What do you think of these? Are they worth it? I don't want to get them for "piece of mind" and this whole mess has already cost me more than I can afford. But if they do work I will try them. Maybe on our beds and sofas with legs.

Is this a baby bed bug? Would love any advice or expertise. Thank you!!

http://imgur.com/a/yuFHS

Hi all,

After yet another negative inspection by K9, I felt reassured...only to wake up the next morning with a brand-new bite-looking thing on my upper arm (have been experiencing these in the same spots - upper arm around the edge of my t-shirt sleeve (always sleep in a t-shirt), lower/upper back, occasionally on legs - for months).

We had an infestation that was declared clear around 3 months ago, but I've still been finding these bites ever since, with no sign of bed bugs. Since my cat had scratched tiny holes in my brand-new boxspring cover covering my brand-new boxpring, I decided to remove it and inspect the insides, which the dog handler did not do when he was here. After inspecting pretty thoroughly by flashlight, I found nothing - no bugs, no obvious fecal stains...except for a few tiny dots in a line that appeared after handling and throwing out the cover, on my inner arm, that disappeared within a few hours. Then, when I was putting a new boxspring cover on, I found black dust that kind of crumpled and smeared like this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0aQO69DS2WNYUswc1lrZ2FVNUxELWVxbkpfQlJxRjNQay1v/view?usp=sharing

Pre-smear photo: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0aQO69DS2WNUFFGY3MxWnhESTY4eGNmMG4yeHgzMWVuT0k4/view?usp=sharing

From what I've seen from pics on this forum, this doesn't exactly match up to the conventional description of bed bug poo (either hard dots that flake off, or 'ink' that seeps into a surface) - but because of the bites, I figured I would post them on here. Any thoughts are helpful. Thank you!

Also, regarding my bites, I seem to have had vastly different reactions to bed bug bites over the span of being infested, and in fact didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when I first had an infestation (being prone to acne and it being summer and hot and itchy in general...), making me unsure of when to raise the alarm. Here is a picture of the bite/welt I saw on my arm today - any thoughts here are also very appreciated:

BITE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0aQO69DS2WNcmFxMl9pQjVoMUhiR0Frek1jRERYVVRXNEFz/view?usp=sharing

Hello

I would be extremely grateful for some advice on some shoddy advice we received from a PCO which may have exacerbated our bed bug problem. I will post another question separately about cimetrol but i wondered if you could help with my concerns about some clutter under the bed which was moved before a heat treatment. I hope its the right thing to do to post two separately as they are different issues - but happy to consolidate them if easier!

We had approx 3/4 weeks of bites (6 bites in total) and spotted a bug on our bed. We got a PCO out within a few days to do a heat treatment as i wanted a less toxic option as I have a baby. However, we received some very poor advice from the PCO which may have spread the problem.

We have a bed with drawers underneath and unfortunately have stored a lot of clutter under it as we have a very small flat (never again!!) We had the PCO come round the night before the treatment to suggest how to prepare the flat and he told my husband to move it ALL out and put in the kitchen on the table. It included boxes of papers and knick knacks, not disturbed for months, some paintings wrapped in bubble wrap, fabrics in plastic bags etc. Probably ideal bed bug habitat! Unfortunately my husband did all the prep as i was away and he followed the guy's advice - thinking that the professional told him to do so must be ok! (He hadn't done as much reading on  bed bugs as me so I was horrified when I found out). The guy who did the prep kept saying that the bugs would not live in that stuff so it would be ok to move it. He also told my husband to move lots of other stuff out - hard plastics, books! 

The pco when they arrived the next day to do the treatment - different people than the guy who  I advised on the preparation - then told my husband that all that stuff didn't  have to be moved and doing so could have spread the problem (!) They completed the treatment with heat and cimetrol but didn't tell us where the infestation actually was despite me asking for specifics. We were away during the treatment and the guys have been terrible at following up with us about what actually happened. I am chasing them daily.

Now we have all the clutter/ stuff piled up on our kitchen table and want to know what to do! I would really appreciate advice on the following:

1) if there are bugs in the clutter, will they have died from the treatment? The kitchen floor was sprayed, is it likely they will come out and cross the cimetrol to get us and die? How will we know if there are any in there and whether they are dead? Which leads me on to my next point...

