Bed Bugs
One of our neighbors moved out rather uneventfully a few months after his wife left him and his apartment had begun to stink through the floor of cigarettes. A few times a little drunk in the elevator with strange women and poof he was gone.
Hugo was convinced it was mosquitos. One doctor was convinced it was allergies. Another said it looked like crawling bugs because the welts were in lines, something we would later learn is called “breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” I wish I had believed him, but for a doctor he talked too much about porn, and didn’t charge me. Maybe I’m still too American to understand healthcare that isn’t about raking in the cash.
Several months later I was crying all the time, I itched so badly and my back looked like I had been beaten with one of Mason’s late night creations. Hugo wasn’t going to take action, he was still playing the mosquito bite card, until I started talking about moving away. Let the bugs have the place, I reasoned (lets give me the benefit of the doubt and just say I was being reasonable), clearly we are outnumbered. Finally, another neighbor happened to mention that the man who moved out might possibly have had an issue with bugs.
That’s when we called A.B.A.C. Nettoyage, who sent their insect technician. No man exists who is more delighted with his work. He grins vaguely and wears no protective equipment. He says he works so quickly he stays ahead of the fumes, meanwhile the air was choking even outside the apartment.
It didn’t work the first time. No, I’m not kidding. We had to have him back. After the first spraying we just pissed them off. They took their vengance on my back.
October 25th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
You look cute except for those bites on your shoulder.
November 18th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I am an exteminater, andunderstand what you went through. They are very hard to get rid of if , especially if the people that you treat their house don’t want, or won’t do what their supposed to do. That is one of the problems that we deal with. There are many more, that we are still investigating. Good luck to you
December 12th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I hate bed bugs… that close up pic makes me sick of them…
Is a painful experience for me and that live with me for a long time… I really hate them.
January 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
well my mom is dealing with this problem. she has tried a few things but nothing seem to work. how do you get rid of them? can you feel them crawling on you? can you see them on you?
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
They only seem to bother me between spring and summer. My question is, why do they only bite me and not my husband? We sleep in the same bed! once I’m tired of being bite, I sleep in the spare bedroom for about a week. They don’t bother me there, Why? Aren’t in all parts of the house? Why am I not bothered during the fall and winter months?
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I thought at first my daughter had a mild case of chicken pox, not uncommon for kids who’ve been vaccinated, then run into someone who’s carrying it. She’s 3, but when I noticed a few “pox” on my arm, I was a bit curious. Wasn’t until I washed the sheets on my bed, and noticed a brown spot on my decased pillow that I picked up what I identified as a “bed-bug”. We’d just moved 4 weeks prior (noticed the marks on my daughter 2 weeks ago), and had been in hotel all across the country. I had actually first seen a “bug” on my cat, thought it was a strange bug, but didn’t think much of it. Now I am wishing I had taken more notice as I don’t remember where I we were when I saw it!
Problem looks to have just started, hopign I can rid us of it quickly!
February 27th, 2008 at 4:37 am
I moved into this beautiful 3 bedroom for 1000 a month rent and to find out that it is infested in bed-bugs, when i mentioned it to my landlord he told me that the old tentants were infested and he had to ask them to move he claims that he had the place sprayed numerous times and cant understand why they would still be here. after a few months he wanted to start saying maybe it was something else meanwhile i had gave him a sample of the bug and then he trew it away..so i got another sample for him and I’m just gonna move hopefully the next tentants don’t mind so much and yes they are a nucince and impossible to get rid of they are disgusting little insects that i can’t stand.
March 1st, 2008 at 1:38 am
i live in a shared house and the people upstairs have got bedbugs!!! i woke up this morning and saw a bed bug on my quilt how do i get rid of them?? im pregnant will they harm the baby? but there is no sign of any more in my room.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:56 am
My mom, best friend and I recently moved into a townhouse and about two weeks after we were settled I felt bugs crawling on me and had an exterminator come to check out the problem. Come to find out we have bed bugs. They are disgusting and i feel like they are crawling all over me. Ill be glad when they are gone.
March 5th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
jesus…fucking bed bugs are crazy…goddamn insects..i hate them all…spiders too.
