Hello - new to this as a personal experience but have witnessed infestations of every level. My husband and I have worked in hotels for over 20 years. He is Maintenance Supervisor and I am an office manager. We KNOW what they look like and what signs to look for, so please don't ask if we're sure it was a bed bug. We are sure.
This all started a week ago.My husband pulled back the comforter and there was an adult bed bug. We tore everything apart and found no trace evidence but did find what we thought looked like a smashed nymph on the side of the mattress - so we are counting it as two bed bugs found. Did the usual, stripped the bed, washed the linens, doused the metal bed frame with alcohol. Next day we called the exterminator who treats our hotel. He inspected the house, beds, furniture and also found nothing but we proceeded with a whole house treatment as well as both of our cars - spraying, dusting, some type of aerosol. Because he is also a childhood friend - he gave us an extremely discounted rate and said he was using the most lethal stuff they have.We had to close up the whole house as well as every room and evacuate the house for 5 hours Prior to finding the bedbugs, we experienced no bites that we could tell. This would be unusual for me as I'm allergic to EVERYTHING but I accept it's not impossible to have no reaction to the bites.
So I'm a week out, furiously cleaning out everything - both to look for evidence and to eliminate hiding places to avoid further infestation. We have seen no bed bugs - dead or alive - anywhere. Today I'm looking into light switches, baseboard heaters, under drawers, behind baseboards - with no luck...or luck, depending on how you look at it.
We have concluded that I brought them home some time in mid October. I had changed some bedding for handicapped people one night at work - holding the bedding against my clothes. Those people complained of bites when they checked out , and upon inspection bed bugs were in the mattresses, carpet and head boards. My husband was also in the room during the inspection so that's a possibility but still the same time frame as my exposure Obviously I can't be completely sure if it's from this room, but it seems like a mighty big coincidence if not. The exterminator is very thorough and we always seem to get good results at the hotel - we get infestations every few months in different areas of the hotel, but we always see dead ones after the treatment.
The upside to all of this is that I have an excellent excuse to throw out clutter around the house ( I'm a little OCD about clutter and dust mites - terribly allergic to dust mites) as well as finish removing the rest of the carpet in the house that some fool used to cover the gorgeous hardwood floors underneath.
Obviously no one likes bugs but I'm more worried about spreading them than I am about actually having them.
Exterminator said to wait 30 days before vacuuming - this is hard when you have dust mite phobias ( yes, worse than bed bugs for me).
Does anyone have any idea why we aren't seeing any bugs - dead or alive? No traces or signs of activity? At the hotel, we find dead ones within days after treatment - just feeling a bit confused as every other infestation I've ever seen - big or small - you can find *something* , some trace, trail, markings... particularly when you are actively looking for it several times a day. Any advice or opinion is greatly appreciated - been lurking here for days!