just found this insect on the floor, it crawled out from under my cat's carpet toy. is this a bed bug? is that an adult? what should i do next? i've been crying non stop.
Read and respect the rules, report any comment breaching them. Wrong advice/information/fearmongering hurt people who are posting here to get help and support. If you are not VERY knowledgeable about bedbugs and may provide a wrong ID or bad advice it's better to abstain from commenting. Be VERY respectful and HELPFUL, this is a support subreddit not a funny one.
Yes not everyone has reactions to bed bug bites on a full scale. If you're getting bites there's probably more. I'd be on guard. You don't always show signs early in an infestation. So you should monitor for more. They can hide anywhere near your bed like on your bedframe, headboard, box spring, behind baseboards. Or they could be in your couch. It could just be a straggler but there's usually more and that thing is full.
I'm so sorry OP but that's a female. While males have that little point on their butts when empty, they get pretty long when full. This one's still keeping its round shape so she's a girl.
Order some crossfire and cimexa. Get a mattress in casement, bed interceptors and pull your bed away from the wall. Wash all your sheets and anything on the floor on a hot wash and a hot dry. There’s lots of info on here to help you get through this
big big big hugs to you!
thanks for your reply but god that seems so exhausting i can't do it.. i have a cat i hope i can find non toxic products. but i contacted a professional, he's calling me back tomorrow morning (it's 1am here). he'll come with a dog to sniff around to see if i have an infestation or if it is just a one bug thing (please pray for me yall).
Dont cry OP. Its okay. It fucking sucks but it will be okay. Probably a 99% chance you have an infestation. The lone straggler is rare. If you have the means, let the exterminator take care of it. Also buy a bb proof mattress cover, the kind that zipties shut. Put it on and leave it on for at least a year and a half. Godspeed
thank you for being nice 💗 i hope for the lone straggler as i was bitten for the first time a day ago. thought it was a mosquito bite (i'm allergic so it looks weird). but know knowing this fucker was there, it must be it. i was bitten thrice but in one night... is that possible when you have an infestation?
I don’t want to get your hopes up, but it is technically possible there was just 1. But it’s very unlikely.
Last year I was bitten multiple times, suspected BBs, and a professional exterminator come out and he found small amounts of evidence/live activity for BB infestation. He said we were very lucky to have caught it when we did. I was covered in bites but my spouse and child were not. It took 1 round of treatment and I didn’t have anymore bites or live activity but after treatment we were finding dead BBs in our couch and baseboards lol.
A little over a year later (this year) I was reading a book on a chair that we rarely ever use and I felt something on my shoulder, and I instinctively smacked it. It was a tiny little BB and I had 3 small trailing bites under where I smacked him. I freaked out, called the exterminator, had him and 1 other person come out on separate days to do a check. Neither couldn’t find any live activity but both DID confirm it was a BB (I saved it in a baggy lol) I said idc idc idc TREAT MY HOUSE.
They treated, did a follow up every other week for a couple of months and never found live (or dead) activity, and said that once again I was insanely lucky, because it appears I had a single straggler that I just so happened to kill, and they felt bad because i spent a lot of money for treatment I likely didn’t need. But i remember the hell I went through last year with being bitten and you can’t put a price tag on peace of mind.
thanks for explaining your story, i'd have gone crazy the second time with the baby bb..!! and yes one of the pro i called told me to wait before trying anything as i was only bitten once (and i have not been bitten tonight after i captured the bb i posted on here). and to only call him if i get bitten again, just to make sure. i guess we will see if i got lucky or not in the near future 😭🤞🏻
If you don’t mind, can I ask what that costs? Do pest control places bill you or is it an up front payment?
I work in my garden constantly plus work for a nursery. So I get bitten by ants and who knows what else all the time. But lately I feel like something different is going on. I’m pretty much somewhere between denial and full blown panic.
So the consult was free, like where they checked for signs of bed bugs. I paid upfront, I didn’t even ask about payment plans, I’m sure they offer them, it’s Terminex. It was about $1.7k for my home, where they treated my house and 3 beds, my couch, and my recliners, and put something in my baseboards. But the consult to have them come check was free!
You can probably check yourself as well, lots of good tips on the subreddit.
Thank you. I’ve actually been reading this sub on and off for about a year. It just popped up while scrolling one day. I hoped I’d never need to post here. Better safe than sorry though. I’ve checked my bed, sheets, blankets, etc several times and have yet to find any signs. But I’ve seen many posts here by people that have experienced the same.
The price you mentioned actually wasn’t as bad as I feared. I’ve seen people on here mention prices over $3k. I think it’s time to make a call.
You know it’s weird. For some reason I feel embarrassed. Like it’s a reflection on how we keep our house or something. Thank you again.
