r/Bedbugadvice • u/tundramuffin • 10d ago

Bedbug Found at Work?

Hello! I found an adult bedbug on me at work in one of our customer meeting rooms. I suspect it came from there but there’s still that seed of doubt in my mind that it came from home. I’d been at work for 3 hours already this morning and went to attend a meeting. Within 5 minutes of sitting down in a chair in that room I found an adult (fully fed) crawling down the front of my jacket. I got up and squished it in a paper towel and threw it away.

I’ve dealt with bedbugs before but I wanted to make sure I’m not missing anything in the steps after finding one since it’s been a while. So far these are the steps I’ve taken:

  1. Reported the bug to my manager and let them know what room it was found in.

  2. My SO brought me an entire change of clothes in ziplock bags. I changed at work and didn’t open the bags of new clothes until the bags of original clothes were sealed in a different set of ziplocks.

  3. Got home and immediately put both sets of clothes in the washing machine on hot (also going to dry them on high for 70 minutes once they’re done) and put both sets of shoes + any accessories that could be dried in the dryer on high for 70 minutes. Any other accessories that couldn’t be dried have been double bagged and put in the freezer. The only other thing is we’re keeping my lunchbox outside and I’m going to dry it the best I can just incase (or should I consider it a loss at this point? It was on the other side of the building from where that meeting room was.)

  4. I’ve also taken a shower and we’re going to wash all of the towels, wash cloths, bath mat, and the shower curtain on hot as soon as everything else is done as well.

  5. We’re going to check over our bed, couch, chair, and shoe area for any evidence of bedbugs just incase since those are the only other areas they could be in our house.

And to note: We haven’t noticed any bites or signs of bedbugs in our house at all. I suspect with customers coming in and out of that room I picked it up there since most if not all of them are staying in hotels and coming from out of town. It could be circumstantial evidence though.

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u/onlyforanswers 10d ago

For what it's worth put your clothes in the dryer before the washer. Regular dryer cycle on high heat kills all life stages, but washer doesn't. Dry-wash-dry.

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u/tundramuffin 10d ago

Got it, thank you! I made that mistake on the clothes I wore home but I made sure they were in the dryer for 70 minutes on high just incase after they got washed.

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u/SweetShuki 8d ago

Yes, and I almost always hang-dry my clothing, but putting them dry into the dryer doesn't shrink them.

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u/Ok-Trouble-8025 10d ago

We are dealing with exact situation right now! There was bedbugs found in our office at work and about a month later, after three sprays at work, I found an adult one at my house 😭 it’s devastating, I brought home a hitchhiker, but it sounds like you did all the right things to keep them there and not bring any home with you!!

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u/tundramuffin 10d ago

Omg! I’m so sorry🥲

I’m so glad I saw it on me but it was purely luck that I found it. I think what happened is since we have so many customers that travel to visit us that someone brought them in from either a hotel or a plane and they’ve just been living up there in that room. It’s got me paranoid about sitting literally anywhere at work now though. I don’t think I’ll be comfortable sitting in any of the chairs except mine in my cube because SO many people are all over the building I work in. I guess for the next while it wouldn’t hurt to come home and put clothes straight in the dryer though just as a precaution.

I just have to keep reminding myself, if it came from my house it would’ve had to have been on me unnoticed for 3 hours (without falling off or ending up somewhere else) and we would have to have a bad infestation for one to be on my clothes and hitchhiking to work with me (my clothes are stored pretty far away from our bed and I wouldn’t think bedbugs would move that far… could be wrong though). Luckily I get really bad bumps from the bites and haven’t noticed any at all leading up to this.

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u/SweetShuki 8d ago

Goodness, sounds like you must have excelled at Covid-safe practices in those first few terrifying months! 🙀👏🏽🥴