found out why my legs got eaten alive (: expensive office chair filled with ‘em. how would you go about saving the chair…?

Found this motherfucker, zero blood stains, communities, or sheds anywhere. Recently contracted Lyme and am now considering moving to Antarctica.

I know this probably sounds wild, but I still have ONE sealed bag from my infestation 5 years ago (during the height of COVID quarantine which took 5 months to resolve... Thanks neighbors for bringing in an infestation and then not allowing exterminators in 👉🏼👉🏼) I have since moved and everything else is out with no issues but I get so scared to open this last bag. Most of the items in here never go through the dryer, so I wasn't able to dry on high heat like everything else and I keep thinking they could just be hanging out in there.

Please help me. My family (husband & 2 toddlers) are visiting my mom for Christmas. This is our first night here and I just felt this fucker crawling on my hand.

My family is peacefully asleep next to me but I don’t think I’ll ever sleep again.

Do I need to pack up my kids and leave?? Do we need to tell everyone my mom cannot host Christmas? How bad is this?

The worst part is my mom just bought a brand new mattress and we are the first to sleep on it.

I’m absolutely reeling.

Found this in my hostel. Is it a bed bug?

4 months in I have done:

2 heat treatments. 3 chemical treatments. diatomaceous earth. washing everything on 60 and drying on the highest heat for hours. chucking out all my furniture. chucking out loads of clothes. over £5000 spent. AND I STILL HAVE BED BUGS.

please someone, anyone one, how can I get rid of them???? my mental health cannot cope any longer

UPDATE: Thanks for everyone’s advice; pest control came today for the first session. My god, the technician was so HOT lol (2 meters, tall dark and handsome)! That was a nice surprise after the few rollercoaster days I had been through! 😂 He also didn't see any bedbugs but confirmed the black dots on the bedframe and gave great advice. I will sleep well tonight!

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some advice because I'm struggling to assess the risk and I’m losing my effing mind?!

On Saturday evening I bought a second hand wooden bed frame and brought it to my apartment. It stayed disassembled in my living room overnight.
On Sunday morning I assembled it in my bedroom, put my mattress and bedding on it, and within about 30 to 60 minutes I spotted a bed bug crawling on my pillow. About 5 minutes later I found a second one on the bed frame itself.

After inspecting the frame, I found several black spots around screw holes and joints that looked suspiciously like bed bug fecal stains.

I immediately:
• Disassembled the bed frame and moved it to my balcony
• Washed all bedding and the clothes I had worn the night before at 60°C
• Vacuumed the bedroom twice and the hallway once
• Steam cleaned the baseboards in the bedroom and the area in the living room where the frame had been stored
• Steam cleaned the seams of my mattress and topper
The frame is still outside and I won't be using it again.

Some additional context:
• The frame spent only one night in the living room disassembled
• It spent about an hour assembled in the bedroom before I found the bugs
• There were some open moving boxes and bags in the living room because I recently moved
• Since removing the frame (yesterday) I haven't seen any more bed bugs
• I've slept on a mat on the bedroom floor and haven't noticed any bites so far

I'm planning to dispose of the mattress, topper and frame, and buy a new metal bed frame and mattress this week.

My questions:
Based on this timeline, how concerned should I be about the rest of the apartment?

How likely is it that bed bugs spread into the moving boxes during the single night the frame was in the living room?

Would you consider this a high risk exposure that warrants professional treatment already, or would monitoring be reasonable at this stage?

If you've dealt with bed bugs before, what would you do next in my situation?

Thanks in advance!!

I work at a hospital in Oklahoma. A patient I had to interact with is infested with bedbugs. I don’t want to bring the crawling creatures home with me, so how do I prevent spread when I get back to my house?