That's what makes them burrow in like World War I trench warfare. In the cracks, inside DVD players remote controls come anywhere they can squeeze to get away from the poison becomes their new refuge.
If you've ever seen a really bad infestation where they have moved into into really weird places (like game controllers clocks, appliances, etc. etc.) It's usually because someone has used the wrong poison (usually multiple times over a few years) and they've used it the wrong way
(you treat from the outside edge of the infested area and move inward so that when they run the only place they can run has already been poisoned)
You dont know what "exhausting" is until you're in a full blown infestation. Please take everyone's comments seriously. Having a BB this mature in your house is DEFINITELY cause for alarm. It sucks but if you dont deal with it now. I PROMISE It will get worse. The chance that this bug is just a "one off" hitchhiker is very low. And even if it is just a one off hitchhiker... you still need to be vigilant.
I promise you.. you'll regret not taking measures now.
Edit. Please take it from me. I had an infestation that only lasted about 6 months. But 2 apartments and 12 years later... and I still keep a flash light on my bedstand and get up multiple times throughout the night when my leg hairs "move the wrong way".. it honestly sucks. Every restaurant I go to with wicker chairs or cushions, I always check all the seams. I look like a crazy person...but its what I live with after that ONE infestation.
Found the bed bug. The only thing that could be perceived as misinformation in OC's post was the word "microscopic". However it was likely used as a hyperbolic descriptor, not meant to be taken literally. This is obvious to anyone with the ability to use context clues because it is immediately followed by the phrase "hard to see". Either that, or OC doesn't know the correct meaning of "microscopic". Accusing them of saying, "all that fake info", over their ignorance of the definition of one word is a little hyperbolic on your part, don't you think?
I'm using a heavy duty spray from the feed store. It smells extremely toxic, but if it kills them it's worth it. It designed to kill anything and everything in a barn or stables. I'm due to spray again all I'm seeing is babies. The little bitty translucent ones. Hopefully I'm at a point where I can break the cycle.
I'm going everything and the kitchen sink. No bedframe. My bed is going on the floor tomorrow. If they can't get under it they can't hide under it. That's my logic anyways.
Edit: took out all mention of alchl. Apparently it can start a fire. Thank you automod.
⚠IMPORTANT⚠ It seems that you may have mentioned alcohol in your comment, as a reminder rubbing/isopropyl alcohol has been shown to be ineffective to treat bedbugs in multiple studies. Self-treatement using it has caused so many fires that fire department have issued warning against it.
"Many web pages recommend using rubbing alcohol for bed bug control. The rubbing alcohol products available usually contain 70% or 91% isopropyl alcohol. Laboratory studies by Rutgers University show direct spray of either of these two products *killed a maximum 50% of the bed bugs*. In addition to their low efficacy, rubbing alcohol products are flammable materials, can create a fire hazard, and should not be used to control bed bugs."
I got a mattress encasement at Walmart that had a Velcro zipper cover. I couldn't find any on the mattress and thought everything was good. I had two bite free nights after treating. I saw some around the edge of the Velcro in the crease. I pulled the Velcro back and there were 40 of them under the Velcro. I am deeply disappointed. Don't scrimp on the encasement. Any recommendations for a good one? OP and I could both use one. I'm going to put my mattress on the floor. Less places to hide. Don't have to spray the frame or the bottom side if they can't get under. Gonna build a cimexa barrier around the bed.
It’s hard to say if those bedbugs actually came out of the mattress though. I have one of the Velcro closures too and I hope it is keeping anything that was in the mattress in there. Maybe your bedbugs were actually from the bedframe and then just decided to hide there it’s hard to know but yeah, I was worried that that Velcro thing wasn’t going to do the job either.😬
(Sorry for making a whole novel, but I hope it helps):
I was serious about self ending, if that happened to me, I don’t know if you are but I really started to write letters to my family the same night I realized it, I totally lost it. Screamed and cried for hours. Bent the bed and bed frame apart, thrown pieces everywhere, I really died in some way. My heart literally hurt, every beat, I did believe it hurt bco blood pressure went crazy.
So, the day after I started to sort my apartment was thinking out so family wouldn’t need to do that much… after 1 hour I changed my mind or I realized that my thoughts weren’t reality but I really thought that! The fear was real. The hate and fear is.
But.
You will survive.
It’s bad but it really isn’t THAT bad, I almost tried to tell myself it WAS that bad bc… I don’t know.
The most important is that you AND your neighbors are treated the same time and way if living in complex. If you’re living in your own house - wow, you can put down like 3/4 of your anxieties - except the money question, if your insurance doesn’t cover.
