Hi everyone,
I've been getting these mysterious bites for the past week that look a lot like mosquito bites and are initially itchy, but then disappear after a few hours or the by the next day. I normally discover these bites in the morning or a few hours after I wake up so I started to worry about having bed bugs. I ripped all the bedding off my bed and inspected all the sheets + mattress (no box spring), but didn't find any fecal stains or shells anywhere. My bed has built in drawers so I wasn't able to fully inspect the bed without dismantling it...When I pulled the pillow cases off my pillows I found this:
It looks kind of rust colored in person so I think it's blood. For context, the actual pillow is zipped inside of a white case (but theoretically would have enough room for a bug to get through the zipper) and then covered with a standard pillow case. I found this on the actual pillow, but didn't find any stains on the two pillow cases. I have no idea how long these stains have been there as my spouse sleeps on it and has had it for years.
I'm really paranoid that I have bed bugs now! The bites I'm getting are singles but are almost always located on the side that aligns with the edge of the bed. My spouse has folliculitis so it's hard for me to differentiate between any potential bites and existing irritations.
I'm supposed to stay with my family next week for a wedding but I'm terrified that I'm going to spread it to them if I do in fact have bed bugs. There aren't any hotels available in the area I'm going to so I'm really not sure what I should do. Should I hire a K9 inspector to confirm my bed bug suspicions?? Please help - I really feel like I'm losing my mind over this.