as someone who recently went "though" this, my advice is:

make yourself 100% certain that what you found was actually a bed bug, and not anything else.

my recent story:

me and my wife woke up with bad bites 2 days in a row. then I find a bug on our bed 1 night. eff. so we go nuts, throwing out a BUNCH of stuff, cleaning, decluttering, prep for exterminator to come over, do a TON of laundry, live in a hotel for 2 days with ziploc bags filled with decontaminated clothes, feel much shame. he comes over, examines the bug I found, and goes "lol thats not a bed bug and I found no bed bug evidence"

so we had *something* - my guess is fleas, or maybe some spiders - but it doesn't look it was bed bugs. (it is always possible we do in fact have them, but there is not much evidence for it and in hindsight the evidence there is doesn't really point to bedbugs either). so it was good the exterminator came, and its always good to declutter, and cleaning is always a good thing, so its not ALL bad - but we could have saved ourselves a good deal of mental anguish if we had more carefully examined what I found (not all bugs look the same!!), and had a bed bug dog come over first (we still plan on doing this in a few weeks).

if this happened again, I would 100% FIRST call a bed bug dog to come over and figure out if/where a problem is. then treat accordingly with that knowledge in hand, whatever it is

Phildo - Biospot is pretty crucial. You're trying to kill the bajillion eggs that are hiding in the carpets before they can hatch. Dunno but this worked for me pretty brilliantly.

We nuked the ****ers yesterday

Trip report will be coming when I have time

if i ever get fleas again i'll be sure to try it. hopefully i won't have to.

TR?

man this thread does not bode well for me

last night lying in bed i saw a bedbug and was like wtf.

killed it, then looked around my bed, couldn't see any others. then looked behind my bedhead and there were another 3 of the buggers.

killed them, slept on the sofa in my bedroom last night, today ive vacuumed everywhere (inc under the bed, under the wardrobe next to my bed), just called out the exterminator, but based on some examples itt, seems like i will have to get used to trying to fall asleep whilst bedbugs eat me/crawl up my nostrils etc

hopefully exterminator will come this afternoon, wish me gl!

About 90% sure I have bed bugs. Will update soon with progress/results. Big thanks to the advice in the thread.

These bastards are evil. Had a run in with them in Thailand a couple of years ago. Did the usual jungle trek before heading to the islands. Bed on the last night of the trek was infested. Got to koh pangan and realised the multiple lines of bites on my feet had given me two giant sausage feet, and that the people walking around on crutches hadn't actually fallen off scooters.

My mate told me at the time about them, he took them home from India and had to get his house dealt with. He told me the exterminator guy said the chemicals they use are effective as they make them go infertile.

Apparently people in India put their mattresses and bedding out in the sun to kill them, and it's meant to be the only thing that works for them.

Be careful when you're travelling in Asia. The place is riddled with these bastards.

NUKE THEM

Seriously our life has never been the same. Nuking them was the best decision ever as it eliminated them once and for all and we finally had some sanity back in our life.

We now search crevices like crazy every time we go to a hotel, we freak out whenever we see any spot on any bedding... damn bugs

I guess I never did a TR on the nukeage.

It cost us $1,400 to nuke a 1,615 square foot house. They brought in tons of heaters and our house looked like a meth lab from BB with all of the hoses going out of the house. They poke tiny little holes into the walls to ensure that everything got hot enough.

They warmed the house up to 140 degrees and left it at that temperature for three hours. We left the house obviously and it was still 95 at midnight so it was impossible to sleep in the house that night.

But again, it was worth it. No bedbugs since and we can sleep restfully at night. Worth every penny.

Yeah I'm not sure that is feasible given that I live in a high-rise apartment. My progress is that the exterminator came last week, ransacked my room and sprayed chemical all over the place. Also I had to wash and dry every article of clothing I had. He's coming back in a couple days for round 2.

Edit: delete

Not sure if I have bed bugs or not

About 6 months ago I started noticing bites on my lower legs. It felt like I was waking up with them, never noticed getting bitten throughout the day

They took ages to go away and itched when I provoked them, didnt itch when left alone. But last much longer than a mosquito bite and were varied in size, but I find mosquito bites to be pretty consistant in size

Anyway so they went away eventually but now I've gotten a new fresh batch of bites. Really have no idea

So far it isnt a horror story, just a few bites around my legs and a couple on my torso. No rashing or crazy looks, just bites that I want to scratch but because I feel its happening at night I fear the wrost

I work in property management and have had to deal with bed bugs in the past. Which exterminator service does your apartment use?

