Hello - was wondering if anyone can provide some info on carpet beetle hair reactions?

Last summer, we had bed bugs (and rat mites, and PCO also found carpet beetles...HORRIBLE experience that I has left many emotional and physical scars). We had 6 chemical treatments but were never convinced our infestations were cleared.

Earlier this year, we moved cross country, and to help alleviate our fears of bringing anything with us, we discarded all of our furniture. When we moved, we hired bed bug canine team (2 dogs, 2 handlers) who did hit on 1 box, which we discarded with the clothing it contained (not recommended by dog team but for us, keeping anything that might be tainted wasn't worth the fear). Since then, we've had canine team come to our minimally furnished place several times since we're so paranoid and cannot go through another infestation. Each time, we've been cleared.

When we were living in our infested place, it wasn't uncommon for me to find small, almost slice like marks on my chest area. They never itched and had a burning sensation, at times rather painful. These marks started again (just found a few on my chest). I've been sleeping in a polar fleece top that I did wear a few times at the infested apartment (since then, it's been washed and dried multiple times ).

What do carpet beetle hair reactions typically look like? Is it possible for carpet beetle hairs to remain in clothing even after multiple washings? I'm trying to remain calm and level headed that we don't have bed bugs again, but the fear is starting to overwhelm me. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

I really need some help! I after many days of not sleeping sitting up 24/7 researching the internet have determined that we have a small bed bug infestation a huge carpet beetle problem and roaches in the kitchen. We moved into this apartment building July to save money so we could buy a house.. WE DID NOT HAVE ANY BUGS AT ALL. The first thing I found were bed bugs. So that is why that problem has been kept to a minimum. powders and washed and dried clothes constantly trying to get rid of the bed bugs. Then we kept seeing these little white jelly looking tiny slugs which I assumed were baby bed bugs. I would go to work and feel like I was being eaten alive inside my cloths all day. Would go to the bathroom constantly checking for bed bugs. I was going crazy. So a week or so ago my boyfriend got very sick and was put in the hospital. I got out of the shower and was getting dressed. When I was pulling up my jeans and felt this terrible pain in 2 spots on my knee. I jerked my pants off and there were two black/brown bugs halfway imbedded in my knee.
When I went to pull them off it was sort of difficult to pull them out of my skin. There was holes in my knee where the bugs had been. I through them in the toilet out of shear terror. Then went over my entire body.
I had to leave to go to the hospital. When I got back late that night, I started going thru the house. The more I did, the more "bites" or "scrapes" or whatever I was having. I again took off clothes and the white jelly like things were burrowing under my skin as well as these grey ones that looked like dust bunnies. They are in all of our clean clothes in the closets in all the dressers. They are everywhere. I then freaked out and went to buy a huge amount of 91% alcohol. I came back and got in the shower and there were hundreds of these white and grey bugs in my skin. I took the alcohol and put in a spray bottle and just started scrubbing head to toe. It seems to have worked. I am so freaked out that I don't even know what to do. I have called a professional exterminator to come tomorrow, but I still have my doubts that they will get rid of them.
Then on top of that, the apartment upstairs opens their door and there was a 100 roaches right there for me to see, We have those too. I am beside myself. I can't sleep, I can't eat. I think I am going crazy trying to keep these things away from me and my kids. I mean I think I slept an entire 10 hours all of last week and when I got on the scale the other day I am down to 85 pounds! I FEEL LIKE I AM DROWNDING. I have never had bugs before and I don't like them. I am obviously not dealing with them very well. The apartment complex will not do anything. We came here to save to buy a house and I have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars trying to fight them. I have even seen bugs in my truck and car.
Please help me! I can not stand the thought of bugs crawling inside me and now they have started on my 5 year old daughter. I stayed up sitting next to her on the couch while she slept last night so I could try to keep all these things off of her.
Oh and here is the thing. My boyfriend and 11 year old son are not affected by any of this. No bed bug bites, and nothing from the carpet beetles. The beetle bug hairs can be all over there clothes and it doesn't sting them, bite them, or burrow in them.
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Hey guys.
Posted here when I first started dealing with them.
An update.
No places wanted to treat us unless we used vikane or heat treatment even though we were told it was not a bad infestation.
Then those places actually quotes 1k over what I've read the approximate cost is.
I ended up buying sprays and powders and applying it myself and after about a month an a half it seemed they were gone.
And when I say seemed I mean at that point they were gone.
No one had bites.
I would go into the originally infested room and stay there for a while and would not get bit.
All clear.

Now nearly six months later my family member was sitting in a recliner and suddenly jumped up and checked herself in the mirror and she had maybe 20 bites up and down her left arm.
She found what she assumed to be the only bug biting her and killed it. It looked like a 3rd or 4th stage at most.
Showed me and I doused the chair in alcohol automatically.

