love the colours black and red, but they seemed to avoid the colours green, yellow and white.
"It was speculated that a bed bug would go to any harbourage in an attempt to hide," wrote the authors.
"However, these colour experiments show that bed bugs do not hide in just any harbourage; rather, they will select a harbourage based on its colour when moving in the light."
Dr Corraine McNeill, one of the co-authors, added: "We originally thought the bed bugs might prefer red because blood is red and that's what they feed on.
"However, after doing the study, the main reason we think they preferred red colours is because bed bugs themselves appear red, so they go to these harbourages because they want to be with other bed bugs, as they are known to exist in aggregations."
It is thought the research can be used to find new ways to control and prevent bed bugs.