Bedbugs! (surprise - not Disney related!)

[I*heart*MickeyMouse]

OK I need some help. The internet is doing nothing but freak me out even more.

Last night I woke up with 2 bites at the nape of my neck BURNING and ITCHING like no tomorrow. I've never been bit before in bed, and am freaking it's bed bugs. I can't see the bites, but dh says they just look like mosquito bites.

I TORE apart my bed and saw ZERO signs of bedbug infestation - egg and skin sheddings, feces, blood smears, dead bugs, alive bugs. I looked everywhere - the sheets and pillows, under the mattress cover, in between the mattress and box spring, underneath the box spring (corners, as I can't maneuver the bed myself, it's heavy!) and also pulled up the rug in a few places near the bed. Nothing.

Now behind my bed I found one dried, curled up "thing". It wasn't a bug but *may* have been a shell or skin of one . It was on the bottom bar that goes from foot to foot of the headboard. But that was literally the only piece of "evidence"

Next to my bed I keep a small rolling bag with scrapbooking supplies, and on top of that is a throw blanket folded up. (my dresser is next to my bed, about 1 foot away, but the dresser is way above my head when I'm in bed, so I store the bag there and can put my glasses and my cell on it @ nite) I pulled that out from next to the bed and took the throw blanket off. There was a tiny white bug, about the size of this comma , on there. That was all she wrote, I put a trash bag around it and put it out in the trash.

Searching on the 'net I can't seem to find that bug, and it doesn't look like any of the "nymph" stage bedbugs. It was whitish/clear and all the bedbug pics look yellowish.

ANYWAY. Now that my bedroom is cleaner than it has been in months, SIL is saying just go to bed and not think about it, it's probably not bedbugs, maybe it was a mosquito bite... but I can't turn off my mind. I am FREAKING OUT!!!!!!

Can anyone who has had bedbugs give me some insight? Or if you're an exterminator or your dh or family member is let me know what you think? PM me if you don't want to air your "bug issue" openly!

 

[jobhunter]

Ok, has anyone in your family traveled recently? Spent the night away from home, with a suitcase?

I got them from an antique headboard. A few nights after I bought it I woke up and had some bites on my face. I assumed it was a mosquito. As the day wore on I had more and more bites on me, but my sister had been with me everywhere all day and she had none. I had the telltale 'breakfast, lunch and dinner' series of 3 bites on my face and elsewhere too. And my right eye swelled shut.

I never saw any evidence of infestation, except some spotting on the headboard that I thought was part of the finish. I got rid of the headboard, bought bedbug proof mattress covers, applied diatomaceous earth liberally and within a week all my bites were gone and never happened again.

I don't see how you could spontaneously get them, though, unless you have traveled or been somewhere or bought some furniture that could have brought them back with you.

Is it possible you are having a reaction to a carpet beetle larvae?

 

[I*heart*MickeyMouse]

Nope, and nope. We got back from Disney 8/16, that was so long ago I'd think I'd be bitten by now. Not to mention I checked our room before we checked in (not that they can't hitchike off another suitcase in the cargo hold...) I'm going to go check the suitcase just to be sure... admitedly it was in my room for a while - I hate unpacking! No new furniture, rugs or anything of the kind.

I keep feeling back there for a 3rd bite but it's just two. But from what I've read it can be any number of bites. I keep thinking "if there were bedbugs they'd bite the dog too" and he sleeps under my bed on my side of the bed (like right under my body lol) but I never see him scratching. My dh either; but mosquitoes don't like to bite my dh so maybe he has gross tasting blood.

Where did you apply the D.E.?? We have a HUGE bag in the shed for our pool filter...

I have never seen anything that looks like those beetle larvae...

UGH!!! Thanks for posting

 

[NotUrsula]

It could be something else that bit/stung you -- bugs HAVE been known to land on a person's hair. (I once got six yellow jacket stings in a 2 inch area that way, one had gotten tangled in my hair and wasn't bothered before I leaned back and sort of squashed it, then it got mad and attacked.)

One good defense that may make you feel better is a heat gun. You can go over wooden furniture with one and make sure that all of the cracks and crevices are thoroughly heat-treated. Be sure to keep it moving, though; you can easily scorch wood with a heat gun, and it WILL melt furniture glue if you're not careful.

This site has good advice: www.bedbugger.com

 

[I*heart*MickeyMouse]

NotUrsula thanks for that website! I registered and posted over there as well. I am looking at some very disturbing pictures depicting bedbugs and their "stuff" hiding in crevices and stuff, and I didn't see any of that in my room... thankfully

Thanks again

 

[RadioNate]

I love the people at begbugger.com. We got them from a hotel in Savannah, GA. Yeah, 8/16 seems a little long for just noticing now if you brought bed bugs home from a trip.

However, some people don't react at all and the usually don't bite pets. They just can't deal with the hair.

That said there are a MILLION things that bite.

Do you live in a house? Apartment?

Anyone you know who has traveled recently? Has the scrapbooking stuff been anywhere?

Next time, save the bug you find. Save all of it. An entomologist can tell you what they are.

 

[jobhunter]

Perhaps get a glue trap and put it up near your pillow. See what you catch!

Is it food-grade DE? I think that is safer. I bought the bed covers with the Bedbug Lock zipper. I sprinkled it in there and then zipped them up. I sprinkled it all around the footboards of my bed. I vacuumed every night and washed my sheets every night, dried them on high for an hour (very important). This went on for 2 weeks.

My sister's coworker picked them up in a hotel from their suitcases. She never hired an exterminator or got the DE or got the mattress covers. She just did a very scorched earth policy on her room and the kids' rooms. Vacuuming every night, daily washing of bedding, removing anything from the floor around the bed, etc. It took her about a month before she stopped doing that but last I talked to her it had been 6 months with no bites.

What state are you in?

Even if you do have bedbugs, you can get rid of them if you are proactive and strike fast. I bet you are reading a lot of worst-case scenarios right now but just telling you as someone who has been there, done that (and whose EYE SWELLED SHUT! I looked like I had smallpox or something!!!), it can be done.

 

[I*heart*MickeyMouse]

Posting from my iPod, so sorry for lack of quotes lol... I decided against the DE, after reading about it... Nobody has travelled recently except for us, back 8/16. The scrapping supplies have been in the same spot for three years - moved only to vacuum.

I have to run out to open house at school... I will check back in tonite. Thanks for the help!!!!!