I honestly doubt that they were inside the house all this time and did not spread as fast as before.
Within a month they were in every room biting everyone in the house.

But I do also know that much like the initial infection it was because bed bug infested items were brought from outside inside and I'm assuming that's what has happened is a new infestation is starting.

Tldr How likely is it that the bed bugs suddenly reappear after five to six months without new ones being introduced?

for the past couple weeks i've been waking up with one or two new tiny, itchy red spots each day. today i stripped off all my bedding and did a thorough search, finding only this (bobby pin for scale):

full res: http://imgur.com/a/E8wPZ

it doesn't look like a bed bug to me, so could it be a carpet beetle? could it be causing the bite-like reactions on my skin? i have seen one or two carpet beetles in my flat before (at least, that's what i think they were) but never had this kind of reaction until recently. that makes me suspicious that maybe something else (like bed bugs) is causing it. what should i do?

thanks!

So, I have been bitten by bed bugs before and I am EXTREMELY allergic to the bites. I get huge, itchy welts. I moved into a place and it's been about 2 months living here and a couple weeks ago I started noticing bites after waking up from naps or bed in the morning. I have gotten a few single bites here and there on my arms only. They are very small and itch when I find them, then they arent itchy anymore.
Is it possible that i'm not being bitten by bed bugs considering ive reacted so badly to them in the past? I looked everywhere around the mattress and boxspring and didnt find any BB evidence or fecal spots except for ONE DEAD FLAT DRIED OUT BED BUG.
I ordered some DE and i'm going to put it all around my mattress.
Has anybody been bitten by bed bugs on separate occasions and had different reactions?

I found this spot on my comforter.. Also seen what appears to be two blood spots on it as well

I found this under the comforter on the sheet, not sure what it is

Can an expert please ID whether these appear to be fecal spots or just wood spurs. I found them on the underside of one of the wood slates that support my bed. Haven't slept in days. Thanks

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd84/trendseta2/IMG_8906.jpg
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd84/trendseta2/IMG_8907.jpg

I'm a preschool teacher at an elementary school in an impoverished neighborhood where this often have severe problems with love and bedbugs among other things I'm sure. So anytime I see anything that resembles a bite I start to freak. So this last Wednesday I went to work and about halfway through the day noticed that I had a few bumps in my hotline behind my ear on my neck. I went straight to our school nurse to have them looked at and since there were no others and they did not itch at all she said not to worry about it and I went on with me day thinking that it was acne or dry skin related. The next day I had one or two more very small bumps on my neck and two or three on my stomach. I again contributed these to dry skin. Then, between Friday to Saturday I ended up with probably more than 60 bumps all over my back and sides, still none of them itched. I had already been checking my mattress regularly as I know what to look for from past experience working at a hotel and I never found any evidence of BB. After the large amount of bites I pulled apart my room and did end up finding one dead bed bug in a gift bag that I had brought home from the school a month before. Later in my dear I found some eggs that do look like rice bite were much larger than the adult bed bug itself. I immediately called an exterminater who came to the house on Tuesday to look and then treat for bugs. They agree that the dead bug I found is in fact a bed bug and when they took a quick glance at the eggs said they were too bed big related. But, when thwy chexked the mattress they found absolutely NO evidence of bed bugs, eggs, or stains. They even opened up the boxapring and still nothing. They searched the room and house and no other bed bugs were found. They treated the room and parts of the house anyways and will be back in a week to spray again. I don't know what to think as some of the aspects of my case don't really match what I have been reading. With the eggs being so big could they be from another bug? Is there always evidence of the bugs on the mattress especially with me having so many bumps (bites?). Is there a way to know if my bumps are bites from bbs or possibly somethibg else? Any thoughts or knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

Can you use a typical mattress protector on box springs? Or do you have to buy a protector specific to box springs?

We are three months into this and are very cautiously optimistic. No visible signs of BBs, but some mystery bumps on myself and a child are keeping me very cautious. I am seeking advice on a couple of lingering issues.

We have a few large bags of items we bagged before our first treatment. These were things we did not know what to do with. New clothes we for Christmas gifts and were afraid to give people. Some old files we didn't want to throw out. Some books. Some small lamps, clocks, shoes, etc.

My PCO recommended gingerly opening the bags, removing the clothing for washing, and then resealing bags with Nuvan strips for a week or two. I am terrified to remove the clothes. My "clean" area is my laundry room and all our day-to-day clothes are stored in ziplock bags in that room. I can't do it there. I fear there is a hungry BB in that bag just waiting to re-enter our world. Can I put the Nuvan strips in the bags with the clothes and all? Or, would it be less risk to take the bags outside and sort the items out there into clean bags, and then launder the clothes? I am also afraid these bags are too full for effective treatment using the Nuvan strips.

