Not for the faint of heart
 

I am going to post this here. I would like some support. It is not about dieting at all so if not interested please read no further.

I have bedbugs. Sigh. I do not even want to bring this up in therapy group due to the negative conotations. I will tell you I am not a hoarder, DH and I are very clean, and if anyone has lived through this you may not want to make it public and you can always send me a pm. I am just very down about this. I had them about 2 years ago in an apartment building. I got them from the neighbour that lived below me,, they crawled through the heating vents. I was getting bitten for months. Everyone told me no way they are bed bugs,, they are mosquito bites. My DH never shows signs of being bitten. So we had two sprays and they were gone.

If anyone knows anything about this, then you know the cost and how much work this is. You have to vacuum daily and throw the bag out each time. You have to wash and dry all clothing, sheets, towels etc. YOu have to live out of plastic bags for a month at least. You end up doing laundry everyday. You search all books etc. You toss stuff out. I bought bed bug covers for two pillows today and it cost me $50. I had a mattress cover already. I just bought a new bed from Sleep Country two months ago.

So I have only lived in this new building for 2 months and I have bedbugs. Second time in 2 years. I have no idea where they came from. A neighbour could have them and not report them to managment. I do not know how anyone on a low income or who is elderly or disabled could even cope. It is so much physical work. And so costly to get rid of. We are not even having to pay for the spraying as they building manager does that. So in theory some people may have them and may not know or not report it for whatever reason. Or maybe one hijacked me or DH somewhere. I do not know.

We even bought a new steamer and steamed the rugs. We had to buy tons of bins the first time so still have those. DH and I spent over $1,000 2 years ago on this. We had to buy covers, etc. bins, so many garbage bags, washing everything at the laundramat etc. Crazy.

Not to mention the mental distress over this. I am getting bites and search and search and see no bugs.
So in two weeks we get spray number two. I hope that will be all clear.

Thanks to those of you who read this far even if you do not respond.

I have no experience of this myself, but it sounds awful.

Hope you get rid of the pesky little things soon. What a nightmare.

I only have one experience with bed bugs, thank god. It was back in 2007 and I had moved from FL to VA. I made the drive with my ex-boyfriend (we were dating at the time) and I didn't have a home set up to move into, so we stayed at a hotel in the town I was moving to for the first week. Me, being pretty cheap when it comes to certain things, opted to stay at the Days Inn. It was a small college town and I guess football season was in full swing, so rooms were expensive and hard to come by. When I saw the Days Inn right off the main road, close to my new job location, and it was only gonna cost me $85 a night, I hopped on it. The first morning I woke up, I was itching on my neck and shoulders, but thought nothing of it. Later that day, I started showing what looked like a cross of mosquito bites and blisters. I saw some little black bugs on the mattress, but I've never seen bed bugs (I didn't even know it was a real thing up till then), so all I saw were bugs and I wanted to change rooms. My ex went to the front desk and told them this, but they brushed us off and said they had no other available rooms. I didn't think anything too serious, so we ended up staying the rest of the week.

I found an apartment and moved my stuff in that weekend. I remember looking at myself in the mirror and seeing all these blisters and red bumps literally covering my entire neck and arms. I thought I had caught the pox or something. I started looking up my symptoms on the internet, and realized it was bed bugs. Then I read up on them and found out they can travel in your luggage and infest your home. I was freaked out. Fortunately, I never found them in that apartment. It was a horrendous situation, though. I felt dirty. Those marks on me were so embarrassing. I started a new job covered in bed bug bites! I had to try to hide it under my clothes and put make up on my neck. Funny enough, my ex maybe had one bite mark on him, but they feasted on me. Suffice it to say, that was the last time I stayed at a budget hotel and I avoid all Days Inns and their affiliates like the plague.

I can only imagine what you're going through. I remember being so paranoid I had brought them back to my brand new apartment. Can you guys get your place tented or something? Is there a way to kill them all off in one swoop? Now you got me worried 'cause I live in an apartment again and didn't know they could travel through vents!

I haven't had to deal with bedbugs (knock on wood), but our cats have brought home fleas a few times. I can empathize, pests like that suck.

How awful! They are everywhere nowadays. It's NOT anything you did or didn't do. One of my friends basicly had to move out of her house, through out most of her belongings and smog the house. And she is a very clean and tidy person. Having bed bugs does not mean anything other than you are extremely unlucky in this situation. They are rampant and it's turning into a huge problem. They can live for months in between "feedings" and that is one reason they are so hard to get rid of. I'm so sorry!!!