2) should we inspect the clutter and / or bag it up? Or should we leave it where it is? Obviously we don't want to mess with the treatment if it might work. Should be wait for 3 weeks then whilst the cimetrol works? (Is a very small flat and pretty much impossible to live with all that clutter so would rather not!) Or would it be safe to start inspecting the clutter and bagging / binning it, and if so what is the safest way to do this in order to not spread bugs? Will it be easy to find them in amongst such clutter? Should we bag things then inspect the bath or similar? Should we steam items etc - what about papers, or trinkets which can't be washed or steamed. We are trying to minimise costs after this massive expense - I don't have a packtite etc.

3) what is the best thing to do to see if bugs are in the clutter and/or remaining elsewhere after the treatment? Active monitors in the kitchen? Passive  ones? Climb up interceptors and isolate the bed? Or is there no point in active monitors etc as the bugs may have gone into hiding or god forbid gone dormant! What monitoring/trapping should we do to handle the situation best? I heard active monitoring only really works if you are not sleeping in the house?

We have put out yeast traps and homemade interceptors on the bed legs but i have read neither of these are as effective as the bought ones, is this true? 

4) what's the likelihood the bugs have scattered round the house when the clutter was moved and/or when the treatment was happening? Would they likely be still alive - could they have crossed the kitchen floor or walked round non-treated walls (table is touching wall) to reach areas that haven't been sprayed? How do we find out and what should we do?

5) presumably we have grounds to complain given the poor advice we received and the fact the problem could have been exacerbated! What should we ask for? Another heat treatment (could we ask them to heat treat the kitchen?) An extended guarantee past the 3 months, perhaps 6 months? Some money back? Perhaps a sniffer dog or other identification considering they also can't even tell us where the bugs were found!

6) in the meantime, how can we sleep without feeling totally paranoid they are breeding and will get us again!

The PCO is a big name company. I am frustrated with the level of service and wish i went with a smaller bed bug- specific one who would be more expert on dealing with these things, as feel the job has been totally botched.

I should clarify we have not seen a bed bug since the treatment. Maybe good news or maybe just because we've moved them and they have gone into hiding!! 

Thank you so much in advance for any advice or comments.

All the best
BugsLoveMyBlood

I discovered I was infested with bedbugs back in December. Once I had some positive identification, pest control was brought in and my place was sprayed - they said I had a very light infestation. Fast forward about a month later (February), and I discovered a nymph on a kitchen counter (I am in a studio apartment). I got pest control back out and they resprayed the outlets but nothing else. They guy was extremely puzzled about how I could be experiencing problems when I had such a light infestation. Things seemed alright up until this weekend when I woke up with bites (no sightings so far). It has been about a month since I found the nymph in the kitchen and two since the initial spraying.

I have been fighting with my landlord since December to inspect the other apartments but I've have talked to the maintenance guys for the apartment complex, and they say no one else has complained about anything, While I trust them, my apartment also requires tenants to pay for their own pest control, so no one has any incentive to report issues. I also have very little confidence in pest controls abilities, they've, among other things, been trying to convince me I'm harboring bedbugs in my air mattress as well as refusing to inspect the other apartments. This whole thing has me extremely stressed.

What are the odds I have been reinfested from the neighbors versus some late hatching bedbugs?

So a posted over the weekend about how I'm having a bed bug scare after having a confirmed case 4 months ago. Right now I'm just monitoring that situation on my own after having one of the PCO on this site and the PCO who originally treated me tell me what I though was fecal spotting didn't look right. I'm not convinced they're here but I'm not convinced there not...

In the mean time my bedroom has ants!! Just common black ants. They are clearly coming in from my bedroom window. I want to do something abt them like put out Terro or make a boric acid/sugar mix but I'm worried this is going to spread the possible bed bugs?! I'm definitely staying away from the Raid sprays since I know that is a huge bed bug no no but would the traps be ok?

Why are there so many bugs in my room??!!

I found a dead BB in an interceptor on the corner of my bed today. My PCO found a live, but almost dead one, this past Friday in the interceptor in the center of my bed. The one my PCO found had no blood when he squished it, and he said he didn't think it had fed. This one also had a clear abdomen, and I'm waiting for my PCO to pick it up to confirm. My PCO treated our room again on Friday, since he found one.