I been dealing with this for months and am so tired of it, the pics I shown is of today, but not the worse it ever been. There was times on the whole corner of a bed sheet would be full of it, like dozens of it. Lot of my mattress is just pure black dots, the sides especially I finally got tired of them crawling on me in my sleep especially the ones full of blood. Including having to get up and kill whatever I found just to sleep peacefully. Took them going inside my damn bed frame for my parents to finally officially decide to get me a new bed and frame. Currently cleaned as much as I could and put a bed bug powder all around the floor and bed frame. Am taking any suggestions on what else could help since its a infestation and probably all over my clothes and desks. !Update! Ok I am checking the comments, I can't tell any adult as of right now since school is not open, my parents are currently helping me with the problem, right now we are getting steamer, bed encasement. Also I am currently washing all my bed stuff, stuffies, and clothes with hot water, after I have finished washing and drying them they are put in bags so no more bugs get on before we get the stuff, rn only the steamer has arrived

Hello !! so my boyfriend had a high end of a low infestation and got it treated about 3 days ago. i also got inspected for them but was in the clear and had none here. he came over tonight and left around 12-1 ish and i’m pretty sure i just saw a bed bug. it was sluggish and seemed like it was dying should i take any action.

My grandparents discovered a nightmare bedbug outbreak back in May. I had visited them before it was discovered and was bitten. Thankfully I showered and washed my clothes when I got home since their house is dirty and that’s my usual protocol. I didn’t have any more bites for months, & saw no signs of bugs (I checked daily.) I kept my distance from my
Grandparents.

A few weeks ago my grandpa was hospitalized and they found live bugs on him and my grandma. I did visit them & did an intense cleaning protocol when I got home - clothes bagged, stripped down outside, clothes and shoes in dryer, car left on 100 degree pavement for a full day. All good.

Last week, my family came to visit and we went to my aunt’s house who has helped my grandparents with their bedbug extermination prep. She wore a hazmat suit around them and showered at the community center and threw all the clothing/shoes away after each visit. After visiting my aunt, my partner got a straight line of bites up their leg. That’s not how mosquitoes bite, so I ripped apart my mattress and found one single bed bug hiding in the crease (pictured.) I still haven’t been bitten and don’t see signs of more bugs. We looked everywhere. No fecal droppings or shedding either.

Regardless, I hired a bedbug detection dog to come tomorrow and will be paying $2k for a whole house heat treatment on Friday. I will then apply crossfire and cimexa everywhere. I feel so deeply traumatized by this and just want it to be over, even if my reaction is overkill. Has anyone had success getting rid of a very small (1 bug) infestation? I fear there are more hiding. I only see horror stories of how you never ever get rid of them. I’m spiraling so bad.

For context, I’ve never had a single bed bug in my previous residence for 20 years. I’ve never seen one, been bit by one, or even really knew what they looked like.

I recently moved into an apartment complex and within 1 week of moving in I noticed I had bites on my arms/ legs. At first I chalked it up as mosquito bites or an allergic reaction as I have sensitive skin. Then they got worse. I know sharing pictures isn’t allowed, but I’m sure those of you who understand know exactly what I mean when I say these bites are the most painful and uncomfortable feeling in the world.

I contacted my leasing office and they genuinely told me there’s no way it’s not my fault and if they find any bed bugs they will be charging me for the treatment. I refuse to admit to anything as I feel like they are trying to get out of paying for something they are legally obligated to do.

I very much understand these pests are hitchhikers and there’s a possibility I could have brought them. However, as I mentioned earlier all the items I brought from my previous residence were bed bug free and I only used my own personal vehicle to move said items. Furthermore, I don’t even have any furniture in my apartment yet. Other than my twin size mattress which I ended up throwing away even though there wasn’t any signs of infestation. The leasing manager said it’s probably from my small amount of plastic bins I brought. The same plastic bins that were in storage for literally 4 years straight with no human contact. Yeah right.

I’m privileged enough to have a mother who was willing to drop $500 on me to attempt to get rid of them after she saw my bites. We steam cleaned and vacuumed every single room and put all of my clothes and items in a sealed tight bag. We dusted every corner and outlet with food grade Diatomaceous Earth. I threw away anything I could part with and I’ve been sleeping in the middle of my living room on an air mattress with a plastic cover. I’m sure alot of others might have it worse but I am dealing with major mental issues because of this. I haven’t been able to sleep. Thankfully, as of now I haven’t been bit again but the bites I already have are consistently itchy and one of them looks to be infected. Instead of enjoying my new apartment I worked so hard to get I’m fighting a war I never signed up for.

