Background: spent two nights in a hotel on Tuesday/Wednesday while my condo building was being fumigated for termites. Noticed an itchy spot on my leg beginning Thursday, but didn't think much of it. Just found this dead insect on the floor near my laundry basket. Seems to be about the size of a bed bug, but not sure. Worried I brought them back from the hotel. Please help.

http://imgur.com/xBTvN3I

http://i.imgur.com/wzuBRfb.jpg

So I’m wanting to know if there’s anyone out there that’s been successful eliminating Carpet Beetles?

I got Carpet Beetles in my apartment in Brooklyn, but I didn’t think it was a big deal, and did not research, and when I moved out, washed and dried all of my clothes thinking this was sufficient. Wrong. The CB followed me to my parents house (which is 3000 square feet) when I stayed there for a few months, and started invading their house. Then, the CB followed me to my husband’s apartment, where they’ve probably slowly infected our neighbors. Both my parent’s house and our apartment we got sprayed by exterminators, lived with all of our clothes in gigantic ziplock bags, but somehow, I still found holes in our t-shirts near the belly button (sign that they’re alive and well). When we moved last summer, I went to extreme measures, and bought the ZappBug Room, and heated everything we owned for 8 hours in the oven before moving into our new apartment. I also dusted Diatomaceous Earth underneath all the baseboards in our rooms and also in our electrical outlets. Then, for safety measure, I proceeded to bake everything inside my parents 3000 square foot house and almost created an electrical fire. For a good year, nothing, no sign of activity, and I felt good. But now, we’re getting holes back in our t-shirts, and I’m going crazy trying to figure out how to get rid of them.

Is there anyone reading this that has gotten rid of the Carpet Beetle from their house and wish to share their experience? I’ve looked online for hours, and they say the same thing: vacuum, use diatomaceous earth, use pesticides, use heat at 120 F for over 20 minutes. I’ve done all that and yet they keep following me around. I need someone that’s actually succeeded in eliminating their house from Carpet Beetles. Any success stories greatly appreciated, thanks.

Where to start? A couple of weeks ago 3/2-I woke up and got ready for work, when I got to work I noticed 3 bite like marks on my neck and 2 on my stomach. They were red and itchy, the more I scratched, the more they looked like a mosquito bite. Here are the pics for those~~

On 3/4 I noticed 2 mosquito looking bites on my forearm- these seemed to swell and itch intensely throughout the day. Pics-

Somewhere in between then and now, I woke up one night itching and noticed 2 welts on my other arm but higher up. Don't have a pic of those but they looked like mosquito bites also.

Then Monday, while driving home from work, I had a tight fitted long sleeve shirt on and all of a sudden felt an immense itchiness coming from inside my shirt. It continued to itch the whole way home. When I got home I had 6-7 bites. While they looked like bites, it almost looked like a rash type thing also.

This is when I went crazy and inspected everything. No sign of bed bugs whatsoever, but I did find 2 carpet beetles crawling on mattress, along with several carpet beetle casings/shells on mattress and box spring.

I haven't slept in my bed since Monday night and haven't gotten bitten since then and have thoroughly cleaned and sprayed alcohol/DE mix everywhere.

I have read about people reacting to carpet beetle hair in the same way they would to bed bugs. Considering I found no blood, fecal matter, shells, or live bugs and just carpet beetles do you think that could be what this is??

Also, I was sleeping in pants and long sleeve shirts every night when I would have bites on me.
My daughter is also in the bed, she has no bites. I do live in the South, and killed a giant mosquito last night that I saw land on me. However, I was under the impression they bit once and were finished.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carpet beetle or by casing/skin also found a bug in the orange container pretty sure it's a carpet beetle but still cautious before freaking out follow link. http://www.slickpic.com/share/MUzMT3zOMTjYgN/albums/BbOrCarpetBeetleCasing?preview

Just wondering as a preventative measure, I've read that it's good to have climb ups on all beds as well as encasements. I can see how that eould help detect bedbugs early on and not infest the beds ( which is important) but in the end, wouldn't the entire house need to be treated anyway?
After all if you find bedbugs, there going to be somewhere and you still have to treat, right?

Also, wouldn't the bb s find other spots like the couch or a desk, ect?
There's still going to be in the house.