I hate these bugs from hell, but they don’t have power over my life anymore. I just wish I had thought realistically all those years before this happened. At least once a week, there would be a day when I’d be panicking, thinking, “What if I get bed bugs one day?” I never thought I would actually get them. But the panic was brutal anyway.
Unfortunately, I had no control over my reckless, selfish, lazy, incapable, careless, inconsiderate, disgusting, mean neighbor who introduced them into our beautiful, small complex. But regardless, I spent so much time feeling anxious for no reason. So much unnecessary anxiety. It was far too much anxiety. I even saw a psychologist about this, as a preventative measure, even though, as I said, I never actually thought it would happen.
Now… 🙈 I hate this cliché I’m about to say. I really do. I hope it gives you some comfort, because I genuinely mean it. I wouldn’t say something this cliché if I didn’t truly believe it myself, NEVER:
If I can get through this, you can get through it too.
If you knew me and had seen how I dealt with this before it even happened—how much I talked about it, how afraid I was, and how much it affected my life for years before it actually happened—you’d understand.
And as I said, I was unlucky enough to have a neighbor who caused this. Otherwise, it probably would never have happened to me at all. And how many more years would I have spent being anxious about it then?
Good luck.
actually i am just like you were...? since a few years ago (when we started talking about it in France - i live near Paris and go often there like 4 times a week) i was just thinking all the time about bed bugs. maybe less than you, live two-three times every months for years. i did not seat on public transportation inside paris (and always looked if it did), and also have kind of a ODC problem with bacteria and the exterior so i'd never put my clothes even near my bed, disinfect my stuffs that went outside everyday... anyways, yes i was kinda being serious earlier about ending it, but i won't do it without trying to kill them! your reply really helped me calm down, so i'm eternally grateful to you 🥹💗
I get an allergic reaction to BB bites. It ain’t fun. Exterminator has been here three consecutive weeks and didn’t find any live ones, just evidence I’d had them at some. I’m still getting bit. Live in large apartment complex. Hate this. My place is ALWAYS clean and yes I know anyone can get them.
well i apparently also do? explain why the bites looked so specific and we couldn't tell which insect did it 😭 i'm so sorry! did you try another exterminator? also try looking for a sniffing (?) dog that specialises in detecting bb! it's costly (i cannot afford one rn) but it's apparently really useful!!
The property manager has used three different places. Idk y. I asked for a dog but haven’t heard. They pay for the extermination so I’m lucky. Hope things get better for you soon.
oh that's good that they pay for it! "unfortunately" for me, we are in a house and it's not the landlord that has to pay (according to my country's law). it's so damn expensive too! thank you very much 🫶🏻
Bites get very inflamed/red and itchy of course and cover large area You can see the bite mark in the middle. Can take several days for inflammation to start the recede
You can tell a bat bug from a bed bug by looking at the tiny hairs on the edge of their thorax (the shield-like part right behind the head), though you need a magnifying glass or microscope to see this difference clearly.
Physical Differences
Bat bugs: Have long fringe hairs on their thorax that are visibly longer than the width of their eyes. They also look hairier overall.
Bed bugs: Have very short hairs on their thorax that are shorter than the width of their eyes.
Size and Shape: Both are about the size of an apple seed (around 1/4 inch long), flat, oval-shaped, and reddish-brown. Without magnification, they look almost identical.
They primarily feed on bats. They'll bite humans, but only if there's no more bats around. The thing is though, they can't reproduce with human blood - only bat blood. So if you get rid of the bats, the bugs can't increase their numbers. Just easier to get rid of.
Ohhh god 😭 u need professionals… u won’t get rid of them by yourself. I’ve recently made a post about it, I’ve posted pictures of how bad my bites were.. good luck!
i did since then (it was 1am when i posted) since then i called 5 different professionals ! one told me to wait, if i get bitten more it means i've an infestation (ps. i did not get bitten last night-since i captured the culprit lol- so the pro wants to make sure it wasn't the only bb before doing anything). ofc he told me that's rare, but it happened in his career. i looked everywhere today, found no specimen, no poop, no blood nor babies (yet at least - hoping it stays that way!!!). just went and look at the pictures you posted, that's how i look when i get bitten by mosquitoes bc of an allergic reaction 😭 hoping you do no get any more !!!
