Hello everyone,
I apologize for this long story but this has been bottled for a while as I have not told many people of my bedbug woes for obvious reasons. I also apologize if my questions (at the end of the story) are too 'psychological' despite this being a treatment thread.
My story with bed bugs begins about a month and a half ago. I moved into an apartment overtop of a storefront in an older building with my girlfriend and dog a while ago. A few months later, I noticed a bite or two. I thought it was a bit out of season for mosquitos but I just shrugged it off. My girlfriend then had a bite and I started to research. I looked under my bed frame and found a few ugly (but not full adult) creepers hiding there. I immediately encased our mattress and box spring and spread some DE.
My landlord was concerned and sympathetic (his office is in the apartment next to us so I'm sure that had something to do with it). He offered to pay for heat treatment (after i convinced him it was the way to go) but wanted me to do some investigative work. I investigated further and into the next unit over (with a different landlord) and all the units in the building. All claimed to be bedbug free but my direct neighbour, who seemed to somewhat acknowledge a mild problem. Sensing his hesitation to talk, I told him that landlords needed to pay for treatment and he opened up a little more. He had a problem.
Fast forward to heat treatment day. Both my unit and my neighbour are being treated simultaneously with heat. I find out from the exterminator that my neighbour must have had bugs for about a year and that they were in his bed and in the walls. He stated that the suspicion is that the bugs were expanding from his main colony into our suite. I still feel very angry that this guy has let this happen for so long that it became my problem but whatever, I'm just happy to get it solved.
They do the heat treatment in both apartments but that same night my neighbour tells me he has seen some live bugs. The exterminator redoes his unit but not mine. They also stated they didn't see any bugs or signs of bugs in my apartment at all (probably from the measures I had taken) and that his unit was the source of the infestation.
The day after the treatment I left the country with my girlfriend on a long planned trip to visit her family. We will be back after a 6 week absence. Coincidentally, my neighbour is also travelling for his own reasons.
While I only ever saw less than 10 bugs total, I am very paranoid here abroad (That I may infest my girlfriend's family or that I infested my own family back home). I also want to get all my stuff out of garbage bags and get rid of all the dust in my apartment.
The heat treatment is insured for up to 3 months so if the bugs are around, I need to find them ASAP upon return to the apartment. I have a bunch of questions because I've largely been avoiding telling people about this problem.
1) What is the best way to find out if the treatment worked when I go back to my apartment next month? I was thinking about using some of those monitoring traps but I am not sure which would be best.
2) I am thinking about moving out after my contract is up because of this issue and especially if that current neighbour stays. Is that irrational?
3) Even though my mattress and boxspring are encased, I can't shake the feeling that my dog will cause a rip or the bugs (which may or may not be in there) will find a way out. Should I just throw them out?
4) How do you guys manage the constant fear that you could infest others?
5) Do you think my neighbour is mentally ill or something? He seems like a young normal guy. The exterminators described hundreds of bugs in his mattress and said they had only seen that kind of infestation in cases of the elderly (since they often dont have ideal vision and more often dont react to bites).
6) Does the paranoia ever get better?