March 7th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Hi, Im a 23 year old with a family of 5. We recently moved into an apartment in december, and now we have bed bugs. my oldest who is 4 was getting bit and we thought it was spider bits as well as the doctors thought. well one day we decided to put out bug traps to find out what kind of spiders. well i noticed an uncomon bug, so i took it to my apartment complex. well just to say me my 4 year old son and my 14 month old son is all getting ate up like we are a cheesebuger. and my husband and 2 year old daughter is NOT. how do i get rid of these discusting little creatures
March 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
We didn’t want to use nasty chemicals, but all the products like Raid etc that we tried ourselves didn’t work. We had to get the exterminator, their chemicals are much much stronger. Even then, it took two tries.
At the same time as the exterminator came, we also we got rid of a lot of clutter so they would have fewer hiding places, washed our sheets on super hot with bleach, got mattress and pillow covers with zips (like the kind for dust mites), and replaced all our pillows. We also had an asian-style bed, close to the floor. We got a taller bed so that we would be farther from the carpet.
These things are nasty and really hard to get rid of, I’d say impossible without an exterminator (this is probably why my neighbor just moved out). I put a link to the service we used, but they are local to Paris. We had the same problem many of you had, they bit me every night, my back was even worse than my shoulder, but only rarely bit my husband. Going to bed coated in bug spray made no difference at all.
My advice is clear out the clutter and call the exterminator.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
bedbugs are very challenging. mattress covers are very important and they must be plastic and zip around the mattress. you will need an exterminator. eliminating clutter is important as well, they can live in outlets.light fixtures even on the ceiling , behind paintings, in dresser drawers, clothes in the closet, new furniture. the reaction on the skin is caused from an allergic reaction to the saliva from the bed bug, some people don’t have any reaction. they don’t transmit human diseases. the three most important things to do are, #1 call exterminator, #2 follow their directions completely, #3 MATTRESS COVERS… i am an exterminator and have gone back to do treatments because our suggestions were not followed. MATTRESS COVERS after a treatment is very important. it may take a couple of treatments, they are challenging. but they can be eliminated. GOOD LUCK
March 12th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I am a Physician’s Assistant with over 5 years of dermatology experience. When our patients have bed bugs we advise them to call the exterminator, get rid of their mattress and bedding, and possibly pull up their carpet. There is also a Rx cream called Elimite (Permethrin) which may stop the bugs from biting at night. It is usually safe in pregnancy if used sparingly. There is also a Rx pill called Ivermectin that you could take if the infestation is bad. Sometimes one dose will do it, but it may be something you have to take a little more regularly. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix for bed bugs. It may be wise to see a dermatologist to go over your options. Also, ask your exterminator. Hope this helps!
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I think that I have bed bugs. How do I know for sure? Can you see or feel them on you? Can you PLEASE REASPOND AS QUICK POSSIBLE!!!
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Well, I think it very well might be bed bugs biting and crawling on me. Not the cochroaches (step up?). Wow I have a delightful apartment. Anyone want to trade? Thanks for all the tips, good luck to everyone as well!
March 25th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I had bed bugs i caught from my neighbor who was right infested and had to throw away all his furniture, all adjacent apartments had to be sprayed including mine. I am the one who found a bed bug on my bed and caught it, upon inspection the exterminator could not find any evidence of the bugs in my bed or in my home but I had to wash 16 loads of laundry and get fumigated as well, and he suspects i got the bugs from my clothing and that is why they had not infested. the neighbor did not properly prepare his place for the fumigation and will more then likely not be rid of the bugs, but another tenent int he building had the bugs properly prepared and was rid of the bugs……they are hard to get rid of but i have heard of success with an item called thwart which supposidly kills them u can find it on the internet and i will resort to that if i see another one of those buggers or get another bite.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I never saw any bed bugs until after we fumigated twice. Afterward, I found a few dead bugs in a cardboard box. They looked just like the picture above, but were all different sizes from tiny up to half the size of my pinkie fingernail.
Some people say that you can see tiny spots of blood on the sheets from where they bite you. I have a friend who backpacks around remote parts of the world, and stays in Youth Hostels. She always goes in before agreeing to stay there and searches the bed, walls, and carpet for these spots or any visible bugs. I have white sheets, and yet I never saw any of these signs. Perhaps our infestation wasn’t that bad? I was certainly miserable.
I read recently that Somerville, MA has a bed bug infestation. In Somerville, many college students furnish their apartments with found-furniture. People don’t seem to hold yard sales, they just put unwanted things on the street and then others who want them pick them up and bring them home. This is problematic when the new found treasure is a mattress, upholstered like a sofa, or even a carpet. If someone threw it away, there is a good chance they had bed bugs!
According to the article, there are only a couple of chemicals which are strong enough to kill the bugs, and both of them sound pretty nasty. I guess this is why my attempts to kill the bugs with Raid didn’t work.
