Quick context - My parents have had bedbugs for over 15 years after purchasing a used bed from Goodwill. Despite moving apartments, the infestation always followed them because they never sought professional treatment. My two youngest sisters and I grew up getting eaten alive every night. When I was 19, I finally had enough and left almost everything behind, taking only a few clothes to avoid bringing bedbugs with me. I was extremely careful and managed to leave without bringing any. My second oldest sister, Tilly, eventually moved out too and also avoided bringing any bugs with her. Our youngest sister, Ellie, still lives with our parents, and the infestation is ongoing. I haven't stepped foot in their apartment in six years.

Recently, Tilly planned to fly down and stay with me for my upcoming birthday. She assured me she would take precautions when visiting our family, and I agreed to let her stay. Yesterday, the three of us went to brunch and planned to see a movie afterward. Tilly and I drove together, while Ellie drove separately. As we were leaving brunch, I noticed Tilly had placed bags she intended to bring into my apartment inside Ellie's car.

Knowing that Ellie regularly spends time in our parents' infested home, I immediately became uncomfortable. Bedbugs can hitchhike on belongings and potentially be transported in vehicles. Although the bags may not have caught bugs, I wasn't willing to take the risk. I told Tilly she could no longer stay at my apartment. Both of my sisters accused me of being dramatic and insisted that a few bags being in Ellie's car wouldn't give me bedbugs. They also think that I'm being massively inconsiderate as it's been a while since the three of us had spent time together.

What hurt most was their refusal to acknowledge my history with this. I spent a good chunk of my childhood dealing with bedbugs , and I've worked hard over the past six years to create a place to call home. I refuse to risk that. After a long argument, I blocked all of them on their phones and social media because I was tired of having my concerns dismissed. I understand the bed bugs may not have transferred to the bags, but given our family's history, I don't think my concerns are unreasonable.

Have you all seen this? I’ve been terrified of movie theater transmission and typically go only twice a year and dry my clothes upon returning home. Once I started seeing the blanket trend (a lot of folks—not just a rare few), I straight quit the theater.

For you all with bed bug trauma, doesn’t this trigger the hell out of you?

I found this suspected bed bug dead in the middle of my bed when I woke up Monday morning. I live in student accomodation and reached out for help the same day. They sent someone to my apartment on Wednesday when I was at uni and confirmed I had bedbugs in my apartment. I was told to prepare my apartment for treatment, bagging all my clothes, shoes, bags, books etc.. I have been looking frantically around my apartment for anymore signs but I can not see a single speck of poop, eggs, anything. I am so stressed about not knowing where this one came from.

Most importantly they got me a temporary place to stay while my apartment is being treated. And I was wondering how to avoid accidentally bringing any bugs/eggs with me. I bought a completely new outfit, everything (shoes, pants, sweater etc) and wrapped it in plastic bags (they were wrapped tight before entering the apparent and are currently hanging in bags in the bathroom) and I washed a towel on 60°C before running it through the dryer twice. How should I get changed and leave my apartment without bringing anything with me? Would I be safe showering here, putting on the new clothes and the leaving straight away? If i don't touch anything? Am I overthinking this? I just don't want to have to go through packing down my entire apartment again, as a student it takes up way too much time that I don't have...

i'm wondering what steps people take to avoid bringing bedbugs home after staying at a hotel or other accommodation. i've heard they can hide in luggage and clothing, so i'm curious about what precautions are actually worth taking when you get home.

i want to be careful without making the whole process unnecessarily complicated. for those who travel often, what do you usually do with your bags and clothes after a trip? are there any precautions that have made a real difference for you?

I got a second hand bed last weekend, I went away on Wednesday but noticed bites on Thursday I assumed they were from the hotel but I couldnt get the fact it was a second hand bed out of my mind. I came home yesterday tore the bedroom apart and found the cluster in the picture. Im so anxious and ive had contamination ocd take over my life for the last few years and one of my initial reasons was my sister had a bedbug problem. I luckily never caught it back then but now this has confirmed all my fears. We are in the process of renovating our house with open floorboards, open sockets and holes in the plastered walls my stuff is also kind of everywhere in bin bags because we've been living out of them.

