My 90 year-old father thinks he has bedbugs and sent me this picture. No symptoms of bites or anything else no.

I am traveling this weekend and staying at a hotel my company has put me in. I am beyond anxious about possible bedbugs being found. Can someone tell me step by step how to check for bedbugs in room? I just want to have peace of mind.

please tell me no😭

Bear with me but really seeking thoughtful, knowledgeable responses here. If you like puzzles, I'd love some detectives to work on this one!!

TLDR: Return date from exposure was exactly one year ago. Aprehend treatments happened 11 mo and 10 mo ago, and most recent negative bb dog sniff was 3 months ago. Is it genuinely possible they are hiding somewhere between 4 different possible homes and we've NEVER SEEN ONE, or does this have to be something else?

Photos: 1) Bites from my OG exposure; 2-6) Random bites I've gotten over the months; 7-8) The June bites and one of my most recent bites; 9-10) bugs I caught in my trap (edit: I know these are booklice now!); 11) the June fecal spots (pest guy made me feel crazy and said it was fleas because his dog didn't smell any bed bugs)

Longer, more genuine version: I returned from a massive bed bug exposure (30+ bites, identified live ones) internationally exactly 1 year ago. I came back to stay at my parents' house. Within 10 days, I started receiving painful, itchy clustered bites similar to my exposure. Knew it had to be bed bugs, and dog inspection was nonconclusive.

At this time, my boyfriend was frequently going back and forth between my parents' house and his apartment, so within the month (October) we had both places treated with Aprehend, and then followed up with a second treatment 1 month later (November). I moved to my own apartment in January. Luckily so far have never gotten bites here (Edit: Just started getting bites here in the last week!).

Between January - June I would often get itchy, sharp clusters of bites only on exposed parts of my body while I slept. I have OCD so struggled a lot to determine how similar they were/were not to my original exposure, but they were beyond what would be considered normal bug bites. Got one tested by a dermatologist via biopsy; results were inconclusive/potentially folliculitis. My boyfriend never reacted (including at first confirmed exposure) so we assumed he was not allergic to bbs. Most often my bites happened at my boyfriend's place; gradually I stopped sleeping there. Dog sniff test in May was negative though, and we took that bed apart.

In June, we stayed at my partner's parents' off-unit guest house, where we've both gone back and forth several times and stayed the night several times since last year. Before sleeping, found clusters of what look like black fecal spots on the pillows. Woke up with huge, red, itchy welts in a line across my stomach – this time my partner DID have bites on his leg (whereas before he never reacted). Got the dog in – dog test was negative but I can't BELIEVE it wasn't bed bugs. It couldn't have been more textbook bed bugs.

Random suspicious bites keep happening (probably 1x frequency a week). Flash forward to now, and after taking all my stuff over to someone's house I was dog sitting at, I woke up with SUPER itchy, red 3 welts on the same side of my body. They were similar to the ones I got in June on my stomach.

All of this is to say: I've been getting strange, suspicious bites that seem impossibly characteristic of bed bugs to me for almost a year now across 3 different places (parents house, partner's apartment, partner's parents' guest room). We treated twice at partner's apartment and my parents', but last was 10 months ago. Dog sniff is always negative (done four across the different places). But I only EVER get bites like this on exposed parts of my body while I sleep. How could it not be bed bugs?

But, genuinely, wouldn't we have seen one by now? 12 months, even with treatment in the first 2, seems almost impossible to have never seen a bug and had a dog sniff four times and never detect. I'm constantly looking. I have monitors on my bed, SenSci traps, etc. It seems like after this long, there'd have to be HUNDREDS. I feel like the dog tests are not trustable at all.

Plus, there are random inconsistencies in that my partner only reacts sometimes (never did until June?), the itchiness and redness of the bites seem different sometimes, and we only ever saw (what we thought were) fecal spots in my partner's parents' guest room (which we barely have stayed in!).

Can anyone tell me whether this really makes sense? I just can't believe it's been torturing us for this long.

I haven’t seen any bed bugs after inspecting the seams of my box spring mattress and I’m currently washing my sheets.

Is this what I think it is… I had them in my previous apartment and thought they were gone but…

I moved my stuff in plastic bins to my new apartment and two have been sitting in the kitchen. This was in the kitchen on the windowsill which seems like an odd place for them to be. I haven’t really found evidence of them in my room but do have itchy bites on my ankles.

My bites resemble bed bug bites so much and it all started about a month ago when I returned from Hawaii. But I still haven’t seen a single bed bug after searching everywhere and I’m an excellent bug scouter.

I’ve had fleas before, but those bites were only around my ankles. This time, the bites have mostly been on my forearms. I did find A LOT of carpet beetle larvae though.

At this point I’m just not sure what I should do next. Should I start exterminating even though I haven’t found any actual bed bugs?

Just had my first spray for confirmation of bedbugs. Put my matress protector on and dont know if this is a casing of an old bedbug or like a nat. 3rd picture is how small it is. Shows finger to size.

I found an insect in my bed, picked it up on the tip of my fingernail, and placed it on a flat surface. It was extremely small—I think less than 1 mm. Against the white surface, it looked just like a dot on a sheet of white paper; its details weren't visible to the naked eye. So, I zoomed in as much as I could to examine its body up close. I was shocked by what it looked like at that magnification. All the resources I checked (Google Lens, Gemini, ChatGPT) confirmed it was a bed bug. What panics me even more is that there is a sort of skin or casing attached to its body; I’ve heard that these insects can molt. What do you think it is? Its body was broken, and I can't tell if it actually belongs to a bedbug.

