I don't know when this problem began, though I've had itchy bumps since at least July. But never a lot, thought they were mosquito bites. Then I got four of them in a row on the back of my shoulder a couple of weeks ago, did a Google image search of bed bug bites and felt sick when I realized they matched what I saw in the mirror.
I live alone in a small single family house, have to watch my dollars and cents closely. I quickly became very concerned as I read how hard/how expensive getting rid of them can be.
I called a local dog sniffing PCO who came out and ran through my entire house with two dogs, one at a time. Both dogs signaled bed bug hits in one room only, the back corner of my bedroom. He took a close look at the bed, mattress, etc., said he saw nothing and figured I'd caught it early. He strongly recommended getting mattress/box spring encasements. He also does vacuuming, steaming (no chemicals) and a couple of days later, treated the bed, mattress and the area of the room the dogs had identified. This was before I had the encasements. Anyway, that night, more bites. He's coming back this week when I have them and we're going to try and hit their locations again and encase the mattress/box springs. He said he didn't think I had many bed bugs. I don't know how many it takes to put 4-6 new bites on my legs, back nightly.
Reading all these accounts on here, I'm really worried this is going to turn into a long, expensive nightmare. I have never dealt with this before, but can now completely sympathize with anyone with a BB problem.