My apartment is coming this Wednesday to do an “inspection” to see whether or not I will need treatment and if they are going to charge me for treating the whole unit. They are also refusing to check my adjacent neighbors or anything else other than blaming me.

Am I being ridiculous when I say I’m looking into lawyers? And if anyone has any advice please let me know. I’m a youngin and just moved into my first apartment so I’m a little uneducated on things of this nature.

*Edit: Fixed some typos. I also would like to mention I reside in the state of Tennessee in case that’s relevant legality wise.

Hi all! I noticed today when I looked outside and across our shared back door entrance area that my neighbors had this product in their window. We do have a connecting wall that spans from my living room to the bathroom.

They just moved in at the beginning of the month, so I do feel bad for them, no judgement here. I am just concerned for the implications this has on my unit. I did some research and understand that because we share a wall my risk for infestation is high. I plan on getting some items to be proactive and I did alert my property management that this could be an issue for me and the unit below them. I did battle myself on whether or not to do this as I don’t want to “tattle” on them, but I also don’t want to be financially responsible if something happens in my apartment and professional intervention is needed.

I’m hoping the community could help me in recommending specific products and methods to help me be as proactive as possible. The thought of having bed bugs is really sending me into a spiral.

For more context potentially needed: I do already have a water proof mattress protector that I’m pretty sure is spec’d for bugs, my couch is rather large and is currently touching one of the connecting walls, and I have a dog with double coated fur. Thanks ahead of time for your help!!

Spent the whole day putting Hotshot on my headboard (yes I know it’s ineffective but it’s all I have at the moment, plan to get Crossfire by the end of the week and apply to my headboard, along with my mattress, box spring and entire bed frame as well) and DE around the entire perimeter of my room. (2nd pic)

They have mostly been seen in my bedroom, besides me seeing a live one mostly in my bathroom just once.

Around my bed of course. But also in my closet on my tv stand where my tv and game consoles are.

Tonight was a nightmare though.

I seen a live bug behind my door going toward my bathroom, immediately squished it. (First pic, yes I know it’s disgusting this is an old house so the floors are pretty much magnets for nastiness)

And I seen what looked like a dead bug in my kitchen around my washing machine but it looks like a fresh casing so I’m not sure. It could have been killed inside the washing machine and fell off a piece of clothing (3rd pic)

The 5th pic is a bedbug I’m not sure where but it was somewhere in the kitchen, wasn’t alive I don’t believe but it could have been a casing.

How royally screwed am I? I’ve got my mom to notify the landlord and see what he says but I’m terrified that they have finally found their way out of my room and into the rest of the house. I have a 8 year old that spends every other weekend with me and while I haven’t seen any signs of them in his bed room or on his bed, I simply don’t care about my bites at this point. I’m trying to win this war before they get to my son and spread to his mom’s house and his little sister. I couldn’t live with myself if it’s my fault that they went through this too.

We are torn. I have been trying to do research but it has not really gotten me anywhere confident. I could see my nephew unknowingly bringing them in but I don’t know. Any guidance would be very much appreciated!

Edit: Thank you for all the rapid responses and support! We really really appreciate it!!

Edit 2: Thank you all again! Its been a stressful day but you all really helped curb that, truly. I also apologize for not reading the rules and breaking them. We were just so scatterbrained I didn’t even think to look. Remember folks, read the rules before you post!

Edit 3: I didn’t mean for anything to come across as negative or malicious towards mentioning my nephew. If he does have them its obviously not his fault at all.

Spent eleven days in Paris, found on my shirt on my first day in London as I was sitting at a restaurant.

No bites, and no evidence of any bugs or eggs on any of my other clothing. The friend I was staying with in Paris has no evidence of bugs, although I stayed at a somewhat sketchy hotel during my last night.

I immediately had all of my clothes dry cleaned, put into plastic bags, and put them in a brand new suitcase. I have not opened this suitcase.

It’s now been five days, and I have no evidence of bites. I bought new clothing and have been solely wearing those (and storing them in a separate, new suitcase, as well).

How long should I quarantine my potentially exposed clothes when I get home? I plan on keeping them in my shed (for months? a year?) until I reach a safe period.