Before this, we had been clear of signs of BBs for a long time. Found dead ones in mid-late January, and hadn't seen a live one since December 27. No fecal. No shed skins.

So I am thinking this is either a reintroduction, or something escaped one of the bags in my room. In terms of reintroduction, my husband travels for work, and based on where we found the initial harborage, and where he stored his luggage, I'm pretty sure he picked them up on a trip. But he's been pretty cautious since this all started. Not as OCD as I would be, but has improved. In terms of the bags, before our first treatment we had put some things we didn't know how to deal with in large contractor bags in my room, tied them tightly and have ignored them for the past three months. Those bags are now in my garage, with Nuvan strips, and double bagged. PCO thinks this may be where the newly discovered BBs are coming from.

So trying to decide on next course of action. I know people suggest Cimexa, in case they are hiding somewhere in the walls, furniture, etc. I will talk to my PCO about that when he calls back this afternoon. But if they had come from somewhere in my house, wouldn't they have come out sooner? Would we have seen lots of signs in terms of fecal, casings, bugs, etc.? My kids and I have all had some odd bumps. Mine I think are acne. Theirs are a little more odd - both had bumps on their face last week out of nowhere. Before that, they had nothing strange since January. But as I mentioned, we haven't seen any signs in a couple of months, and our last treatment before this recent one was 7 weeks ago. Their rooms have been clear through this entire process, except for one live bug we found in my daughter's bed while the PCO was performing our second treatment, and I really think that was a hitchhiker from my room, as I was rushing to bag up all the bedding. But that is all we found in either of their rooms in the entire 3-1/2 months since this started.

Is it likely the bugs could have escaped the bags? If so, hoping we caught them.

Should I deep clean my room again to be safe? Or just continue living and monitoring as I have been, which is what my PCO suggests. Right now, I inspect bedding and interceptors every day. I wash my bedding once a week, and do an extra round of drying on hot for everything. Our clothes that we use every day are in ziplocks in our basement. We do have clothes in the dresser and closet, but I don't use them. My husband keeps his business suits in our closet and has been using those. I vacuum weekly and throw out the bag as soon as as I am done. I have one vacuum for my room (our old one), and a new one for the rest of the house (we were due for a new vacuum anyway).

We had started cautiously wearing our pajamas out of our room when we got up - mainly to grab clean clothes, start the coffee, etc. I think I should impose the quarantine again.

What else should I be doing? I don't know how worried I should be. One moment I'm despondent, the next I'm almost accepting that this is how life will be now. However, I would really like this all to be over. I felt so close and this latest round is crushing me.

This may be the most bizarre topic title ever, but my questions are for real.

My son lost a tooth, and is expecting the tooth fairy. I'm not so worried about BBs going after the tooth in the ziplock bag under his pillow, but when the fairy leaves her envelope with cash, should I worry about them finding a home there. Perhaps the dollar bill should arrive in a ziplock instead of a paper envelope? I should also add, we have never found any signs of BBs in my son's room. I wish she was a real fairy, because then she could use her powers to get rid of these bastards. Evidently, my powers in BB elimination are limited.

Onto vacation. We had been BB free for 10-12 weeks, and planned a trip to visit my family over Spring Break. Then we found a live (but almost dead) BB on Friday, and I found a dead one yesterday morning. Both in interceptors under my bed. I have read all about the precautions to take to keep from spreading them and will follow those protocols with the precision of a military operation to prevent us from bringing them to my parents. However, my bigger worry is what are those BBs going to do while we are away for nine nights and they don't have my husband and me for meals.

Will they leave our room in search of a meal from our cats? We will have a pet sitter coming in daily to feed the cats and clean their litter boxes. My plan was to keep the bedroom doors closed so the sitter doesn't have to go into the room. We have also been keeping the cats out of our room as we fear they will scratch up the encasements. Thoughts or advice on a plan of action? After cancelling all our Christmas plans and spending that week alone, it is killing me that we might have to cancel this trip. My kids will be crushed. But, I don't want to risk having them disperse to other areas of the house.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hello. Me again. i'm so glad I found this forum, if anything so others won't think I'm crazy about these blood sucking creatures.

To recap- first chemical treatment on Monday 3-13. I haven't found any live adults recently, a few baby ones 2-3 days ago (in celing). I found this guy in the ceiling yesterday. I know it's probably a bed bug but it looks different than the ones I've found. Can someone perhaps ID him for me?