Ive bought the stuff recommend on this site, I burnt the headboard but unsure if they all were killed as I only burnt that section.

Whats the best plan of action?

I am pretty convinced I have a small bedbug infestation, but I’ve had very unusual bite patterns and no evidence of actual bugs. For the last two weeks I’ve woken up every few days with only one new bite. They all start as welts then later become round blisters and get very very itchy. My husband has not gotten any bites despite being in the same bed.

I had searched for bugs and found no sign but after I woke up with three new bites I did a full clean, washed all my bedding and exposed clothes, did a very detailed search, and cleared anything I could from my bedroom. For six days after I had no new bites, but I woke up with another one this morning. My bedframe does not have typical legs so I can’t buy interceptors. I’ve ruled out any other possible bugs it could be so it must be bed bugs, but is this usual? Please help!

Sorry, I already killed it in the low light before grabbing a photo. I have been experiencing a few bites here and there over the last few weeks, but I sort of attract all bug bites lol.

I have been getting bites mostly on my legs but i haven’t seen any bugs/ mosquitoes and it’s making me think i have a possible bed bug problem. So far haven’t found any but have heard they can be hard to spot. Could this be an egg?

Mid August while I was sitting on the couch having lunch I noticed something crawling on my arm in the corner of my eye and freaked but luckily caught the bug before it scurried off. To my horror it was a bedbug, knew immediately because I have dealt with them as a teen. I immediately panicked because I know how horrible these critters can be and because of how sensitive my skin is to their bites, they swell excessively, it was torturous.

We looked through everything, our couch, our mattress along with the frame, got rid of our rug in the bedroom and contacted our landlord. We couldn’t find signs of anything else, no dropping stains, blood streaks, or skin sheds. They immediately got someone to come and just treat our apartment, they didn’t inspect, they just came and sprayed regardless. They treated our couch and did our entire bedroom. We treated and bagged all of our clothes, encased our mattress in protector, and what couldn’t be washed was placed in black bags and in the sun during a massive heatwave we had (temps up to 100 degrees that whole week). We kept watch, we kept checking and everything seemed fine. We thought perhaps I had brought in a hitchhiker that day because only an hour before seeing it we had sat down at a little shady restaurant while we waited for our food. Things have felt okay since, we stopped checking every week, no skin reactions, no bites(?), maybe we got lucky.

Well two days ago when I got up to get ready for work I noticed a seed looking bug crawling on the edge of the baseboard in the bathroom. I initially thought it was baby roach (I live in a big city) and caught it with some paper and when I looked I noticed again to my horror another bedbug. We again have looked through our couch, our bed, flipped the frame to check every part and nothing. No signs of any more being there and we just feel so confused. The bathroom is next to our bedroom.

We aren’t too sure what to do. My husband and I are dreading the idea of having to treat all our clothes again, we unfortunately don’t have a washer or dryer so it costed quite a bit of money to treat it all. I have no idea why it would be in the bathroom? Also I haven’t had any skin reactions, is it possible to have been very allergic to their bites and not have any reactions to them a decade later? Part of us think that they may be traveling up from our downstairs neighbor because we don’t see any signs of them but I don’t want to jump to any conclusions. We also had workmen come and fix some caulking in the bathroom about a week ago now, could it have come from them? Any advice on what to do? Where else should we be looking? I just don’t want this to get worse, especially as we are getting ready to have our baby soon :(

Found a dead bug about 3mm big. There were antennae on top but fell off. Please let me know if this is a bed bug thanks

I found this bug on the baseboard in my bedroom between my bed and a bookshelf. And I'm freaking out thinking I might have a bedbug infestation. Does this look like a bedbug to you?

I tried Google but it is useless, it identifies the first photo as a bedbug and the second photo as definitely not a bedbug... but it's the same bug, just different photos.

More info for context: I don't have carpet or rugs anywhere in my home, I clean regularly, but since I haven't been sleeping on my bed for the last 3 months I've only been washing the bedding every so often. The bug is the size of a big lentil and when squeezed it was dry (maybe a bug shell?).