Maybe Karen or another exterminator reading this post can comment. I don’t really know what was sprayed at my house.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Tips on getting rid of these evil things
1. steam cleaning ( dish washer for kids toys)
2. Party like its 1999
3.
April 17th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I woke up the other moring and i was biten all over my legs my shoulders my stomach and my other area. And it itches really bad . I checked my bed and there i found bed bugs. But how come when i take a bath the marks get brighter color and more itchy . Will murphy’s oil help. If i clean my room with it. I took my mattress and threw it away. HELP
April 21st, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Hi April,
I don’t think Murphy’s will work on bed bugs. You can get rid of them forever. Once we followed a few simple steps we never had bed bugs again.
I found a page at Harvard school of public health that says more or less the same thing I did, which is to reduce clutter and find a licensed exterminator in your area ASAP. I’ve got a photo of a bed bug at the top of this page. Did you use it to verify that you really do have bed bugs? They can be all different sizes, but they look like the beastie in the photo above. If you haven’t seen one yet, search around in your room, in every little nook and cranny. In my house they were hiding in a couple of cardboard boxes, but they can be in the cracks of the mattress, in the sheets and blankets, under wallpaper or moldings, in cracks on the floor. The smallest ones will be like a little reddish speck, bigger ones more like half the size of your pinkie fingernail.
The harvard public health site said that if you have been to a hotel that might be infected, you could let stuff bake in the sun in a hot car with the windows rolled up for several hours to kill the bugs. I suspect an industrial washer-dryer would be just as hot. On the other hand, if you bring blankets and sheets back into an infected house they’ll be full of bugs again in no time. I guess you really have to do everything at once.
1. Identify the bugs from the photo.
2. Make an appointment with an exterminator (if you can, try to catch a sample bug for him to look at).
3. When the exterminator sprays, remove all bed covers so that he can spray everything really well.
4. As soon as he is done; take all the blankets, pillows, comforters, and clothes to the laundromat and wash and dry them as hot as possible. I threw away my pillows and bought a mattress cover with a zip (like Chris recommended).
Also, I would choose an exterminator with a guarantee. If your house needs to be treated a second time, you shouldn’t have to pay more as long as you did your part cleaning, de-cluttering, and washing everything. We only paid for the first visit. I know how awful these bugs can be, but you really can get rid of them if you get help from a pro.
Good luck!
Nicole
April 21st, 2008 at 9:08 pm
OMG, I just found this crazy video about bed bugs. Urgh, it makes me itch just thinking about how much we suffered with these things.
April 25th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
PLEAAASE HELP! I am not sure if I’m being bitten by bed bugs. I’ve looked into people’s notes about experiences and researched to know more about what the bites look like and how bed bugs work on a person. Almost everywhere it says that bed bugs only come out and bite before dawn, however, I have like a rash that looks like a bed bite at any time during the day, not just while sleeping. Sometimes i get a rash in the day and get little red spots. Could it not be some bedbugs? please, someone advice.
thanks
April 28th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Miranda,
I have the exact same problem. I’m staying in an extended stay hotel and I had gotton bit in an old room one night. I immediatley exterminated a new room with some potent stuff you can’t buy at home depot and it said it kills bed bugs. I just noticed patches of red spots in several spots on my body. They don’t quite look like the origional bites I had the first time but they sure are close. The first time they were much bigger and in a row along a vein. Now they are smaller and in clusters. I am not sure if they are bed bugs either. I have never seen any in both rooms but there is plenty of room to hide. So if anyone does know if they bite in clusters please help us and let us know. Thanks.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Miranda, Anthony,
If I remember correctly, the bites were in lines at first and then, as you can see from the photo of my shoulder above, after the first spraying they bit more in clusters. After the second spraying they didn’t bite anymore.
Nicole
May 1st, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Is it easy to wash them out of your clothes with out bleach and does anyone recomend an exterminator in auckland nz, the little…..B@$^3rd$ bite the worst places elbows knuckles palms of my hands and soles of my feet its driving me mad!!!!!!!!! and looks foul im a beauty therapist covered also why do i get biten but not my partner in the bed i didnt fully understand the above explanation
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Wow, just returned from vacationing in the Caribbean to discover these bites on my legs, arms and chest/shoulder areas. My fellow travelers also have them. I’ve been home for a few days now and new bites are still appearing. I hope I didn’t bring these ugly critters home with me! I have yet to find one, but I am already taking precautions with all your suggestions. Thanks!