I've never posted pictures before. I'l see if I can now...

http://imgur.com/a/jbV8S
http://imgur.com/a/jbV8S

Hi Everyone,

As many of you will know, we had an outage on 3/8 lasting almost 24 hours. It's not often such a thing happens here and maybe only once before have we been out for as long as this. What happened is there was a technical glitch last night involving our database, and for some reason, it was quite a struggle to get the relevant parties to get us back on track. We should honestly have been back online by Wednesday morning, and I was doing everything I could to get that to happen since I noticed the problem at about 1:30 am Weds.

That said, we're back up now, and things should work for you from here on.

Here's what you need to know:

The site went down sometime between 12 am and 1:30 am Weds. 3/8 EST.
We had to restore a backup from the morning of Tues. 3/7.
The site has been back up and working since about 11:45 pm Weds. 3/8. (You may have seen it reappear just before 10 pm, but you would have noticed something was still wrong with it.)

If you posted to the site between about 9 am EST Tues. 3/7 and the end of that day, when the site went down, or during a brief ten minute period on Weds. 3/8 around 10 pm, when the site was sort of but not fully fixed, your posts were lost.

I apologize for this. In many cases, you may have gotten questions answered and read the answers, which is great. However, if you posted and did not see or get an answer, please post again. It may seem a bit like the film Groundhog Day for a day or two as some bug IDs and questions come back.

If you registered for the site during those times, try logging in. If you use the correct username/password combination and your account is not recognized, it is likely because your account was created after the backup we had to restore. Please register again. (Once you register, if you don't get a password within an hour, please email me and I will reset it for you. I will try to check often for the next few days, so you don't have to wait too long.)

I truly apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. However, if you haven't been with us that long, I hope you will understand this is a very unusual occurrence. In the 10+ years the site has been running, this sort of thing has happened only a couple of times.

Obviously, if you notice anything "weird" or anything seems wrong, please respond below and let me know, or send an email.

Thanks to all who use the site and contribute to it, and for your patience during this hiccup. Welcome back and thanks for coming back!

I'll make this a Green Sticky in a day or so, but people are more likely to see it if it's in the main discussions list. Feel free to respond below so it stays "current".

nobugs

I'm glad to find this forum, so thank you.

Found bug on Monday, there's were other clues (earlier) that I didn't realize. In a matter of a few minutes my entire world is upside down. Today at work I had a thought...I have to go home later 😥
It's hard to be present, I've turned into an evil mother to my 15 year old. 1st chemical treatment tomorrow. I live in apt. Everything happens for a reason I guess. It's hard not to wonder what I did wrong to deserve this. This is no less than traumatizing. Good luck to everyone here beat this fucking nightmare. You're all in my thought and prayers. Trying desperately to be positive.

Hi all,

I just moved into a new apartment with my roommate three days ago. We both purchased new mattresses and bed frames, and she is using bedding she had at her old apartment without any problems, while I purchased new sheets and blankets. Last night, my roommate found this bug on her wall: http://tinypic.com/r/1zftso5/9

We're pretty positive it looks like a bedbug. The apartment was totally empty for at least two weeks before we moved in, and we've both inspected our bedding and mattresses and found no other signs. Neither of us have any bites. Unfortunately, my roommate killed and flushed the bug before we could put it next to a coin for size, but she said it was "pretty small." Is it possible for us to have a bed bug problem already? Are there any steps we should take this early on?

Hi all,

I've learned a lot from the resources here! I have darkish flecks across some new-ish bedding. I don't think it's bedbugs as the flecks can be moved and they don't smear with water. I'm not sure it's feces at all. But I'd appreciate a quick look from someone in the know (potential fleas?)

imgur link

Hi Everyone,

I have had bed bugs for about a month and a half. PCO will be here next Wednesday for heat treatment. Unfortunately things aren't simple.

I live in a one bedroom with my fiancee and he isn't reacting to bites. Because of this, he doesn't appear to be taking this seriously. We were preparing to move so 97% of our things are in plastic tubs in the living room. We now must unpack and wash every cloth item per preparation guidelines and we don't have a washer/dryer in our complex. We both work 12 hours a day with little opportunity to take a day off. This is making things difficult.