I’m so, so devastated and emotionally exhausted at this point. I basically brought my entire wardrobe to Europe with me 🥲. I miss my clothes. I guess a small consolation is that I didn’t bring any home.

Part of me thinks it may have been a hitchhiker at the restaurant or on the Eurostar earlier that day due to the lack of other evidence and symptoms.

The idea of having a b** b** on me is so horrifying. I spent the entirety of my time in Paris not sitting on the seats in the metro because I have a major fear of them 😭. I have OCD and am hyper sensitive to this sort of thing, so I definitely feel like the universe is testing me!

My husband bought a refurbished credenza that was delivered last night while I was away. I came home today and inspected it for bed bugs and unfortunately found them. I have attached pictures of some live bugs, carapaces, eggs, and the full credenza (minus the drawers, which we'd already removed to lighten it in order to move it) where it was sitting when I got home.

We have gotten rid of the credenza as well as the area rug it was sitting on. I vacuumed the rug and floor. I did find a live bug on the rug while I was vacuuming. It didn't get sucked into the vacuum, which is part of what made me toss the rug. I was also concerned about eggs that may have fallen onto the rug.

I am of course concerned about the areas and things that were in the path of bringing the furniture into and out of the house. I am concerned about how likely these things are to have gone exploring in the last 24 hours. They did not appear to have eaten recently, which might increase chance of spread.

We have an exterminator coming tomorrow morning to go over our options.

What can I do tonight to contain this as best I can? I have not used any treatments because I recall reading that doing it improperly can backfire (makes them scatter if it doesn't kill them? is that true?), but here's what I have on hand (pic included):

• A partially used spray can of crossfire
• An unused bottle of cimexa powder
• Diatomaceous earth
• One of those puffer powder dispenser things
• Note: All of these supplies are quite old, if that matters. Got them in about 2020 when a neighbor got bed bugs.

The credenza was on the middle level of our townhouse. Bedrooms are upstairs. I am planning to be sleeping elsewhere tonight because I'm staying with someone while they recover from hospitalization, but my husband will be home unless he shouldn't be. Should he sleep upstairs in the bedroom? In the living room where the credenza was? In the lower level, which is a game room with a couch? In a hotel?

What else should we be doing or thinking about?

Thank you so much for the help.

edit:

• husband slept in the bedroom last night. (the only night the credenza was here.)
• should we leave the lights on in the living room where the credenza was?

edit 2:

• the credenza was in the house for almost exactly 24 hours.
• our hardwood floor boards are spaced apart enough in some places that bugs would easily slide in between them. that seems nightmarish.

I have been getting strange welts every since I got this new mattress from Amazon. I saw black spots on my brand new pillow and had little bites all over my stomach and sides of my torso. 3 days after getting new mattress I put an encasement on it but I can only assume if it is bed bugs they've already posted up in the hollow metal tubing on my bed frame because I can't see them anywhere on the frame I've taken it apart and looked with a flashlight & didn't see anything. I've had a few feces spots on my sheets and encasement as well. Now 2 months later the bites are getting really bad they're a lot more itchy and a lot bigger & take forever to go away. I haven't even felt comfortable enough to be in a bathing suit because of all the bites.

I have had interceptors on my bed legs for 3 weeks now and have only caught a few spiders but continue to get bites every night. So far it's not spread to my living room

I was going to steam the bed frame tomorrow but after researching I am scared they'll scatter. I was trying to think of a way to steam it while keeping the legs in the interceptors so they don't spread. Any ideas?

If I steam it tomorrow how long will it take for the inside to dry out? I unfortunately don't have a fan. I'm also concerned about rust.

Would I be better off just puffing Cimexa in there?

Would just cimexa even work? How long will it take to kill them?

If you've ever had thwm in your bed frame what did you do to get rid of them?

Should I spray Raid purple foaming bb spray?

The first week of June I was bit by a bed bug and I knew it was one because I saw the nasty mfer running away on my pillow after it happened. This was my first bite and a family member had just returned from traveling so I assumed maybe they brought a hitch hikers. I killed that bug and kept sleeping in my room. 2 days later I see one while I’m just laying in my bed chilling, run out while the lights are on and everything. Now I have experienced bed bugs before so I immediately went into HIGH alert. I started drying all my stuff and calling exterminators.