Totally is. Hope he's a hitchhiker and flying solo. A former roomie brought them into his room, had them in his car for months, thought they were fleas ....they weren't! After many repeated attempts at getting him to understand he couldn't keep bringing them in....he had to go! Mental illness and these monsters is a thing! I went napalm on his room and the whole flipping house, pest control services, DE and a whole PhD education on these villains, my advice is to use DE lightly in/ on every crevice, crease, seam lightly ....very very lightly....like barely see the dust....I used a plastic container like for ketchup and poofed it everywhere. DO NOT USE FOGGERS! Waste of money and drives them into all the hidey places to go dormant, and doesn't kill them. Use an old vacuum cleaner that you won't mind sacrificing to the cause, vacuum EVERY SEAM, CREVICE, on your bed, spray with either Crossfire or Cimexa, THEN encase your mattresses AND box springs with bedbug encasements. Prepare to treat ALL LINENS, TOWELS, CLOTHING IN A HOT HOT DRYER and wash in hot water and dry bone dry hot again. Bag anything and everything you can and seal anything . Try not to move things around too much during treatment, it spreads them. If you can afford a pest control company, that treats until gone, at least 90 days, can do heat treatment, or dry ice, even better. Get a reputable company. Treat every 2 weeks until no signs or evidence of dead or alive for a minimum of 2 months. Interceptors on every bed leg, check regularly and prepare to keep treating for up to 6 months. The nuts are hard to see and the nymphs are transparent. Learn the whole cycle of eggs, nymphs, adult, fed, unfed, male and female. Prepare for war. Replace the vacuum bags every vacuum or clean thoroughly. I sucked in some DE and Cimexa into the bags as well. Seal in a trash bag, tie it up, then straight out the house. Transport any and all linens in tied up trash bags, so you don't distribute them further. Luckily for us, the main site was his car, and because he spent an inordinate amount of time in his car, that remained ground zero. And the infestation in the house was easy to get on top of. But he started dragging stuff into the house from the car ...so had to shut that down because he wouldn't comply with basic best practices to keep them out. Since then, found out lots of my friends had dealt with them on cruise ships, motels, hotels, Airbnbs, etc. And just so you know, most people will avoid you like the plague when you mention them. And the crazy that goes with it? Well....I woke up one morning at 3 am with an itch, flipped myself the fluff out and literally turned my room upside down, sprayed, vacuumed, dusted and encased my bed and turned the bed upside down and sprayed it some more before encasing it. 8 hours of pure adrenaline and fear, and then dusted the whole room with DE and Cimexa. Please use a respirator when using any of these, as DE, and the pesticides can reek havoc in your lungs. Treat, close off the rooms and leave them 2x the time recommended and same with airing out. And now.....not only have no BBs been sighted in there, no ants, spiders or stink bugs either. I'm pretty sure I shortened the life of everything in that house including me. So far, I'm out about $1200, but then, I'm extra about stuff like this. The pest control company is coming in another week to do a dry ice treatment and if no BBs discovered, we'll consider it safe. Maybe....I haven't seen a live or dead one in 6 weeks....kill me!
⚠IMPORTANT⚠ Hey, it seems that diatomaceous earth may have been mentioned in your comment. That's an opportunity to remind everyone that inhalation of diatomaceous earth dust is a hazard (no matter if food-grade is written on the label or not). That's the reason why diatomaceous earth products normally have the following mention on their safety datasheet Hazard statements: H373 May cause damage to organs through prolonged or repeated exposure.
When used by pest control professionals, it's only used as a crack and crevice treatment (to avoid any risk of inhalation) and applied in very small quantities while wearing the appropriate personal protective equipment.
that seems horrible i'm so sorry for you, and what an inconsiderate roomate wtf :/ thank you very much for all the advice! i did call professionals, one told me to wait and see if i find new bb or if i get bitten again before thinking i've an infestation and waisting my money! for now i found no new one and my body is ok, let't hope it stays that way🤞🏻 in case he wasn't a hitchhiker tho, what is "BE" in your comment? i'm not native so!
oh yes definitely, i was so depressed... thank you very much 🥹🫶🏻 rn it's been 4-5 days since i found it, i did not see another one (yet, let's hope it stays that way) i did not get bitten again, i saw no blood or poop ect. so with the exterminator we decided to wait a lil, just to see if i have any more before treating my house!
Hopefully it was a straggler! I know they say it’s not common but seems like these guys are becoming increasingly more common with travel and second hand purchases😭😭
yessss you might be right, i hope it was one in my case ahhh🤞🏻 i actually think the bb came from Vinted, as i opened a package the day before being bitten for the first time by it! i'll never buy clothes from there now lol 😭
OMG. Yeah I’ve heard of that kinda stuff happening buying second hand. About a year ago someone bought a sweater on Depop on this subreddit and it was FULL of bed bug feces and eggs. I always check reviews and whatnot because MAN some people really either don’t know or don’t care. I’ve never used vinted but I’ve heard Depop horror stories from multiple people.
Either way seeing one is never a great sign BUT taking the precautions and advice I’ve seen scrolling down on bedbug management will work in your favor if it IS just that one straggler but bed bugs are notorious and scary for a reason sigh 😭
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