My family won't come help and I don't blame them. I'm trying to do what I can when I get home but I'm overwhelmed. I get bitten every time and as a person who was already dealing with a heavy depression/anxiety combo, this is getting to a crippling point. "Suck it up and get over it" says my dad. It's not that easy for me.

I'm starting to feel pretty pathetic. I attempted to throw out some clothes and one bit me in the neck. Now, here I am, a 27 year old adult woman bawling on her balcony about some tiny bugs. I feel defeated. I know what needs to be done. I just need help and maybe some kind words to keep me going. I'm sorry this introduction isn't my best work but I hope I can continue to post on this forum about my journey.

It is a long period of time so try to keep this as succinct and factual as possible…...

•2.5 (09/2015) years ago exposed to Bed Bugs at partners (marks appearing the following day) - Laptop and luggage was exposed to infested room, transferred back into (for one evening) Parents property unaware of the problem, via my car.

•Resolved with local professional on identification few days later (3 treatments including luggage and partners car)

•Following day removed all items thoroughly inspected/heat treatment on clothes, threw away bags etc (which has continued since)

•Skin continued to fell very itchy and unknown marks were appearing, irrelevant of where I stayed (travel a lot with work)

•Had my car sprayed with insecticide (with no signs)

•Moved house - Majority of furniture and belongings have been in storage for 8 months due to house renovation

•Lived in temporary accommodation whilst building work being completed - minimal belongings - Still finding marks

•Lived in house post building work but prior to completion - open floorboards - Still finding marks

•Covered everywhere with diatomaceous earth (Have used for a while)

•Completion of house renovation moved items back in - Threw anything away though may have been suspect, and what did come in has been inspected thoroughly

•In new home - Still having random marks appear (mainly face - pillow line and hands), skin is not as itchy as it once was

•Still no evidence of blood spots on bedding/furniture etc (all white) Full inspections regularly made and every fleck is inspected.

•There are significant loose bits found on bed sheets.

•Have multiple traps in rooms upstairs

•Taped bottoms of beds - Very sticky double sided - Nothing Found

•Tried numerous home made traps - Nothing ever found

•Purchased microscope to inspect findings - Variable results, untrained eye, look like debris. Sent numerous samples off to entomologists including a dead bug of some sort, to which response was, “there were no bugs there” (Ultimately have lost faith here)

•Traps have picking up small beetles which look as though they are either grain (sawtooth)/wood beetle (Small Red) I can cope with these, small red woodlouse spider (The house is 120 years old and previous owners did not care of damp, since rectified etc)

•Last night 2.5 years on and only just about still sane, I have found a cast skin - size of pin-head or smaller and unable to identify it is a bug with the naked eye, however under the microscope is a shape of bed bug, clearly see long hairs(Bottom end)/horizontal lines, legs are wide at the top, head has become separated, unable to see hair length on head to distinguish difference between bat bug.

•The trap it was found in, is placed by the brick vent to chimney breast - Found in spare room where no one has slept for 3 months. Sticky traps have been in situ since December, but checked on a regular basis, this evidence is a new addition.

•Want to know are bat bugs or swift bugs common in the UK? Could these be a possibility? Or am just looking for something else and in denial, given everything else is not adding up? Hoping my worst fears are wrong.

Most people reading this may think that I am crazy and I have had many conversations/visits with many PCO’s and the same outcome is……. you would know if you had bedbugs! However from reading on here, people living the nightmare this is not always the case and have read numerous stories of people finding positive outcomes after 12 months. (We are just coming up to 9 months in the house)

I have been and seen a dermatologist who told me I had urticaria, however not really having any symptoms like this anymore - That may have been stress related at the time, when I was not coping with the situation as well as I am now. However dealing with this over this time is taking its toll and I really would welcome some advice.

Have also monitored sign reaction for potential allergies to food/alcohol/environment - Waiting for skin prick tests, but no common factors here to note.

Personally I want to heat treat the entire house, but keep being put off this method by people. This I feel is the only way I will end the saga.

Please can anyone offer me some advice on where to turn as I feel as though I am going round in circles and my goodness is it dragging me down, really not sure how much longer can continue like this.

Thank you for taking time!

