Hello all,
First, I just want to to say thank you to everyone on the forum. I have been reading many of the threads for the past few weeks now. I started a journal when I first started noticing the bites, til now. I am getting really frustrated, and am having issues sleeping!
Basically, I would really love to hire a PCO to come to my house, but my fiance and myself cannot afford it at this time. I don't want to see any bed bugs, but at this point I don't care because I atleast want to know if this is our problem. I am looking daily with a flashlight in all areas I can think of in our bedroom.
My fiance travels for work and stays at many different hotels, and I am sure this is how they were brought into our home. I've read a few posts about what to do when someone travels in your home, and I've had a few discussions with him about what we should do moving forward when he comes home. He is only home for about 20% of the month, and he has told me that he doesn't feel as if he is getting bites. (I'm guessing we react differently.)
Here is what I've experienced so far:
12/11: 4-5 red bumps on my right shoulder
lasting about 7 days, itched for the first 3ish days. Turned into welts
12/18 (approx) noticed one small welt on chest, it did not itch. It did not appear to be a pimple. Tried to scratch it off and it welted.
12/26: Red itchy welt (one spot) on my forehead. Tried hard not to itch it. Disappeared quickly, about 2 hours.
12/28: noticed a red bump on my pinky after I shoveled snow, noticed it at about 8pm. Itched a little bit. At about 9:30 I felt like a lot of my body was itching.
12/29: At about 5am I woke up and the bite itched like crazy. Other parts of body itched too, including arm. Red bump on pinky not as itchy when I woke up. Bump is raised on my pinky and it's shiny.
12/29: vacuumed queen mattress, bed frame, pillows, all the floors, windows, and closets. Washed all sheets and dried on high heat. Also vacuumed living room area rug, and chair and couch.
1/15: one new bite on top foot & a rash is present (tons of very small raised bumps that itched) on my left hip/part of back.
1/16: noticed 3 bites on left arm, itchy, scabbed, I could see dried blood.
1/18: bite on left pinky finger and one bite on leg!
1/18: sprayed with Harris bed bug killer in our bedroom. Vacuumed mattress and all around in bedroom, vacuumed bed side table. Put encasements on mattress and all four pillows in our bedroom. Vacuumed couch and rug in living room, sprayed a little in the living room, around the couch. Also set four sticky traps under bed. I moved bed away from the wall. cleaned all sheets and dried on high heat with extra heat cycle.
1/19: put DE around all of the bed post. did not notice any new bites this morning. continued to wash other linens in home and linens that have been in or around bedroom, dried on high heat with extra cycle.
I have looked for bed bugs, bed bug droppings, their shells, and blood stains in my bedroom daily. I have seen nothing. We even took the entire bed frame apart (and vacuumed it) and looked on all sides of the mattress. We have wood floors with some cracks and crevices in them, and I sprayed some bug spray in there. I know DIY isn't the best method, but I've already spent over $125 dollars on encasements (including ones for pillows) and bug spray/DE/traps and I definitely cannot afford professional treatment unless I budget and try to save up!
My friend noticed my first few bites awhile back and was the one to tell me it could be bed bugs. Does this sound like this is what it could be? Thank you for your time in reading this. Any help is greatly appreciated!
darnnabbit