I will never forget the smell of a squashed bed bug.

ugh thissss

No idea but I can ask

Might be Scabies. They typically gather around ankles, waistline, and hands. Itching should be most intense at night and subside during the day. Go to the doctor immediately to get a rx for permithrin cream. Wash every piece of cloth you have in hot water and dry on high.

It won't go away by itself and you can spread it to others very easily.

FML, we have bed bugs. any additional info? my friend bought a blood hound about 2 years ago and started an inspecting business. he says thermal remediation (nuking) is the way to go. I don't **** with chemicals and my wife and I just had our first child 12 days ago, furthermore increasing my disinterest in the chemical route.

we noticed these pry 3 to 4 weeks ago, unfortunately we never put 2 and 2 together despite my bites. I continually thought I had poison Ivey from a woods I was briefly in and assumed it spread from me itching it. these bugs we saw over the course of the last ~month were all the same, we assumed they were carried in from our dog,again wish I put some things together but never in my lifetime have I been worried abut bb nor thought I would be a candidate. over the course of about a month, we pry saw 6 bugs until last night when things came together, we then started briefly looking and found 3 to 4 more living ones.

these ****ers are smart and stubborn it seems, I am afraid they are pretty heavy in my bedroom . until it is resolved we will be sleeping downstairs, I read that this could spread them but I'm not sure. I may rig up a small contraption to hopefully seal our bedroom.

we are hygienic ppl, we have a nice home built in 2005 that is 3000 square feet including the basement. we still have no clue how we became infested but from what is now a first hand experience, this can happen to anyone. we live on the north side of Indianapolis. we are going to reach out to places today and yes this is quite a nightmare. yesterday a distant friend I knew was laid to rest at age 26 from a swimming accident, bb's are far from the worst problem but this is the start of a costly nightmare I guess. we are hoping one thermal remediation treatment will do it for good and then I will have to say so long to that Merge check thanks to ****ing bed bugs. unreal.

For those looking into heating up there units, be aware if you have fire sprinklers in your home. Usually high rise units do, along with many single family homes these days as well. I work for a fire sprinkler company, and have to go out to places where they heated up a room and the sprinkler heads went off of course causing a huge mess. Standard sprinkler heads (red bulbs) discharge at 155 degrees. I have had to go to various hotels over the years and drain their system and plug off sprinkler heads until the heating was done. From what I have heard this seems to work well, according to the hotels, but there major problem is people can just keep bringing them in. I've also been in several hotels where they were tossing out mattresses labeled BB, many which were 4 or 5 star hotels.

P2 - Naptown resident here. Hope you resolve your troubles. Those things are a huge pain in the ass. Unfortunately I don't have any great advice for you. Only time I encountered bed bugs was in Laos and it was not a pleasant experience. I wish you the best of luck. Take care.

one trick I learned to be bug free, and not just bedbugs, was anytime we did a remodel to a room we would put greenlight dust and boric acid behind the drywall, under the edge of carpets and behind baseboards. Works wonders and even with two dogs (they have a doggy door to the outside) we rarely see any bugs in the house.

we had them about a year ago.

we threw away our mattress, bed frame and some blankets. we washed all our clothes (the key is to put all your clothes in the dryer for a while because that's what kills them). we called in a guy who sprayed the floor and other stuff with chemicals.

obviously you need to call a professional to come and deal with it. that nuking thing sounds like a good way to go, but we managed to eliminate them without resorting to that.

my best recomendation is to get a bed bug mattress cover. it's a waterproof thing you put over your whole mattress so that bed bugs can't get into it (or if there are any currently in there, they can't escape or bite you). this also came in handy when we realized yesterday that our air conditioner was leaking and soaked the floor... but the mattress was still fine cause of the waterproof cover. also comes in handy if your ******* cat decides to pee on your bed.

Bump!

These things ****ing suck. Broke the news to landlady in an email this morning, still no reply. In Chicago this falls on the landlord

Ya, sorry Leo. They are uber-intrusive and just devastating to have around. Nuke em quick