Thanks. Been thinking about this.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135406602@N08/20944355154/in/set-72157658871252995/

Was searching my mattress and came across this on the seams. Does it look like fecal mattress? It isn't fluff as it doesn't brush away. Would love some insight

The carts loaded with high end electronics, drawers, nooks, crannies live about 10 yards from ground zero bed.

30 or so cases with varying degrees from none to airtight seals live 15 or more yards from ground zero harbor.

I have not opened, touched, gone near any of the gear or cases except to pass by walking for weeks before the BB's were identified 3 days ago.

PCO and I have not yet settled on a protocol (heat/chemical or chemical alone) or schedule tho I have his protocol-specfic prep sheets that do not specifically deal with my particular electronics situation.

Simple answer is I will have to wait to confer with PCO, owner of the building and know how we will proceed before knowing what to do with this stuff.

Seems prudent to do due diligence tho.

I don't know when this problem began, though I've had itchy bumps since at least July. But never a lot, thought they were mosquito bites. Then I got four of them in a row on the back of my shoulder a couple of weeks ago, did a Google image search of bed bug bites and felt sick when I realized they matched what I saw in the mirror.

I live alone in a small single family house, have to watch my dollars and cents closely. I quickly became very concerned as I read how hard/how expensive getting rid of them can be.

I called a local dog sniffing PCO who came out and ran through my entire house with two dogs, one at a time. Both dogs signaled bed bug hits in one room only, the back corner of my bedroom. He took a close look at the bed, mattress, etc., said he saw nothing and figured I'd caught it early. He strongly recommended getting mattress/box spring encasements. He also does vacuuming, steaming (no chemicals) and a couple of days later, treated the bed, mattress and the area of the room the dogs had identified. This was before I had the encasements. Anyway, that night, more bites. He's coming back this week when I have them and we're going to try and hit their locations again and encase the mattress/box springs. He said he didn't think I had many bed bugs. I don't know how many it takes to put 4-6 new bites on my legs, back nightly.

Reading all these accounts on here, I'm really worried this is going to turn into a long, expensive nightmare. I have never dealt with this before, but can now completely sympathize with anyone with a BB problem.

I couldn't find any black marks as people have mentioned looking for, but found several yellow dots on my sheet. Are these evidence of bed bugs, or something else?

They could have been there before, I'm not sure.

http://imgur.com/CpLbgkW

http://imgur.com/wxDrHUa

Apologies for the bad quality. They're like an off-yellow color.

Hi guys. I am new on here and will tell my story. About a month ago now, I discovered I had bed bugs. I found 6 of them total (all adults) and was sprayed shortly after (with Dragnet by pest control). I was told I had a really small infestation. They didn't see any bugs or eggs during inspection, but they sprayed everywhere in both bedroom and livingroom as well (and of course seen the black stain evidence on several spots throughout my mattress). They were supposed to come 2 weeks later for an automatic second spray but there was only one day that worked for them and because I had too much going on and had no place at all to put my cat while they sprayed on that day, they didn't come. So they came 3 weeks later since none of the other days they were available. 4 days before the second spray, I seen the first bed bug (adult) in over a couple weeks. I thought they were gone as I checked multiple times a day and didn't see a thing. Not only did I find a bed bug, but also two eggs with it. I was really surprised and upset, as I thought they were gone. But I figured, they were spraying again soon, so hopefully all will be well. I didn't see anything at all after that, they sprayed, and I hadn't seen anything since (I still check multiple times a day) until lastnite, 3 days after the second spray. I found TWO baby bed bugs! They were very tiny and I had checked 3 times already that day and then checked in the early evening for the 4th time and they were both alive and moving just fine, and they were super tiny, definitely babies just past the nymph stage barely. Is this to be expected? I have read on here that it can be common to see more bed bug activity after a spraying, but... I am scared. The fact that they are so young scares me. I am afraid there are many more and what if they don't crawl over the areas that were sprayed? I hadn't seen anything for a week and then bam, my first time seeing babies and two of them. Problem is, pest control only does the two sprays and then my super (I live in an apt building) relies on me to let them know if I still see them, and then they would come back. I was told I could put my things back in 7 days following the spray (I have been living out of bags the last month). I don't know if I should report to my super that I seen the two baby bed bugs, as maybe this is normal and they just didn't die yet? Maybe it is too soon and should only report if I see them after a week? I don't know, but I plan to call Pest Control tomorrow. I am just wondering if it could be typical to see bugs still after the second spray and if it's likely that they WILL die, but it just hasn't happened quite yet. I definitely am afraid to put my things back in a few days after just seeing two lastnite. I have physical problems and there is no way I can go thru all the work again of washing and drying every single thing in my home. Please let me know your thoughts... thank you.