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Ooooooooh my god I think I have bed bugs my mattress is clean|new but my bedspring is bout 3-4yrz old. My mom thinks its bed bugs bitin me o have like bumps on my chest I feel stuff crawlin on mev all thaa time I fijnd nu bumps that itchveveryday but now its serious b|c somethingv idk what bit me under my arm pitts and it swell up real badd . Idk what it is but I will be going to tha dr. Real - Soon . AnyBdy with . . . A problem Solver or iDeas ov what thiz is . . . Pleez post ur ideas | let me kno . Wud reeeeealli appreciate it
May 7th, 2008 at 1:39 am
omg nasty horrid bed bugs my poor poor son has been bitten so bad i didnt even know about thouse nasty bed bugs untill now…….. but dont worrie the exterminator ia coming to get rid of them… i really feel sorry for people with bed bugs god help us………. : )
May 7th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Oh Sara, I’m so sorry for your son. Make sure you clean up the clutter before the exterminator comes, those awful bugs can hide almost anywhere. Good luck!
May 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Its crazy how much trouble these little nasty bugs can cause!!! My daughter and my niece were bitten by bed bug bites and we took them to the doctors today!! I had never heard of such a thing until now!!!!! we stayed in a hotel last weekend and my mother and the girls were all bitten and had to get this head to toe body wash for the bites!!!! This is crazy and money consuming!
May 9th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I just found this link to a pic of bed bugs burried in the skin. so freakin grose!!!!!!
May 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
ugh, 3 days ago i started coming out with bites all over my shoulder, my mum thinks they’re bites from bed bugs, we started looking for them 3 days ago but yet to find one, we’ve been in touch with an local pest control and arranged to come around, but in the mean time i have to put up with these yucky bites, my mum told me to ask would they come out in daylight or at night if a light was on? please respond.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Hi-Have raised red bumps all over arms, legs and chest. They do not itch though and seem to go down after a couple of weeks, but leaves scares. Do bed bug stites itch?
May 16th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Oh my gosh - permethrin is used as flyspray for horses and will put a cat into convulsions and they make a creme of it to use on humans for bed bugs and I understand for head lice too? And Ivermectin is the ingredient in horse paste oral wormer. Well at least I know where to get the stuff cheap if we ever get infested. UGHH
May 16th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Has anyone tried 100% DEET repellant against bed bugs?
May 17th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
@netgypsy: I tried bugspray with DEET, but it didn’t work at all. I’d be very cautious with using medicines for horses, or messing with any of these chemicals myself. I have pets, so we have to be really careful.
@maureen: They itch like crazy! Worse than anything else. It itched so bad it would make me cry and want to move out of my house. (Though now I understand that if I moved I just would have taken them with me.) Sounds like you have something else. The doctor might be able to help.
@david: Bedbugs only come out at night, usually just before dawn, they hide during the day. Check your sheets for little blood splatters (like if a full mosquito got squished). Usually, they bite three times in a straight line. My picture above doesn’t show that because it was after the first time we sprayed, the chemicals must have made them more active, because they bit me like crazy. My back was far worse than my shoulder. Try watching the video, it has some great information.
@keke: YUCK!!! Are you sure those are bed bugs? I had never heard that bed bugs could bury into your skin. They usually bite and put a tiny bit of numbing agent in your skin so that you can’t even feel them biting. Kind of like Novocain from the dentist. You know, looking at that image the legs don’t quite look like bed bugs legs.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:29 am
I need answers
May 10 we stay in a hotel, because the graduation of my son. After the first night, I complain to my husband that I have being bitten. Since I’m the only one that seems to attract all kind of animals with my blood, we did not make so much fuss. Even though I see the dots of blood in the bed.
Next night when I went to bed, my skin scroll but again We were tired and we needed to sleep.
Next morning with all the fuss for the graduation, nobody here a complain for me but that night in our way back home the itch was unbearable that I got up at 3:00 a.m. and took a boiling shower and scrub until I was all red.
I have bites all over my shoulders, neck, albos all the way to the top of my fingers ( i like to put my hands under the pillow).
I have read all the messages and I’m sure that there are bed bugs even though I did not see any.
My questions are
How long I will feel itchy ?
It is possible that I could bring the bugs with me?
Do they put eggs inside our skin?
Somebody mention stem clean do that work?
