I'm sure this is the same story you've read before. You are a saint if you read it all. I am just so lost as to how to move forward.
First, let me say that I have no pictures of the bug. I'm dumb and threw it away after it was dead (thoroughly - in pieces). However, I did search all the sites for pictures and lookalikes, and I know that what I found was either a bedbug or in the same family (bat bug etc). I am 99% sure it was a bedbug, but that's not really useful to you guys without pictures.
So in the middle of the day (2pm?), with the lights on, I found a bug crawling across my bedroom floor. The middle of the room. Now the space is smallish and cluttered-ish, but it was out in the open. It was traveling from north to south, which confused me, as there was nothing new in that area of my room. I hadn't touched much of the stuff over there for months (college makes for busy). It was traveling to where I do frequently set stuff down (bag, books, new mail, etc). The weird part is that my "bed" is on the east wall, so it wasn't traveling to or from my sleeping space.
Side note - I sleep on a hide-a-bed couch, as a couch, which is why I put the word "bed" in quotes. It's more comfortable as a couch than as a pull-out bed. I will continue to use quotes in this way, as a way to help distinguish between the couch position that I use to sleep and the actual pull-out bed.
So once I sufficiently use Google to confirm it's a bedbug, the anxiety begins. Of course.
I looked over the area it was "coming from". Nothing.
I search nooks and crannies on the "bed" without removing cushions to avoid making them scatter. Nothing.
I remove the cushions. Nothing.
I search what I can of the folds of the mattress/linens while the bed is still folded in. Nothing. (The pull-out bed has linens on it even when folded in.)
I pull out the bed most of the way and search one side. Linens, mattress, trampoline-nonsense that holds the mattress. Nothing. (The bed is queen size, and the other side is against a wall. I would have had to crawl over the bed to check. However, I did see over half of the bed. Also, the side I searched would be toward where my head is when I sleep.)
I found that I really need to vacuum, as there is a ton of dust and such in the bed. However, other than the dust, hair, and such, I found no evidence of bedbugs.
The carpet is black, and underneath this couch is still purely black. The rest of the room gets much more foot traffic and lighting, so it's more faded. I would have imagined to find some sort of evidence on the floor, such as the molting shells, eggs, whatever is light in color.
I have no blood spots on my "bed". I found nothing other than areas that need to be vacuumed/dusted. If I hadn't found the bedbug, this search would have convinced me that I don't have bedbugs.
But I have had weird bites. For over a year. But not the whole time. That are different than each other.
My bedroom has 2 windows - one on the south wall and one on the east wall. Last summer, I put a window A/C unit in the south window. That's when the bites started. Anywhere on exposed skin, I would randomly (at home, at school, in other cities, everywhere) find a new bite. They were usually one single bite, with 2 bites happening once and 3 bites happening once, and I would find a new one anywhere from hours to days after the last. The bite would swell to 2-5 inches in diameter, and the entire area would be warm to the touch, hurt and itch, would make the entire area achy for a day or two (like flu muscle aches on my entire arm because my elbow got bit), and wouldn't go away for over a month - sometimes 3-4 months. I still have scars from some of these, even though I was pretty good about not scratching.
I attributed these bites to a spider that I seemed to be allergic to. I know spider bites are extremely rare, but I do not react like this to anything else (like mosquitoes). One of my friends is a huge spider enthusiast, and she said that she was 95% sure they were spider bites with an allergic reaction. I also know that they were definitely bites, because you could find the puncture wound, similar to a mosquito bite.
Keep in mind that I was getting these frequently. I probably got about 50 over 3 months in total. Once fall came, I took out the A/C unit from my window and magically stopped getting the bites. I did happen to get 2 over the winter that were fairly spaced apart in time.
Come mid-May, I start getting mosquito bites, as I usually do with mosquito season. I've always seemed to be quite the delicacy to mosquitoes, so being covered in mosquito bites in the summer does not usually worry me.
But now that I've searched so much about bedbugs, I don't know if any of these bites could have been attributed to them. The bites from last summer were very different than the bites since May. The bites over winter were like last summer. The since-May bites are like mosquito bites. The since-May bites usually stick around for 1-2 weeks and itch like crazy, but just remain the usual small welts that most people get. Except so many. On 3" by 6" spot on my calf, I had around 6. On my upper arm, I had 5. I had 2 on my left elbow, and now I have another one there. Unless one of those two got re-irritated.
The fact that my last-summer bites almost always occurred one-at-a-time, I only got 2 over winter, and I haven't had one since about March... this all makes me think those were NOT bedbugs. I am 100% sure I would have found some sort of evidence if I've had them for over a year.
The since-May bites are very easily mosquito bites, based on my reactions to them, but I may get anywhere from 1 to 6 at a time. And many times, I'm outside and I kill the mosquito making them. However not ALL of them have a dead mosquito to go with. Some are just "randomly noticed an itch". I currently have 1 on my elbow (along with the 1-2 older ones healing), 2 healing on my ankle, and the several healing on my upper arm and calf.
From my internet searches, if a bedbug is crawling across the middle of my room in the middle of the day, and not to/from my "bed", that should be a sign of a major infestation. But I see no signs of anything.
I've notified friends that I've seen in the last month. No one has any signs.
The bug itself had not fed recently. It was completely flat. It was an adult or possibly 5th instar, but unlikely. I do not know if it was male or female, as I had thrown it away before I got to any good photos that showed how to tell.
So my confusion is this - I see three possible scenarios:
1) I have an infestation and just haven't found it yet.
2) I had a lone straggler male that has been here for some sort of unknown time frame.
3) I found the hitchhiker early, and now I just get to wait and see if it laid eggs.
My confusion is that if it's #2 or #3, then the way I found it (midday, middle of room) was very weird considering their typical behavior, and I would have expected many more bites by now. However if it's #1, then I feel like I should have found some sort of evidence already, even though I didn't do the 100% search.
I live in a house. I live in the upper half of the Midwest, so we get cold winters, if that's at all relevant. I do not live in a major city like Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, or Minneapolis, if that's at all relevant. (I alphabetized that list, in case indicating the state I'm from is considered too personal, as per the forum rules.)
If you've made it this far, then you're the saint I predicted.
So what are your expert opinions? Scenario 1, 2, or 3? Is there another one I haven't considered? What should I do next?