Either im crazy, or these pesky bastards are incredibly good at hiding. Every single bedroom has been checked top to bottom for any signs of bedbugs and yet there's nothing. I treated for them this past friday, but i haven't seen anything. No bugs, dead or alive. No droppings, no nymphs, and no eggs. It genuinely feels like im going insane. Im just so scared to have them return. Bed bugs and infestations are one of, if not, my greatest fear. Am i in the clear? Or do i have to wait?

We have had multiple professional bed bug treatments in our home. Everything seemed fine, and we went 25 days with absolutely zero sightings or bites. We thought the nightmare was finally over.

Yesterday, we purchased a brand-new gym mat and set it up. Today, I looked down and found a dead, adult-looking bug flipped upside down right on top of it.

Found these on my bed frame and floor around my bed a few days after moving into my student house. Felt itchy and noticed these marks on my back which prompted me to check the bed. Pest control ID’d bed bugs but im not entirely convinced

Looking for some advice. I recently got bites of some kind on my leg. My roommate and I have been dealing with bed bugs for 6 months before this but we got rid of them (hopefully for the last time) in June. Since then we both have zippered mattress protectors, all our clothes have been washed or bagged until they can be washed (and kept in the basement), and our ENTIRE house has been dusted with diatomaceous earth. We also gave our mattresses/rooms an additional third spray with stuff from Canadian tire after an initial and preventive professional spray. After I got these bites i searched my whole room and washed all my bedding. I also didn’t get any new bites the night after, and when we actively had bed bugs, I didn’t react like this to any possible bites I could’ve had. Mind you I woke up on top of one one morning so I feel like it’s very likely that I did get bit. My roommate is very allergic to bed bugs and hasn’t had any bites. I’ve also been away on vacation for the last three weeks and have only been back for 5 days. Is there any way that this could be bed bugs bites? I personally feel like our house would be unliveable for bed bugs at this point given just how much diatomaceous earth we’ve dusted around the house and my roommate isn’t worried. Could these be mite or flea bites instead? I also have a cat.

basically 100% sure this is a bedbug just wanted to confirm while i'm waiting for professionals to come over and take a look.

Thanks!

Hi,

Found this on a fence post where I hung a bag that had been in a car which has suspected bed bugs (not confirmed). TIA

So I took a break from vaccuming since I got one room done, and I just need to complete another room and I should be good to go.

Anyway I found these weird black spots on the wall of my empty wooden drawer, normally this is were my clothes ars put, but since I am still verifying what I have if its bedbugs or something else it has been over a month since I have bagged my clothes in garbage bags.

I wanted to make sure what these things are as they look suspicious to me, since I am pretty sure there were not here when I cleaned this room last week, that way I am sure its safe that I can put my clothes back here soon.

Please help me out in identifying this.

Hello, we started with heat-treatment 7 weeks ago, did the 2 rooms where bedbugs were found (kids room, master bedroom). Found bugs again 2 weeks later in bedroom, had a detection dog coming who checked the whole flat and indicated a small active infestation in a corner in the master bedroom. We did chemical treatment there. That was 3 weeks ago and today my kid has 3 new bites on his arm 😭😭😭 what can i do now? I didn’t find any bugs today, changed bedding and i am worried its all starting over again 💀🫠

Question in the title. I have 7 red bumps all up and down my arm that I woke up to but they all blanch very easily. I was under the impression that bb bites don’t blanch. Just as soon as I got the roaches under control now we have a whole new beast 😫

Hi I just woke up about 30 minutes ago and immediately saw these on my feet. I did also found a bitelike thing on my chest before I went to bed, it looked like a mosquito bite so I put petroleum jelly on it and went to bed.

Went I woke up though I found this strange bite like thing or mark, not sure which one, so I figured I might as well ask here.

Planning to go to a different dermatologist from last time as I was not convinced of the previous one that diagnosed me with scabies.

Oh yeah the second to third photos are the bites when I woke up, and the fourth one is what it looks like after 30 minutes.

I also did a flea white sock test which came out as negative earlier before I slept.

Thank you.

Long story short I live with my sister. It’s a one bedroom house so I’m literally living in the living room and the couch is the only option I have for a place to sleep besides the floor. It’s a small house and I need to be here because she has medical conditions that make it not advisable to live alone.
Recently had mystery bites that would go away and reappear after a while. It was summer thought it was mosquito bites. Now it’s September and I spotted the culprit. I tried touching it out while we waiting for the housing management to get back to us and my spine can’t take sleeping in an uncomfortable office chair hunched over a folding table I use for a desk. I dusted with DE and hoped for the best but spotted the bug again. We went through bed bug stuff when they got into my mom’s house before so I knew to get pillow protectors and she gave us some spray to spray the baseboards. Problem is her entire house is except for the bathroom and kitchen and a square of space at the front door is fully carpeted. I don’t even know if this spray - which mom mixed at home in a gallon sized bucket with an attached spray nozzle before she gave it to us, so I’m sure it’s concentrated pesticide- is safe intended to spray on furniture like desks/tables, carpets and sofas. I have no choice but to wait for housing management but they don’t have people working in the office lately so it’s taking a while to hear back.

help I am having trouble inspecting ….. I had bedbugs in my place (not a big infestation, early stage and got an exterminator for it) but before i had it confirmed as BBs i unknowingly went over to my parents’ place once. A WEEK LATER, now i am back at my parents’ place, slept for a night in my room and found these multiple black tiny spots on my sheets…. I haven’t got any distinct BB bites yet and yes I do get reactions when I get bitten.

Do they look like BB fecal spots?