My second question is about my bed. It has been treated and encased. We have not seen a live BB since the end of December (knock on wood). However, I hate having the mattress and boxspring in my room. They were ready to be replaced before this happened, and now I would like to get rid of them entirely. I feel like they are ticking time bombs, even though they were treated and encased. Also, to me they smell of chemicals. My husband thinks it is all in my head. The tricky part is we have a split box spring (two pieces) in a single encasement. I wish we had thought this through more when we were originally encasing. But there is no way to get the box springs out of our room without taking the encasement off. And the mattress is a tight squeeze. I am afraid the encasement will rip as we try to get it down our narrow staircase. Should we just live with these items for two years to ensure everything in that encasement is dead? Is there a "safe" way to get these out of the house? I am tempted to duck tape the entire mattress and box spring in multiple layers before moving them out.

Any advice would be much appreciated. We are not in a rush on the bed, but it is something I spend far too much time worrying about these days.

Thank you.

I really need some help! I after many days of not sleeping sitting up 24/7 researching the internet have determined that we have a small bed bug infestation a huge carpet beetle problem and roaches in the kitchen. We moved into this apartment building July 2016 to save money so we could buy a house.. WE DID NOT HAVE ANY BUGS AT ALL. The first thing I found were bed bugs. So that is why that problem has been kept to a minimum. powders and washed and dried clothes constantly and sprays, trying to get rid of the bed bugs. Then we kept seeing these little white jelly looking tiny larva which I assumed were baby bed bugs. I would go to work and feel like I was being eaten alive inside my cloths all day. Would go to the bathroom constantly checking for bed bugs. I was going crazy. So a week or so ago my boyfriend got very sick and was put in the hospital. I got out of the shower and was getting dressed. When I was pulling up my jeans and felt this terrible pain in 2 spots on my knee. I jerked my pants off and there were two black/brown bugs halfway imbedded in my knee.
When I went to pull them off it was sort of difficult to pull them out of my skin. There was holes in my knee where the bugs had been. I through them in the toilet out of shear terror. Then went over my entire body.
I had to leave to go to the hospital. When I got back late that night, I started going thru the house. The more I did, the more "bites" or "scrapes" or whatever I was having. I again took off clothes and the white jelly like things were burrowing under my skin as well as these grey ones that looked like dust bunnies. They are in all of our clean clothes in the closets in all the dressers. They are everywhere. I then freaked out and went to buy a huge amount of 91% alcohol. I came back and got in the shower and there were hundreds of these white and grey bugs in my skin. I took the alcohol and put in a spray bottle and just started scrubbing head to toe. It seems to have worked. I am so freaked out that I don't even know what to do. I have called a professional exterminator to come tomorrow, but I still have my doubts that they will get rid of them.
Then on top of that, the apartment upstairs opens their door and there was a 100 roaches right there for me to see, We have those too. I am beside myself. I can't sleep, I can't eat. I think I am going crazy trying to keep these things away from me and my kids. I mean I think I slept an entire 10 hours all of last week and when I got on the scale the other day I am down to 85 pounds! I FEEL LIKE I AM DROWNDING. I have never had bugs before and I don't like them. I am obviously not dealing with them very well. The apartment complex will not do anything. We came here to save to buy a house and I have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars trying to fight them. I have even seen bugs in my truck and ca They canr.
Please help me! I can not stand the thought of bugs crawling inside me and now they have started on my 5 year old daughter. I stayed up sitting next to her on the couch while she slept last night so I could try to keep all these things off of her.
Oh and here is the thing. My boyfriend and 11 year old son are not affected by any of this. No bed bug bites, and nothing from the carpet beetles. The beetle bug hairs can be all over there clothes and it doesn't sting them, bite them, or burrow in them.

My main question is how do I keep these burrowing bugs out of me and daughter and the ones that are already in me that won't come out. The strange thing is, they are not bothering my boyfriend or my son. Just us girls! they can have bugs on their clothes and they do not bother them! They attack me constantly. I feel like I am going insane!!!!

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Hello! My first post. Not sure why I'm so joyful, but thank you for having such a detailed website and most professional of experts.

Just discovered this on my comforter and had some skin reactions lately as hopefully someone can let me know what they think. Thank you

We had the 2nd treatment last week and the PCO said he didnt find anymore BBs. The original source of action was in our bedroom and my daughters room. I had the guest room and living room treated, as a precaution as well. No activity so far in the bedrooms but this morning, my husband was on the couch in the living room and was bit on his arm by a small BB. The furniture has been treated, and I have vacuumed the couches several times in the past few weeks and inspected by both me and the PCO for any signs and nothing was found. There is a lot of residual stuff all over the house so again, I am at a loss here.