I haven't had them thank God, but I watched a show where they sealed the house somehow and a company came in and heated the house. I don't remember how hot it had to be and for how long but the bugs literally roasted to death along with the eggs/babies. It was on a show called infested on animal planet. I know they are a huge pain in the tush, and boy do I feel for you. It isn't just cheap motels that can have them, some of the ritziest places have them as well.
Good luck on getting rid of them, I really hope the second treatment works.
Gah, now I am itchy, mosquitoes! Fleas! Bed bugs! Head lice! I wonder what purpose these pests serve.
Edited to add: I just looked they used panels to heat the rooms to 130 degrees but I couldn't watch to see how long. It is on a show called verminators as well.

re:
 

I don't think its anything to be embarrassed about. The bedbug population has just exploded in the last few years in the United States for a few reasons - resistant to chemicals, regulating strong chemicals that work, etc.

I don't know how good those sprays really are. I know the heat treatment works but is outrageously expensive. I'm glad the landlord is picking up the tab and I hope it works.

I don't know if there's any way for you to move to a single family home or not, but it sounds like living in multi unit places anymore are just not working. You can't control your neighbors :(

I'm terrified of picking them up somewhere..even when traveling I'm worried they'll hitch a ride on my suitcase while running through the airport trolleys.

Don't be embarrassed - they are everywhere. :(

I did a lot of bedbug research this past year, because I was convinced that I had picked up one from a hotel I stayed in with my sister. I was sure I had picked one up and brought it home (I still think I did).

For several months, every three weeks or so I would get a bite or two or three, usually three (in the triangle pattern of three bites that is stereotypical of bedbug bits).

Hubby was convinced it was spider or misquito bites. and that it couldn't be bed bugs because he wasn't being bitten (but apparently many people have absolutely no inflammatory reaction from the bites. They don't feel them and don't get a rash of any kind).

So maybe hubby was getting bitten and didn't notice. All I know is that they were itchier than any bug bite I'd ever had, and they got very, very dark red.

We were extremely lucky that our bedbug (if that's what it was) apparently has moved on to bloodier pastures (either to one of the neihbors or to bed-bug heaven), as I havent had a bite in six months and after all the research I did, I feel like we dodged an extremely itchy bullet.

You definitely don't have to be an untidy person to get bed bugs. Sure hoarders often get them, but not necessarily because they're hoarders, but because the more places they have to hide, the harder it is to get rid of them (and many of the mental problems that can come with hoarding makes it unlikely for the hoarders to try very hard), which is why hoarders are associated with vermin of various types. It's harder to find and exterminate vermin in a hoarding situation, but anyone can get vermin (of most types).

In graduate school, the graduate apartments (owned by the college) were so cockroach infested that the apartment had to be sprayed virtually every month. It got to the point that I kept my dishes, silverware, glasses and all my pantry food in the refrigerator, so I could be reasonably sure cockroaches hadn't crawled on any of it. I'd wash my pots and pans before and after cooking.

I had a pet rat, and I used to tell friends that I'd bought the rat to eat the cockroaches (I was tempted to let him loose in the apartment at night to do so, but I figured he'd either be poisoned by the poisons in the symptoms of the poison-eating cockroaches, or by the poison the cockroaches hadn't eaten).

Don't be embarassed about it! As Vex said, bed bugs became a real problem in the last few years. EVERYBODY can have some

I sympathize though. I never had to go through that , but one of my close friend did and it looks like a real pain in the ***. I can totally understand you being exausted.

Is the manager of the building know the situation? Maybe some other appartments have some too. To make sure all the building is clear from them could be cool, you wouldn't need to spend all this money because of someone else lack of sense of responsability :(

That sucks so badly, I'm sorry! I haven't had an infestation, myself, but like lots of other insects it isn't actually a failure of the homeowner that results in population booms - it doesn't make you or your house dirty. I hope you find a solution that is less time consuming and expensive :(

Well, a few months ago, I found a scorpion resting in the folds of my night gown and another on the ceiling. I don't think anyone will ever visit us again. Apparently scorpion infestations are expensive and difficult to get rid of, too. I have only seen those two in the house, and apparently the type that lives in our area are not terribly dangerous, but, yuck anyway.

We also have big fuzzy tarantulas and red, stinging ants.

Like others have stated on here, I read that there has been a big increase in the bed bug population. I am sorry they chose you to move in with.

Just for entertainment, maybe you should try to figure out how many extra calories you are using in you eradication efforts.