What should I do now? It's bedbugs?

Thanks in advance for your help. Any advice is welcome!

Freaking out here....

The points:

- Four days ago I noticed I was itchy. Sure enough, I had a few bytes (yes, I know that is spelled incorrectly but the bots keep deleting my post when I spell that word correctly assuming I am including pics) on my torso. For context, I sleep naked. That was a Thursday.

- Throughout the weekend I got more bytes, some on torso, some on backs of upper legs. Most are singular bytes but there are two sets of three bytes.

- Immediately started looking for evidence of bed bugs. My mattress is only a few months old and it's black so that is not ideal in my search.

- looked EXTENSIVELY with lights and magnified glasses. Nothing. No signs of bed bugs, no blood marks on sheets or the white mattress cover.

- hubby who sleeps in the same bed was not getting bitten at all.

- Yesterday, we flipped the mattress and changed the sheets.

- This morning HE has bytes and I have none. He has about 6 new bytes. Groups of two or three.

- Again, pulled sheets, searched extensively - nothing. No blood marks on sheets either.

For context - hubby was in the emergency room in a trauma room about a week before the first bites started appearing on myself. That is the only thing we can think of.

When do you call an exterminator? Should you have proof first? Is it possible that it's a lone male hitchhiker?

I need advice on how to proceed. I know that early intervention is key but I also can't definitively say that it's bedbugs and we have no proof.

Advice?

Hi. I think I have bed bugs in the apartment I moved in 2 months ago. The thing is my room, the hallway, and my flatmate's room have carpets that are stuck to the floor (literally the whole floor is one carpet). The only rooms that dont have carpets are the kitchen and the bathroom. Do you think the only way to get rid of bed bugs is to remove those carpets? Or can there be other solutions without removing them? Im asking this because I dont know if you can apply the insecticides on the carpets, or maybe the bed bugs could even find spots to hide under the carpet. Has anyone ever had problems like this before?

My mom and I bought this powder online after our downstairs neighbor (we live in an apartment) told us that they mixed it with water and sprayed it around resulting in their bed bugs suddenly disappearing, so we did just that.

It smelled like uncooked broccoli for a few hours but we were hopeful that it'll work after dealing with a strange pop up of them. Its currently 4am in the morning, I just got bit, none of the beds are infested in the main bedroom (I split a room with my parents due to housing situation) but only I seem to be the one getting bit and finding at least one under my pillow, is it because I'm closest to the heater? Are the bedbugs able to move from one apartment to another through the heating system?

I'm afraid that once the colder season comes around for the main office to turn on the system it'll cause these pop-ups to be worse and cause me to lose even more sleep and we can't always afford washing my things due to how often I get bit if we don't find the bug that bit me.

The main office won't do anything with exterminators, we constantly have to deal with ownership switching around which means contracts with other companies are delayed and we get a half-assed extermination which does nothing for us and we have seen the situation get worse on top of cockroaches and mice. Its a disaster! Does anyone else know another product or remedy on how to at least make them migrate somewhere else or eliminate them? I'm at my final straw with being woken up every 2 weeks with a new bite.

Hi all, does anyone know what these little specs I found on my bed are? They’re hard to touch and I can easily pick them up (I.e. I don’t think they’re droppings), and l think(?) they’re too dark and uniform to be any sort of shell, but I found them largely congregated in one spot of my bed (just on top of my mattress under the fitted sheet, not in any crevice). They’re definitely not live bugs either since there aren’t legs and I can’t see a head. The photos of one of the things on my finger shows both the front and back. I haven’t noticed any stains or shells so far.

Sorry if this is obvious to other people, but I’ve had bed bugs before and still have a lot of anxiety around it, so any insight on what this might be would be amazing!! Thank you

I found a quite dead bed bug in my living room, and I’ve checked a lot of the surrounding area along with my bedroom, and have nothing else suspicious. It’s a 1 bed 1 bath. I am continuing to scour, and my leasing office has been notified (per lease). Upon finding this, I assumed the worst and I still do. But is there any chance of a one and done?