P.s.
My marks are small red pin pricks and swell slightly, then disappear 12 -48 hours, varies from single to multiple. Initial bites were welts (This is the only time I experienced the severe reaction, possibly due to size of infestation)
Have also noted carpet beetles in past and know my skin flairs to these, however not applicable in this property....all brand new carpets, no evidence.
Brand new bedroom furniture and mattresses
Feather pillows and duvet
Spare room wooden frame, but not from infected property and every inch has been inspected with torch and magnifying glass - Other furniture covered in DE in every inch

I first came here in Jan/Feb 2014 looking for information and support after finding a bed bug in my home but never bothered to post our success story as, by the time I believed us to be clear, I thought it would be too late. After coming back due to a scare, I was reminded that I never posted one. So I'll do it now.

Just a warning. I can be long-winded. 😺

During the week leading up to MLK Jr Day 2014, I woke up on two separate occasions with patches of swollen, intensely itchy red welts on my arms and legs. I didn't think anything of them, so when my husband asked about them I said they're probably spider bites. He accepted this explanation as we lived in century-old house and had seen several spiders of varying size hanging around our home, so we went on with our days. On MLK Jr Day, I was enjoying the day off by spending a little extra time in bed in the morning. At around 10am, as I started to get up, I saw a bug make it's way out from under my pillow. I caught it in a tissue and called for my husband to check it out. When he saw it, he didn't think it was a bed bug. He was working for our local children's services department at the time so he was very familiar with them. His parents had also been dealing with them for some time before this discovery which is likely where they came from, but we'll never know for sure. We took it to a PCO to have it identified and were told that it was a baby roach. We were relieved (it's insane what a person would rather deal than bed bugs!) but we weren't entirely satisfied, so we took it to another PCO who identified it as a bed bug. Still not satisfied, my husband took it to work and had it sent off to the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University. We heard back within a week that it was 100%-without-a-doubt a bed bug. We couldn't be in denial anymore.

After having the bug inarguably identified as a bed bug, we sought help. We called in two separate PCOs to inspect our home. Neither of them found anything concrete. The first thought he may have found a nymph on our 6-year-old daughter's box spring but he wasn't positive. Both PCOs said they personally wouldn't treat based on the fact that they couldn't find anything, but we decided to go ahead for "peace of mind." We found a small company who would chemically treat our 1,000 square foot house 3 or 4 times for a very reasonable price, set up a date, and began to prep.

The prepping was one of the worst parts. It's ridiculous how much stuff one person can amass, let alone two adults and a child. It took us several days of nonstop work to clear out all of our clutter and get everything into bags and bins. While prepping, we encountered no bugs or trace of bugs whatsoever. We were beginning to think that we were treating for no reason.

The day of our first treatment, the PCO remarked on how well we had prepped and felt very confident that he could eradicate any infestation that we had. I'd like to stress how extremely important it is to prep well for any type of treatment. My in-laws didn't prep well before their treatments and as a result their experience was prolonged by a significant amount of time.

It was rough living out of bags, and going to the laundromat almost daily was exhausting, but the paranoia and anxiety was the worst part of the entire ordeal. While prepping I was able to keep my mind engaged in an activity for hours at a time, but during the 3 weeks our home was being treated there wasn't much I could do. When I was at home I just sat around imagining bugs in everything. I was so sure we'd have them forever. I was an emotional wreck and I even contemplated taking my life. Thankfully I didn't.

After returning home after each treatment my husband and I would review the receipt slip left by our PCO and were reassured to find "No BB activity found." We were thinking that maybe the one bug we had found was the only one we had. However, the evening after our final treatment, my husband and I were about to set up our daughter's bed when we noticed some bugs in her box spring. 🙀Thankfully one of the first things we did after discovering our bed bug was to put encasements on our mattresses and box springs. I fully believe that this particular box spring was the primary harborage spot for our infestation and we trapped the majority of them shortly after discovering our problem. Needless to say, that box spring went out immediately. The only other bug we found was a young one. It was under my husband's pillow the next morning. It was dead. That was the end of it.

I was paranoid for a while after, and was waiting for them to reemerge, but they never did. After a while that paranoia faded and life resumed as normal.

It would be nice to say that I don't worry about them anymore, but I still freak out a little bit whenever I find a spot on our sheets or a patch of irritation appears on my skin. This is going to be my normal, though, I think. Which is alright with me as it will help us quickly detect any future infestations that we may endure.

I'm very grateful for this community as the support and information it provides is absolutely invaluable; so thank you to everyone who has contributed to it, especially nobugs and all the professionals who devote their time to helping us all.

