First of all, THANK YOU to this website! This is my first post, but these forums have been an excellent source of detailed information and rational advice--my sanity is forever indebted to you all. Who knew exterminators were such a compassionate bunch?
I have bed bugs. Found one--finally!--in October after about a month of weekly itchy bites. My partner was not getting bitten and we couldn't find any bugs anywhere, so I honestly thought they were spider bites. Such innocence I had! Anyway, after waking up one morning with a dozen telltale "breakfast lunch dinner" bites, I tore apart our bedroom and found a live nymph on some milk crates we had at the end of the bed. Threw the crates out in a blind panic, bought a metal bed frame, put on TWO mattress covers, and isolated the bed immediately on the advice of a different website. We've since switched to the climb up interceptors.
After that we only had rare bites, had three chemical treatments 2-3 weeks apart, and had only found 3 more bugs anywhere in the apartment: a live adult in the bed, a dead adult on the edge of our bathtub (??), and a live nymph in the outer ring of a bed bug interceptor. We went a month without any bites and were feeling pretty good--until yesterday, when my partner woke up with 3 new bites, and then this morning I found a live adult hanging out on our ceiling in broad daylight. Our last treatment was a week ago.
I did read in another thread that the chemicals can make the bugs hang out in unusual spots, so I am hoping that was just one crazy dying bug having a bad day on the ceiling. Nonetheless I am kind of panicking since we're a week out from the last treatment and now seeing more bugs and bites than we have in the past month! Is it possible the infestation is getting WORSE after all the vaccuming and laundering and treating and diatomaceous earthing we've done? No one else in our apartment building has reported bed bugs.
Any thoughts or advice are much appreciated!