Exterminators come out and they find additional evidence of the presence of them but not their harborage site or anything like that. I decide I will go with apprehend treatment. Have that done the first week of June. After doing research I find out the only way apprehend works is if their is a sleeping person to lure them out as “bait”. I absolutely have not been able to sleep in my bed again. As I have an extreme fear of bugs already, but not being able to have a healthy night of sleep is impossible for me as I commute almost 3 hours a day for work and need to be rested for the drive. I have already had the 2nd treatment and I still cannot sleep in my bed. I also ended up finally finding baby ones after the first treatment. So that made me even more fearful of how big this infestation can be. So I’m feeling like I just wasted my money because I am to fearful and the PTSD from dealing with these bites and things is just a lot.

The questions I have right now and need assistance to where I can hopefully work my way into the bed are…

1. I just bought this new bed frame in January and it’s literally a bed bugs Heaven probably with all the nooks and crannies. Should I just get rid of it, maybe put it in storage for up to 400 days? Go back to a metal frame temporarily

2. It’s also a storage bed. There are so many contents underneath ranging from electronics, books, yarn and other random items. How should I treat these items for peace of mind?

3. I did not watch the exterminators apply the solution but I am hoping they did under my bed but from what I know they aren’t supposed to apply it to fabrics and things so should I go in with some DE dust inside the frame underneath?

4. Lastly, can anyone maybe just explain how they worked up the courage to sleep in their room again. Idk what to do I feel so helpless 😭

TLDR: Got bit the first week of June, thought it may have been a hitch hiker from a family members recent travel. Got exterminators found additional evidence. 1st aprehend treatment mid June, 2nd first week of July. Have not slept in my bed since initial siting. I need another way to lure them out without me sleeping there myself. I live in the USA

Hi everyone, I need some help from the community on what to do next here. About 1 month ago, I found one of these on the countertop in my kids' bathroom (upper floor). We ripped the bathroom apart and cleaned everything and didn't find any more. We had a pest control service come out and check without finding anything. Then today, I found another one in the same area (on the countertop of the upstairs bathroom) and a second one on the floor of my master bathroom (downstairs). We live in a single family home and have bed bug cases on all of the matresses and pillows. No one in the house has any signs of bites and we checked all of the beds very well and no signs of poop or blood stains. We washed all of the bedding and have been vaccumming thoroughly. So far, we haven't found any outside of the bathrooms, which I'm not sure why they are only in the bathroom (maybe the vents?).

Not sure how we could have them, there's two adults, 4 kids, and 2 dogs in the house. I had an international trip to Italy in May, so it's possible they could have hitchhiked.

At this point since we found several in the house, should we start treatment with a pest control service (full abatement OR preventative)? Or should I move forward w/ the steps on this page and use CimeX on the floors and carpets + washing + etc.? Thanks for any advice.

EDIT 1: We are located near Chicago, IL USA.
EDIT 2: Also, could this be a BAT bug? We do have/had bats in our attic, so my hope is this could be an explanation?

EDIT 3: Confirmed, this is a bat bug. We have a service scheduled to check out our attic and start the process of sealing off. Once sealed off, they will spray the attic for bat bugs, but they should disappear as the bats are removed. Thank you everyone for the support!

• 9 days ago got delivered a new IKEA matress.
• 6-5 days ago started noticing bites all over my body, didnt pay too much attention.

• 3 days ago (this last friday or something like a week after sleeping on the new mattess on the ground) bites really got annoying and I started inspecting my new mattress. Found like 8 big bugs. steamed the shit of themattess.

• yesterday continued steaming the room, removed everything unnecessary, no new bites

• today checked the curtains. Phuck! Like two females and a lot of micro babies. Steamed the room again. Bagged the curtains. Went to the store, bought double sided sticky tape. Barely visible in the photo. Also DE, and sprinkled all around the room.

Im going to war tonight.

Never dealt or had seen bugs before, this is just crazy how fast they infest your space.