----

Tl;dr: we were cleared after three chemical treatments and much stress and paranoia. Prep well and, for the love of all that is good, buy mattress encasements.

----

If anyone is in the Dayton, OH area and would like to know which PCO we used, feel free to PM me.

Is this a tiny bed bug or a beetle of some kind. I'm at a hotel in Jacksonville FL for a business trip. Two weeks ago at another hotel in Jacksonville I was bit 20+ times by bed bugs. Only stayed there 2 nights. After discovering bites, my firm moved me to another hotel and then sent me home. I've since washed and dried all my clothes twice before getting home and got a new suitcase. Even then, kept everything I brought back in spare bathroom shower and washed everything again. I was at home for a week with no new bites. Now I'm back in Jacksonville and 2 nights later i see this. Staff moved me to another room. It's very nice and expensive hotel and they took it very seriously according to internet reviews they had a number of cases of bedbugs in 2015). But it was at midnight so no one on call could tell if it was a bedbug. It was very small. I caught it in a plastic bottle and gave to the staff.

Hello,

I started getting bitten on 12/26, and got about one bite every week for a few weeks. One day I got six bites and had a PCO inspect my place and they found nothing. A week later they came back to reinspect and found a bed bug, so they began treatment the following week (2/22) and did two successive treatments each of the following two weeks. They used different combinations of pesticides each week, including temprid, phantom and d forse. Between 2/15 and 3/7 I did not get any bites, but on 3/7, 3/14 and 3/21 I got one bite each day. I called the PCO (California American) after I got bitten on 3/14 to ask what they thought I should do. Unfortunately they would not allow me to speak with an actual PC person, and they were only admin people. They said I had either opened an infested bag (I hadn't opened any bags), got it from a neighbor or brought in new bugs somehow, and they were unable to give me any advice about how I should handle it-- they just said it was up to my apartment buildings property management, who tells me it's up to me. Is it possible at this point (two weeks after the last treatment) for the pesticides to still have a residual effect on this defiant bed bug, or do I need to order more treatments? If the latter, do I need to order three more? I will actually be out of town for three weeks from 3/29-4/21, and they wouldn't be able to start the treatments until after I leave. Is that not a good idea, since no one will be home to attract the bed bugs (maybe they will just hide in the walls the whole time to avoid the spray since there is no bait for them to come out)?

Thank you so much for your help.

My fiance and I started noticing bites on or around March 9th. He originally thought they were flea bites from our cat. I inspected and only found one lone flea (no more since). The bites are leaving welts on our arms mainly and shoulders (much larger than flea bites). Each person has only had about 5 bites total on each person. I started to assume bed bugs, and flipped the mattress up and down and bought a new comforter and sheet set. On March 21st I found what I believe to be a recently fed nymph (very tiny, very first stage) on the mattress upon one of my thorough investigations. No blood stains, no fecal stains on the mattress anywhere. I treated the mattress and surrounding areas with vacuum, DE, steam, Hot Shot bed bug spray, and placed traps. It's been 2 days, and my fiance has no new bites and I have one bite on my knee (first time they've ever been on any of our legs). Am I doing the right thing? What more can I do? It's causing major anxiety because I've yet to see an adult and have only found the one nymph with no other signs besides bites.

Also, put the nymph in a zip lock bag and it changed colors from bright red to brown. And then squashed it yesterday, and lots of blood came out.

After some bites, got paranoid. Tore apart room, found nothing. Couple more bites, do an even more thorough search and found a carpet beetle crawling on bed this time and 5 carpet beetle larvae sheds inside old dresser on inside frame. deep cleaned room, found zero evidence, placed box springs in encasements, taped up all screw holes on bed frame and placed a passive monitor on my side of box springs. A week or so goes by another mysterious bite found yesterday morning on my forearm. Tear apart the bed again, find nothing, passive monitor clean.Dry all bedding in dryer and return it to bed same day. Looking at my pillow really closely this morning I found this dot. It's so small but could it be a fecal stain? Just trying to get to the bottom of what is biting me.

Also FYI, my indoor cat got out somehow and when he returned I flea combed him and did find a flea. So last nite I set up a flea trap that was empty this morning and have since have flea combed the bastard several times finding nothing...

Thanks for any input!