Many years ago...when I was single (just celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary) my roommate and I moved into an old house that had been turned into a 4 plex. One of the other tennants had bed bugs and didn't report it. Shortly after moving in I started to get bites. With in 6 weeks I looked like I had the Queen Mother case of the chicken pox. It was AWFUL! We had the apartment smogged and steamed several times. I was super sensative to the bites. My mother is a germ-o-phobe and wouldn't let me come stay with her for fear I would bring them into her home. After 5 months of living there the place was condemmed. We didn't have much for furniture (fresh out of high school) my roommate and I literally left with little more than the clothes on our backs. It was awful.

I hope everything works out for you!

Maybe I could send you some of the brown recluse spiders my house is infested with. They might eat some of the bedbugs. I have lived in this house for about 10 years and it has been crawling with them since day one. Sprays don't seem to kill them either. I swear if the termites, spiders and ants all moved out my house would collapse.

This literally made me LOL when I read it! We had cane spiders in my childhood home. Not poisonous, but big hairy things that could jump something unbelievable and no amount of spray would kill them. We also had giant flying cockroaches. They were EVERYWHERE in my hometown, you could have the cleanest house and it didn't matter. Just thinking of those cockroaches are making my skin crawl.... I would MUCH rather have a bed bug crawling on my leg than one of those roaches!

As others stated, it's nothing to be embarassed about. Just like anyone can get lice, anyone can get bed bugs, and they are awful!

Thankfully we're mostly pest free, we have a dog but no ticks or fleas. He was a rescue and had lots of ticks from a farm he was at. OMG I was paranoid for EVER that they'd get off him and on our kids. I had that dog deticked and dipped probably three times before I really relaxed. :lol:

Now we just deal with an occassional regular black roach or wolf spider (ACK!). I lived in an apartment once that was infested with brown German Cockroaches which are freaking hard to get rid of (not quite like bed bugs though) and also travel from home to home in suitcases. I had my bed in the middle of the room because I was afraid they'd crawl up the wall. I lost a lot of sleep and only made it a month before I had to move. Ugh! Bugs!

native alaskans know that pieces of real cedar will keep spiders away...i dont know if that would help you in your house or not...but we keep real cedar pieces among our woodpile on the porch and have NEVER seen a spider of any kind in the wood or hitching a ride inside on the wood...there are spiders around the porch itself but none living in the woodpile on the porch...interesting...perhaps that will help you or not....also read that peppermint repels spiders also but havent tried it personally

Thanks for the advice. I will be trying the cedar, maybe have hubby put some pieces under the house and in the attic as well as in rooms.

First of all thank you to everyone who read and responded in such a thoughtful way. I really appreciate the non-judgmental responses. I cannot talk about this with many people around me due to the way I would be or could be perceived.

Lakilaulea Thanks for sharing your story. They do not tent aparments here in Toronto. They use hot steam and spray poison. No one could be in the apartment for 6 hours after the spraying. I had to move my cats to a friends apartment. They were not amused, the cats I mean. :) I know they did a good job and even steam behind the pictures hanging on the wall. The PCO fellow said he saw nothing but took me at my word. I know what the bites look and feel like from last time.
The best way to prevent is to have all cracks/holes etc. sealed/caulked, wash everyting in hot water and use the dryer for the full cycle especially if using a shared laundry room, do not hang clothing in laundry room to dry, transport dirty and clean laundry in new garbage bags, do not leave clothing on the floor and change clothing when coming home, put those clothes in a garbage bag. And hope for the best. :)
Flying cockroaches, yikes. Do you live somewhere hot? I have heard of them in places like Florida and the Phillipines.

Missy Krissy Thanks for your empathy. I have two cats but they are indoor only so no opportunity to get fleas. I do not think they are being bitten and if so it must not be much.

midwife Thanks for your understanding words.

tubolard Yes there are a variety of ways at least from what I saw in my research of the topic. I have been reading bedbug forums and many people have them.
Brown recluse spiders hmmm? I looked them up and they are poisonous, aren't they? Do you get bitten? I would say yes but then I would have bed bugs and spiders. LOL

[BVex][/B] Thanks for being encouraging. Rent is very expensive here in Toronto. At the moment DH and I can afford an apartment and getting a condo would be similar. Even the expensive condo units have outbreaks. Some people who travel often get them too. I was happy where I am. The building is actually quite clean, the one we moved in to two months ago. I just don't know where they came from this time. I just hope the second spray takes.

kaplods Thank you for such an informative post. Yes I find bed bug bites very distinctive. My DH does not appear to be bitten at all. Perhaps I produce more CO2? :) At first I had single bites on my foot or ankle. I would not necessarily notice them until later in the morning when they would be raised, very red, the size of a dime or larger and very, very itchy. This round began with three large ones in a line on my arm. Then two beside one another on my butt, then two on my hip, then my foot and so the story goes. But since spraying two days ago no bites. I still have not seen a bug or casing or egg. I did initially see a tiny splotch of blood on the sheet and a dark spot on the box spring, I think excrement. I am going to buy bed bug covers for the two box springs (i have a king size bed) and climb ups for the bed legs. I just think climb ups will help with ongoing monitoring. I would rather have cock roaches then bed bugs anyday. I had roaches a long time ago when I lived in a high rise, they sprayed and they were gone.