We did 2 treatments in July - the second during the third week in July - then our household items were in storage until the day before yesterday. This bed bug nymph was found yesterday:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2574859/IMG_5473.jpg

I'm wondering whether you can tell from this photo how old it was/how many stages it had gone through, and whether it had eaten recently. I have read online explanations of the different nymph stages but I'm still confused!

I do understand that adults could have survived the second treatment in July and lived in storage until now. Do they lay as many eggs when they aren't feeding as when they are?

Hi!

I'm finding the odd lifeless thing every few days and I think they're dead ones, but am worried they might be cast skins? Is it easy to tell? The one I found yesterday had legs so assuming it was a dead bug, but just now found one that had no legs - though it had possibly come through the washing machine and got killed?

I am trying to work out how to post a pic but finding it more difficult than I thought ...

And should there generally be a fecal stain for one (or maybe one out of every three) bites?

Saw this in a fairly new interceptor on the chair I spend most time in when not sleeping. The color is what concerns me.

The pictures are pretty terrible and you can probably tell there is way too much talc in the interceptor. I lost it when trying to get it out of all that talc to try to get a better photo. One of the photos is from another spot in the trap that looked much rounder to the naked eye.

I'm hoping just by color or shape bed bug can be ruled out.

http://imgur.com/a/Znejh

Hey guys,

so my friend came over to my house the other day, and she sat on my bed for about 3-4 minutes and then on my couch for maybe 5 minutes, before i saw a bunch of scabs on her leg. I asked her what they were and she told me she had BED BUGS at her place. She told me that they were old and that she isn't getting bitten anymore but who knows, and I believe the bites were old because they looked like scabs now. She told me she had her place treated and got a new mattress but from what it sounded like, she threw all her stuff in her car while her place was getting treated, and if I read correctly, bed bugs can travel on clothes and other stuff. What are the chances that the bed bugs could still be active and be transferred from her car or her place to my bed in that short time frame? Thanks again guys!

I'm not sure if anyone would know the answer to this question. If you've ever had ants invade your kitchen, you might know that ants leave a pheromone trail for other ants to follow to the food source. That's why you tend to always see ants crawling along the exact same trail that you've previously seen an ant (for example, up the wall right next to the dishwasher or whatever), and unless you wash the trail away with a household cleaner, the ants will keep marching along that same trail (as in the song).

What I'm wondering is, do bed bugs do the same thing? Without going into my whole story, suffice to say that our bed bugs were confined to one room, we had heat treatment, multiple sprays, and a few must have survived because a couple of weeks ago we discovered an adult female crawling up the door frame of an room near the originally infested room. We have subsequently had another thorough spray down of all bedrooms.

My question is, in the event that there are still a few surviving stragglers in the original room after this latest spray, could they (would they) be inclined to follow a pheromone trail left by that adult female, out of that room and up the door frame, like an ant might? In other words, should I clean the hell out of the floor and doorframe or what? Or might the pheromone trail be neutralized/nullified by the most recent spray, which was done all around the perimeters of all bedrooms?

I have a few pictures of a small skin of something, it's not really like any bb i've ever seen and i haven't found any other signs other than what I took to be bites ( it's possibly from carpet beetle larvae though)

and what i thought might be a bite, i had two or three other spots around my elbow

It might be worth mentioning that this was from a few days ago and all that's left is what looks like a few tiny hives.

Greetings to all!

I'm American and I moved to Cairo with my husband and now 7 year old son, almost two years ago.
We also now have 4 cats and a smallish dog.

About a year ago I started to realize we had bed bugs.