Hi, maybe at the start of the year my partner had been sleeping on our sofa and was complaining of itching in his sleep. I just dismissed him as it was only him having the issue, although it went on for months. Eventually we all started to get hives when we sat on the sofa and I don't know how we convinced ourselves but we just thought we were allergic to the couch and that it was just grubby from the kids. We started to put blankets over the sofa. Again it was only when we sat on the sofa on an evening - no one was getting hives during the day sat on there or when sleeping on their own bed.

About 3 months ago I saw 3 live bed bugs around my partner when he was asleep on the sofa. I immediately panicked and told him we need to get rid of it but first we had to seal it to make sure nothing fell off. I was then awoken at 5am that morning to him dragging the sofas out of the house without covering them!! It sent me into a state of panic but I was hopeful all would be well. I steamed all the crevices and Hoovered in the room (the door to the living room is also the front door) and bought a new couch. All was good for around two weeks.

After the two weeks I saw another live bug on the couch, I once again steamed and hoovered the room and all crevices. Then I started to see bites on my children. At the time they were sharing a bed (by their own choice) but only the youngest was showing bites and hives. Previously we'd all reacted to the bites so we thought maybe it was just him being bit. Of course didn't make it okay but made it seem smaller. Again repeated the ritual of steaming the carpets and walls and beds. I haven't seen any live bugs for the last month or two, nor any other signs such as eggs, skin sheds or poo (I'd only ever seen a shed skin once, never eggs or poo). But my son is still getting bites. Last week I purchased them a new set of beds (metal instead of wood) and again hoovered and steamed the entire room.

The issue is the house is also falling apart, we have so much stuff and no room to put any of it! We're in a tiny two bedroom house with 3 children (all under 4) so trying to declutter is hard as we already have barely anything. By falling apart I mean there are huge cracks in the walls (some where you can actually see outside) and I'm worried they're in there walls literally! I've steamed directly into the walls and we've had no new bites the last night or so. We can't really afford professional treatment just yet - is there anything that will absolutely work in the meantime or are we betting just forking out for treatment? If we go for treatment will just the heat or chemical alone be enough or do I spend more to do both?

I have found these on my sheets. Have not found any skins or flakes or anything besides these. Can these all be from bed bugs? These were taken in different days. I just noticed some more that appeared overnight. I also have no visible bites but I am not sure.

Hi

I have bed bugs... But I need to know if this is bed bug nymph

Hi all,
Sorry for the poor formatting, I’m on mobile.

I live in Canada and visited the USA for the weekend.
We stayed at a Country Inn from Friday until Sunday (today). Yesterday evening I thought I saw a mosquito bite on my arm. When I work up, my arms had multiple welts and my legs had a few. My baby was on the floor beside the bed, sleeping on a blanket. She doesn’t have any welts, but there was a cluster of about 50+ eggs on the corner above her head. When I lifted the bed skirt, there’s were three, very well fed bedbugs crawling around.

I know all of my clothes have to go in the dryer, but I’m worried about her car seat and stroller, since they were by the foot of my bed both nights. And I’m not sure what to do about the diaper bag since it’s a backpack style bag. I would appreciate any guidance.
I can answers questions, if there’s any clarification needed.

I found this on my bed at 7:30 pm and it scared the piss outta me, am I screwed? I couldn’t find any stains or other bugs, and I have no bites

Found a single dead bed bug and am spiraling. My property manager is sending a professional exterminator tomorrow but says their policy is not to inspect other units with shared walls unless there’s a bad infestation. I get where he’s coming from, but my single bug (I’ve ripped my apartment apart and no other signs) could well indicate that the bug traveled from an apartment with a shared wall.

What’s your experience with apartment living when only your apartment is treated? Does this increase reinfestation? I’m feeling so hopeless.

i’m not quite sure if this is a bed bug and i’ve looked around my bed for more signs of anything and i don’t see anything at all. can someone help me? is it worth taking it to an exterminator/expert to check it out?