I had just moved into a new apartment when I noticed the bites. Like a lot of other posters, I thought at first I was just dealing with some mosquitoes that had managed to fly into the apartment. I ignored it.
A couple weeks later I went to visit my parents for a weekend and found a tiny nymph crawling across their guest bed just as I was about to go to sleep. That find started a storm of anxiety, dryer-cooked laundry, and a mad Googling spree. That guest bedroom had just recently been host to a former friend of mine who had been living with my parents for nearly two years.
This same friend had spent the past six weeks or so sleeping in my bed in my OLD apartment before I moved.
The following weekend, while I was doing my housecleaning, I found a nymph crawling on the sheets of my bed. My NEW unit was certified bed bug free before I moved in, so it seemed the bugs had moved with me even though I had no clue at the time that I had them. During the time my friend was visiting, I was sleeping on the couch to escape her horrifying snoring. Because of this, I apparently also managed to escape being dinner for the bugs she brought to visit.
So now I was living in a new community (that I really loved) and faced with the responsibility to notify the management that I had found a bed bug. Having read too many horror stories and not wanting to delay treatment a minute, I immediately walked over to the office to notify them. I had a friend go with me, which was good, because I was so overwrought that I couldn't reliably form coherent sentences.
Pest control didn't find anything. I think the tech who came out assumed I was a crazy lady freaking out over a flea (I have two cats). When I tried to catch that first bug, I accidentally splatted it into oblivion, so I didn't have it for him to identify. He sprayed the carpet in the room for fleas and said I should try to keep the cats off the bed. (Obviously, he's never had cats.)
Naturally, this didn't work.
A few days later, I found another 2/3 stage nymph. This one I managed to get into a jar so it could be identified. Once positive identification was made, my complex wasn't going to play around with bugs or risk them spreading to another unit. Unfortunately for me, since the unit had been certified prior to my moving in, the cost of treatment would be my responsibility. Fortunately, the complex was willing to pay the cost up-front and allow me to pay them back over the remainder of my lease.
We went with a full heat treatment for the unit. I was relieved about that. Once I figured out where they were from, and that they probably moved with me, I worried a lot about the fact that everything had been together in one truck for the ride to the new place. The cost of the heat treatment for my 2bed/1 bath apartment was $1100.
Though I probably didn't need to, I bagged up and threw out my pillows and my down duvet because I was worried they were too insulated for the heat to properly penetrate. I stood the sofa and love seat on end, set the mattress, box spring, and bed frame up on one end, pulled all the furniture away from the walls, boarded the cats at the vet, finished unpacking my few remaining boxes from the move, threw out all the empty boxes, and set about getting all my books loosely onto shelves so they could benefit from the heat as well. I did my best to follow their prep instructions 100% to the letter, unplugging electronics, the whole nine yards.
I left the house that morning with the clothes on my back, the shoes on my feet, my phone (removed from the case), and one debit card. After work, I stopped by the store for rubbing alcohol and a fresh change of clothes to stay the night at a friend's house because I was told my apartment would need time to cool after the treatment.
I changed into the new clothes, bagged up everything I had been wearing, threw it into the dryer on the highest setting for 80 minutes, and wiped down the phone and debit card with rubbing alcohol. (I was on a mission.) I wiped down the shoes with rubbing alcohol as well, and soaked the insides all the way down to the toes with it just to be sure.
The day after the heat treatment, I immediately put new encasements on my mattress and box springs. I found the harborage on the underside of the box spring where the (now dead and crispy) bugs had found a loose seam to call home. I found a couple more crispy bugs on the carpet by the bed. I cleaned everything up, started putting my house back together, and now I'm monitoring for any new bugs using ClimbUp pitfalls I installed around the bed posts.
In three weeks, the pest control company will return with a dog to check for any signs of bugs, but I'm confident that the combination of heat throughout the unit (with residual chemicals and such around the walls and all) along with catching things early means my problem is over.
I'll update this thread again in a few weeks after the dog check (or before that, if I happen to find any bugs in the meantime). Having read up on the dog checks and the field trials done with Rutgers, I decided a few passive monitors in place around my bedroom would probably go a long way toward giving me some peace of mind. I really just wanted to update because I had the WORST anxiety while I was waiting for my scheduled heat treatment date. Scanning the forums, I didn't find any success stories from people using heat treatment. I had worked myself up so much that the bugs had attained magical status in my mind and would never be dead. Everything they touched would be contaminated, and more bugs would spontaneously spring from those places. Obviously, this is in no way logical. Anxiety does terrible things to a person.
I'm just hoping I can offer some hope here that treatment from a reliable professional does work, hopefully even the first time with heat and residuals. Please cross your fingers for me to have no signs of bugs in the coming weeks!