Living here, I can't get all the great bed bug fighting things that are available in the US. Mattress encasements, climb-up receptors, packtites, and everything else.
I can't have it shipped here either: regular mail barely exists, and involves bribing mailmen, which I've never even seen (though they do apparently exist). Then there's Fedex, etc. Unholy expensive. A 40$USD mattress encasement would probably cost $100 to Fedex. And my husband isn't earning USD. He's making local EGP. Which is 8 EGP to 1 USD.

So anyway! Bedbugs! Our antique rococo bed frame is... ornate. If you could fit a few more whorls and swirls on this fucker, I'd be amazed.

If a scientist set out to create the perfect bed bug habitat, he couldn't possibly do better than this monstrosity. The glorious velvet upholstered section is fastened with hundreds of upholstery tacks. My little bed bug friends could not hope for a finer home and breeding ground than those lovely tacks.

The bed bugs loooove me! Little itchy bumps that disappear after half an hour. I know it could be far worse. They bother my son even less. My husband claimed they didn't like him at all until he woke and found five fat adult bed bugs on his pillow case. (Ha!!)

Yesterday, after weeks (months?) of researching bed bugs I woke with itchy hands (as usual), and looked at the red velvet on the headboard (it was 11am) and watched pinhead sized baby bed bugs prancing around on the red velvet. They were easy to smush. Then I used the "flashlight" on my iPhone to inspect the head board to find many happy adult bed bugs snuggled in, around and under the upholstery tacks. I stabbed them with a pin and dropped them in a cup of water. The smell!! So much like that of stink bugs! Then I noticed the white oblong dots. Hundreds upon hundreds of eggs!!

My husband pulled the bed frame out onto our huge balcony and sprayed it with many liters of pesticides that are certainly not legal in any civilized country (that being one bonus of living in a third world country).

Later I went to wipe the pesticide puddles under the headboard on the balcony tiles (I didn't want any of our pets to stupidly walk through them). It was dark by then and one careful wipe with a lot of paper towels brought up 40-50 dead adult bed bugs. Those were the ones I didn't see and stab with a pin earlier.

How have I slept at night all these months? Knowing that they were there (ok, I didn't know it was THAT many, but still).
I've always been a night owl and insomniac anyway. So I either drink a lot of wine and don't care, or I take a lot of sleeping pills and care slightly less. Wine works better.
No, bed bugs haven't made me an alcoholic, I'd be drinking wine anyway.

Where am I going with this? I don't know. I'm just complaining while telling the story, and being jealous that everyone in the US can have DE, climb ups, etc Amazon shipped to them in 2 days.

Woe is me, itch itch, as I flashlight the couch I'm lounging on. I know they're here too, but they're near impossible to spot, because it's nowhere near as bad as that headboard was.

*****Would like to add photos, but haven't figured that out yet. This head board needs to be viewed!!

My daughter spent the weekend with a friend and Monday she had six bite marks on her arm and six on her back, one on her leg. After studying the bites on the Internet I came to the conclusion this might be bed bug bites. My daughter said that she had asked her friend why they weren't sleeping on the couch (as they had done in the past) the girl replied "if you sit to long on there you get little red marks!!!!" Thats when I panicked! And shame on that mother for letting another child spend not one night but two nights at her home. How do you not know you have them if you getting bit! Anyway I started checking our couch, beds, etc. found nothing. Then my OTHER daughter woke up 3 days later with bites I started looking deeper. Flipped the couch and found a cluster of skeletons in a seam underneath (2 spots). I checked the beds and no clusters, maybe a single skeleton or two but can't be sure. I have still not found any live bugs.
And why with two different cutters of skeletons are they just getting bit now? I would think we might of had them for a while, but only have bit marks after coming from the friends house?
So confused!!

Hello all. I am new to posting but not to bedbugs. :(

I just recently moved from a house that had confirmed bedbugs. They were in the bed I slept in. We had a PCO come out and do a chemical treatment, while I took everything that could be put into the dryer to the laundromat on high heat for 60 minutes. I sealed up my books and put them into airtight containers.

I have since moved and took nothing but my clothes and items sealed in bags and items that were washed thoroughly. I have been living in my new apartment for 2 months and am freaking out that I am finding eggs and casings. I've had no bites (I react badly) and no marks on the sheets. Just hard white dots and black dots that are hard too.

I am not 100% sure, but freaked out enough to have a PCO come out and inspect. I did everything I was supposed to do. Does this nightmare ever end?