So this has been a big shock, since we felt the living room was "safe". I called the PCO and he is coming out to check out the couch and see if we will need a 3rd treatment. My questions are 1) is this normal? especially if they werent there in the beginning, 2)Do I throw out the couch? 3)Could they have been there before and we just didnt see them?

I am at work and just reeling at the moment. I just started to feel somewhat comfortable again and now this. Why me!?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

My son is 7 months old and we can not figure out why is is getting rashes so bad. Eczema like rashes. We had BB's last year and treated thoroughly but this year we moved and showed no signs of anything until now. I found one small black dot on our bed that when wet it turned brownish. 2 small red marks on the BB protector and then today I found this black smug on the back of my son's rock and play. Please advise, we have 3 kids and a 3 story home. I'm literally in freak out mode. There was something crawling on my mattress but it was too tiny to tell and almost clear.
How do i add pics?

So I got a spiffy new dryer for Christmas and noticed it came with a dryer rack. The dryer has some cool features like steam and sanitize. Wondering if I could use these to treat some items? We were recently exposed to bed bugs on travel and I treated all our fabrics upon return and bagged our luggage but I have a small bag of things I don't know how to treat like my CPAP machine and leather handbag and shoes.

Anyone tried to do this before? How would I proceed? On what settings and for how long?

Hey there.

So in my laundry basket I found the below skin sheds and a dead bug (I know the dead bug is not a bed bug but the separate skin sheds looks possibly like one. Also a few black marks on the laundry basket, one or 2 on the outside of the mesh.

Then under it and my suitcase, which has not been used in a year and a half I found some black spots.....

Panicking a lot as ive had a few spots/maybe bites lately although most of them pretty small and not a huge amount, also itching, but this could be a skin condition, not sure at the moment. I completely checked my bed and have interceptors on the bottom, although I cannot check actually inside the mattress.

Please help!

Pics below ----

PIctures of Bugs/Sheds/Spots

So I got bit by bed bugs at a guy's house last week. I got out of there, but I'm afraid to go home, thinking there are bed bugs in my car or other belongings.

Here are the most recent bugs/skins I have found on my stuff. I also included a picture of the semi-healed bites I suffered last week.

I don't believe either is a full bed bug, but one might be a nymph. I have looked at all the pictures; it is really hard to distinguish a bed bug nymph from others.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r7j2nrilqoo8tv6/AAAPEYzjbqPfmL4jWax9lYNSa?dl=0

I am pretty sure these are bed bugs but just wanted to check...
I've been getting bit for about 2 weeks on and off. I've had <10 bites and not in clusters.
Would just see one every few days, on my arm.
Looked everywhere on sheets and mattress and box spring but found zero fecal stains and only the 2 dead dried out bugs...
I have been bitten by BB in the past and had a severe allergic reaction to them but this time it would be itchy for a second and then the itch would pass and I never got welts like I did in the past.
Advice?

HI, this is my first post and it was hard to tell which forum this belongs in. Apologies if this is covered already and I didn't find it.

My mother is elderly and lives in government housing. It's a tall tower building; an old hotel with many floors. Her apartment has become so infested with bedbugs that they immediately get on you when you walk in the room. This is after a chemical treatment earlier this week.

Her apartment manager and maintenance are requiring that she salvage everything or be evicted. They claim her two neighbors detected negative on bedbugs when I mentioned concern that solving her problem individually might not be enough to solve the apartment's real problem.

Their maintenance does their own in-house treatments and inspections, and when I asked about a second opinion they don't sound like they'll try it, but she is going to talk with her supervisor. They also aren't equipped to do heat treatments.

What I'm looking for is any company that will help my mother wrap all her belongings because the apartment is (understandably) requiring that everything that comes out of her apartment and through the lobby be wrapped up. Junk haulers and movers I've called won't deal with this. I contacted one regional junk hauler that claimed to specialize in bed bugs, but when they got there they weren't prepared for this. They said if we do a heat treatment one day before AND it kills enough bed bugs that they aren't covered in them AND we pay for them to have better protective suits, that they will do the job. Does anyone know how I would search for a company that will help my mother 1) wrap her items and 2) haul them out? It doesn't have to be the same company but they will definitely need hazard suits.

Thanks

Hi,
A few days ago my wife noticed about 15 red, bite-like marks on her leg and lower back. I have not noticed any marks on my own body. We inspected our mattress and box spring and I found a few shell castings (but no obvious fecal matter). I'm not sure if we have bed bugs, carpet beetles or something else.

Can you help ID these castings from my pics? Thanks!