TurboMammoth In theory the building really should alert and spray adjoining apartments but they will not. I think they worry about starting a panic. They will come and seal cracks etc.

Arctic Mama Thanks for your kind words. I feel better now as we are dealing with it and this worked last time so it should this time.

gailr42:) I am sure I burned quite a few calories but also pulled my left shoulder muscle lifting and steaming. Scorpions and tarantulas sound scary.

Kate Thanks for sharing your story with me.

XLMuffnTop I had cockroaches years ago in another apartment, they are common in cities, but they were fairly easy to get rid of. They sprayed and all gone. But they were bad for awhile and disgusting. LOL

So as an update it is two days since the spraying. No bites. That is good. I am doing all that I should. This weekend DH and I will do a major vacuum the toss the vacuum bag. We will also put on bed bug protectors on the box springs, we have two for our king size bed. I am hopeful. It is hard finding our clothing in all these dang garbage bags though. :)

I will keep you posted.

I'm glad to hear everything is fine so far. I have a strictly indoor cat and he's so neurotic I don't know anyone who'd be willing to put him up for me if I had to get this place fumigated! Good to know your kitties are ok :)

I've seen cockroaches in FL, I lived there for almost 10 years, but they were never anywhere near as big as the ones in Hawaii (where I was born and raised) nor did any of them fly. I've seen grown men scream like little girls the first time one comes flying at them.

Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely remember them if/when I ever come across those nasty bugs again!

My husband didn't get any noticeable bites either, but apparently not everyone gets a reaction when bitten. I've also read that this is true of brown recluse spiders.

Once after staying with our MIL in their basement guest room (that hadn't been used in some time). I had a very strange bug bite. I woke up in the morning with a small painful bump, assuming it was a spider bite, but it ended up bruising in a way I'd never seen a bug bite bruise. After a few days it swelled to the size of a golf-ball and turned very, very dark blue. It only hurt for one day, and I kept an eye on it to make sure it was healing.

Apparently from what I read of the brown recluse, not everyone reacts to their venom in the same way. . I thought they were universally poisonous and that everyone who got bitten had the same reaction (I knew a girl in gradeschool who was bitten on the arm by a brown recluse and ended up having to have skin grafts because the bite did so much damage to the skin and muscle around the bite).

But what I read is that about half the time, the bites aren't any worse than a non-poisonous bite and cause illness or necrosis (breaking down the skin tissue) only like 10 to 15% of the time.

It's weird to me that some people will have a mild reaction, some will have no reaction, and others will have a severe reaction.

I still don't know if hubby was getting bitten by the alleged bed bug and wasn't having a reaction (which apparently is common) or whether the bed bug was avoiding him for some reason. Apparently it's quite common to be bitten and have absolutely no reaction whatsoever, not even an ordinary bite.

With bed bugs, the good news (apparently) is that there's never been a confirmed case of illness being spread by bed bugs. So while they're nasty, and itchy, they're apparently not dangerous (which can't be said of fleas).

When I lived with my parents when going to graduate school our dog and two cats had a terrible flea infestation. The vet told us it was a very bad flea year and said it was the worst flea year that he had personally seen since becoming a vet.

It took months and months to get rid of the fleas. We bathed the trio every few days (the cats REALLY liked that. At least my cat was good about it, but I'd have to lean into the stream of water while she clung to me, crying like a human baby).

Eventually they all learned to like the flea shampoo baths because it must have relieved the itching. Although my cat never learned to sit in the sink without clinging to me, so I had to take a shower after every bathing session.

The flea medication from the vet eventually worked (because it prevents new fleas from being born, but you have to wait out a few lifecycles first).

Our poor maltese took the brunt of the infestation (because they were dog fleas, apparently every species has their own unique "flea," and dog fleas would rather not infest cats and vice versa. So while the cats were getting some fleas, the dog was covered in them. Being a maltese (a tiny white dog with pale skin) as soon as you'd wet him down, you'd see all the little black fleas running for the head (which is why you have to apply the shampoo to the head and work backward).


I feel itchy just writing about it.