My husband has not been bitten and I don’t want to spray chemicals if it isn’t necessary
Thank you
Please answer soon
May 19th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
@Dora: I’m sorry, that must be awful. I had the same problem, they never bothered my husband. Yes you can bring them home with you.
Put your suitcases and everything you and your husband brought with you (clothes, blankets, pillows, everything) into the car and leave it there all afternoon, letting it bake in the sun. Washing everything in hot water and drying it on hot in the dryer can help too, but you need to do it fast before they escape out of your suitcase and hide in your house.
I don’t think they put eggs in your skin, the photo keke posted doesn’t really look like a bed bug. If you act fast, you probably won’t need to spray. You may continue to get “new” bites for a while because it can take a couple days for the red mark to appear.
I don’t remember exactly how long the bites kept itching, but I think it must have been a couple weeks. Maybe the doctor can give you something to calm the itch.
Best of luck!
May 20th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Thank you very much
God Bless You
Dora
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
is it true that everyone has bed bugs
May 26th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
The stories that I read are soo familiar to what I’ve experienced. The strange thing is that they never bite my son or husband but they would bit my daughter and I. My husband thought I was crazy until I actually caught one crawling across my pillow. I was able to catch it with a piece of tape and it was confirmed that it was a bed bug. When I found out what the red, itchy welts were I was quite embarrassed because not only were they biting my daughter and I on the back, legs, arms and shoulders; they also bit us on the face. I had to go to work and she had to go to school with these red marks and ppl constantly asking what happened. We didn’t encounter these problems until we started traveling out of the country. Whenever we would take a vacation it would be to a relatives house but never a hotel. I had to get rid of my bed room furniture including mattress and box spring and purchase brand new furniture and it’s been several months and we haven’t encountered any problems. The doctor couldn’t do much for us. He did recommend benadryl for the itching. Nicole what you experienced, I did also. The specks of blood on the sheet. Although it was awhile before I actually saw a bed bug, my husband thought the bites were mosquitoe bites but I could tell from the welts and how close in proximity the bites were that they weren’t mosquitoe bites. I found this product in the store called PRONTO and it said it will kill bedbugs and dust mites. Now when I change my linen I spray the mattress and crevices with this.
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:17 am
Yes, i have encountered the nasty bed bugs me and my fiance were getting bit and every morning we’d wake up to bites, at first they looked like mosquito bites so we didnt think anything of it. My mom had this problem in apartment complex she lived in a couple years back and she told me to check my bed, curtains. I finally decided to do this and when i checked the creases of the box spring there was one little tiny thing tan color just crawling away and what looked like a dead cockaroach but tan omg, i freaked took off all the sheets,pillows, curtains washed it all in hot water then dried them all twice. Ok i called an exterminator and told him i didnt want to plastic the mattress , box spring i just wanted to throw them out so he told me to spray them down with rubbing alcohol first cause that would kill them on contact if any, and when i take them out if they fall on my carpet they’d be dead. Ok i did that threw the old one away got new one left plastic on them put clean sheets on, i sprayed my whole room with the damn alcohol and the rug, well i’m still itchy and i feel stuff crawling all over my body and head i’m very itchy cant sleep, i dont know what to do please someone help.
June 4th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
My daughter had a terrible infestation in her apartment building. She sprayed and a exterminator came twice. Nothing worked permanently until she heard somewhere that rubbing alcohol kills them and works fast. In addition to all the washing, throwing out stuff and vacuuming, she sprayed rubbing alcohol everywhere, especially the bed, headboard and any cracks. It worked and she hasn’t had any problems for a year.
July 10th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I believe we took these little critters home from our trip in South padre island hotel room. At first I got about 7 or so bites in a line & it itched like crazy then i started to feel things crawling all over my legs all the time even out of the house, I thought it was lice at first because my head itched too so i fumigated my home & cleaned like crazy washed the sheets & shampooed with lice rx. That helped for a day or so but then they came back with a vengeance, im now stuck with a huge pest control bill for $600 to exterminate the bugs but they dont guarantee it wont return. Please help I need to know for sure if they’re bed bugs because its been over a week since our trip, havent seen any bugs or fecal spots on mattress , they are worse at night, both my kids are staying with my parents till this problem is hopefully resolved. I see little black or brown spots on my legs when I feel it crawl..if you squoosh it it turns red as if bleeding, are these really bed bugs? I wanna know before i have these money sucking exterminators charge me up for something that may not even be real bed bugs but something else, they only diagnozed it over the phone..its horrible how much it would cost I think they’re the real blood suckerspest control.