In college we had all kinds of things, always something new (15 people in the house plus friends and guests.. you get the idea)

Really great for bedbugs and cheap: Diatomaceous Earth. Kinda messy as its a powder but the food grade stuff is safe to breathe in or even eat so you're good - but if you just have a line of that along every wall, in every nook and cranny that's hard to reach with the vac, around the bed and underneath every doorway - you'll start seeing the effects within a couple days. They walk through it and the powder cuts into their exoskeletons and they dry out within a couple hours. It's quite satisfying :)

Plus, for $20 on Amazon you can get a 5lb bag that's WAY PLENTY for any size house and several applications.

There are brown recluse spiders where I live. There seems to be a lot of "lore" about how dangerous they are or are not. It is hard to figure out where the truth lies. Given that, I guess the thing to do is avoid them.

The "lore" about black widow spiders, rattle snakes, tarantula wasps and bats is pretty standardized and also close to the actual science. I think we haven't known about brown recluse spiders as long as the other things and the "lore" isn't well established.

Anyone want to stay in my guest room? If nothing else, you will have a cat with no fleas in your face. The lore, which seems to be true, is that fleas don't live in the desert.

I am getting very itchy reading but day three no bites.

Kaplods yes it is weird the variances of how people are effected by bites. I had dogs for years but was lucky to avoid flea problems. Thanks for pointing out although irksome bed bugs are not dangerous.

Inspiredby I used diatomaceous earth for roaches years ago. It worked. The bed bugs though freak me out more so and thus I am willing to risk the spraying. I want them gone asap. Thanks for the tip though, might be good to use for prevention.

Gail have you been bitten by spiders? As a child I was bitten by some run of the mill spider and my ankle swelled up.

Check your books if you have a lot of books. I've heard they like to get into the bindings.

:( good luck

I agree with what others have said, that it isn't something to be embarassed about. I don't know why anyone would assume something negative about you just because you were unlucky enough to be going through this. I'm glad that they seem to be gone (or going away). When I read this, I just kept thinking what an awful and stressful thing it must be to go through. I hope things go smoothly for here forward, with them staying gone.

Oh my. This past year we have dealt with bed bugs. We got them from a cabin we rented for a few nights in the mountains. Washed EVERY piece of clothing and linen we owned (2 days at the laundromat), tried diatomaceous earth, bought a $900 steamer, cedar oil and finally had the house tented for $3000. There is no way you can get rid of bed bugs without tenting as they get into wall sockets and even live on the ceiling. A pure nightmare. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
We have a newly remodeled home, no kids and are very clean. Can't imagine dealing with this with kids and all their stuffed animals etc.
The fumigation company made it clear to prevent reinfestation no luggage can enter the home after a trip, everything must be taken out in the garage and washed and dried before being brought into the home.
Taken all the fun out of traveling, but all you need is one bug and the cycle/nightmare starts all over...

Thanks again to all who responded.

I had my second spraying on Tuesday. I had visible bites every night since initial treatment. On both visits from the pco they said they saw nothing, no evidence at all. The second person was even more thorough but both times they thought I may not have bed bugs at all. I know I do or hopefully past tense now. I had them before from a neighbor and I know the bites. 2 years ago when I had theme never saw a thing but one dead bug and one casing at least a week after the second spray.

So three nights no bites. I hope this is it. Last time they were done after the second spray. I bought covers for my box spring and ordered climb ups to monitor. I will unpack in two weeks if still no bites.

In a sense it is good I react to the bites otherwise we would not have known we had them for ages.

I bite in the 9 days since the second spray. Here's hoping. On Sunday we are vacuuming, steam cleaning, sorting and putting stuff away. Not the linens or clothing yet.

I have a scar on my thigh about the size of a golfball where I was bit by a recluse and the skin started to eat itself away. There is no lore. They're dangerous.

Update.

Bites increased a few days after second treatment and now DH has several red welts from bites. We steam cleaned again. Still have not sighted a single bug. .??

Got climb ups for the bed. Box spring now has a bed bug cover on. I do now see 4 small black splotches on inside of cover and assume it is dead squished bugs or excrement.

PCO even doubted we had bed bugs but showed bites.

Third treatment is tomorrow. Then back again in two weeks. Sigh so have to move all furniture again, take cats to friend etc. Etc.

Spray 3 today. Washing bedding again - new sheets getting g threadbare. Vacuumed lad night and disposed of bag. Cats to a neighbor. Bed pulled apart. Plugs unplugged. Furniture pulled 6 inches from the wall. Bag ready to leave for 6 hours once pco arrives.

To ight will put bed together, get cats and move furniture.

Will this ever end??????