Anyone else freaked out about bed bugs??

[BigDog]

All the news stories are making me paranoid! I also read the recent post from one of the moms on here about her horrible experience. And just today I heard on the news that they're in movie theaters and ambulances now, too. I'm so freaked out!

[scrooks]

We just went on vacation and I was terrified. At the hotel we stayed at I actually inquired if they had any problems (not that they would admit if they did...)!

[purpleeyes]

La la la, I can't hear you!!! (insert smilie covering ears here);)

Just got home from vacation, turned on the TV and heard the teaser for GMA's bedbug story. You should have seen how fast I ran to change the channel!
I am pretending its not an issue because I have far too much to worry about right now.
*shudder*

[wencit]

Oh yes! I am going on vacation next month and am seriously worried. It seems like almost nothing will kill those suckers!

In the recent bed bug thread, many people mentioned checking the hotel mattress for telltale signs of blood. What I'm wondering is how can you tell the difference from blood stains that are due to bed bugs and those that are due to, um, anything else? Or if you just find ANY kind of blood stain, do you ask for a different hotel room? What if they're just on the sheets, do you ask for a new set of sheets, or an entirely new room?

I have a hard time being a "difficult" customer. :bag

[Cam&Clay]

I was the one with the horrifying story about bed bugs. I am still dealing with the after effects. The mental anguish is awful. I don't know when I will get over it. I am making an appointment next week to talk to a doctor about what to do about this. I cannot sleep even though I know our house is bug free. I feel them crawling on me all the time and they aren't there.

We are supposed to spend the night in a hotel in a few weeks when we go see Thomas in Strasburg, PA. Even though I know what to look for, I picture myself sitting up in a chair with a flashlight all night long.

Basically, I am a mess.

ETA: Here's the link to my story: http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=366483&highlight=bed+bugs

[Indianamom2]

I'll freely admit it...I'm in denial.

I can't even bring myself to check because what if....Isn't that terrible?

Seriously, this is the kind of thing I'd need therapy to get through, and I'm pretty low-maintenance otherwise.

And yet, the what-ifs keep me up every single night.

[DrSally]

DH travels every week. He tells me he checks the mattresses. You look for brown spots. He also keeps his suitcase on the luggage rack, not on the floor. I haven't heard of movie theaters or ambulances!

[daisymommy]

I'm itching and freaking out Googling websites now. Aaahhh! Thanks for drawing my attention to the issue though; otherwise I wouldn't have known!

[icunurse]

I watched a video the other day about them (freaking out DH, since I was freaked out last week when we went to a hotel). It said to look in the creases of the mattress, like on the side where there is trim, etc. You will see tiny brown dots of blood. They like nooks. Not that that stopped me from doing spot checks at the hotel overnight.

[LarsMal]

I guess I need to come out from under my rock and pay attention to the news! I've seen bed bug stories in the past, but haven't seen/heard anything recently. Maybe that's a good thing for me!

I check the mattress and also the ceiling (something about looking for black spots) when I go to hotels, which isn't very often. Now I'll have to go google it and read the latest...movie theaters???? Ewww...

[gatorsmom]

Yes I'm terrified. Dh travels a lot for business and I've told him what to look for. I've also told him to leave his suit cases in the garage when he comes home and I'll take the clothes out from there to take directly to the wash. I think I read that the bugs can't endure the cold for very long so my plan is in the winter to throw his suitcases in the subzero weather for a couple weeks before he uses it again ( he has a couple favorite suitcases that we can trade off).

Oh yeah, I'm terrified. I just don't have the time or energy to spend fighting bedbugs if we get them. I'm doing what I can now to prevent them. I admit, I think all those scary outlawed chemicals used back in the 1940's should be used again to get rid of the bugs again. I just think the harm from the bedbugs is worse than however the chemicals can hurt us.

[egoldber]

Well, I choose not to think about it that much. But I will almost certainly check hotel beds before putting stuff inside the room now.

FWIW, all that I have read has said that they do not spread disease. Unfortunately they are also now resistant to many of the old chemicals that used to work on them. There are still one or two and those are highly toxic to the nervous system. The EPA recently refused to allow the city of Cincinnati to use those chemicals in a widespread manner because of the risk, especially to children.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/08/19/epa-fears-pesticide-is-worse-than-bedbug-bite.html?sid=101

[bubbaray]

This thread makes me itchy.

[alien_host]

:barf:

Luckily we don't stay at hotels often. I've always had a "fear" of hotels...you know the news stories when they use the black light on the bedspread and find all sorts of "fluids". Double :barf:, but this is really freaking me out a bit (and making those "fluids" not seem so bad). ick, ick

[hellokitty]

This thread makes me itchy.

I know, it makes me itchy too. Like any time one of my kids comes home with a note from school that a student has lice, I feel like I'm itchy for the rest of the day.

I too am paranoid about bed bugs. We went on a trip a month ago and I specifically made sure to book a hotel that was only a few months old (not that it guarantees anything, but I think it would be a lower chance), and the first thing I did was check the sheets and mattress. I'm also very anal about our luggage. Keeping it off of the floor and putting dirty clothes into a trash bag that doesn't get mixed back into our clean clothes. I pretty much comes home and our mud room has our laundry machines, so I just dump all of the dirty stuff into our laundry right away and wash it. Don't know if all of my effort will do anything, but I guess it makes me feel better that I am attempting to avoid a problem.

[indigo99]

Ha! My sister just came to visit, and I made her dump her whole backpack full of clean clothes into the washer immediately. She thinks I'm nuts, but I'm not taking any chances. Her backpack went out into the car trunk which gets super hot during the day, and it can stay there until she's ready to leave.

I use a hardsided suitcase and keep it not only off the floor but sealed closed when I'm in hotels. I recommended that my in-laws do the same when we were all staying in a hotel in Miami. They didn't listen until my brother-in-law had a huge roach climb out of his suitcase and up his arm.

[DrSally]

I was wondering if a hardsided suitcase would be less hospitable to bedbugs? Don't know if DH would ever agree to one though.

[wendibird22]

Yep, totally grossed and freaked out by it. Makes me so glad that having 2 kids under 3yo means we never go anywhere. Movies? Haven't seen one at a theater in probably 9mos. Hotels? Maybe once or twice a year and I know to look. I will admit that I changed the sheets on our bed yesterday and looked under the mattress.

I also warned DH as he's on the board of a summer camp and I said they should discuss it because it wouldn't surprise me that 20 camp mattress in a dirty cabin could easily get infested...just takes one kid bringing them from home in his/her duffle bag.

[alien_host]

OK the NYC bedbug "issue" is unsettling. Letterman had a top 10 about it the other night....it's a little freaky.

[Rainbows&Roses]

There were a ton of people buying mattresses at Costco tonight and all I could think about was this issue, particularly since they just ran a segment on the news that Chicagoland is the 5 most infested city in the country.

I am hoping all this media attention will make people aware and stop some of the spreading.

I haven't stopped scratching for days.

[DrSally]

The other thing I was thinking about, considering how often we move, is that your stuff is usually sitting with several other household's stuff in the moving van.

[newbiemom]

When we went on vacation, we checked all the mattresses in the house we were staying in for bed bugs. It creeps me out, too.

[alien_host]

There were a ton of people buying mattresses at Costco tonight and all I could think about was this issue, particularly since they just ran a segment on the news that Chicagoland is the 5 most infested city in the country.

I am hoping all this media attention will make people aware and stop some of the spreading.

I haven't stopped scratching for days.

We just had a new mattress delivered last weekend (not b/c we had bedbugs but b/c it was old/saggy). They hauled away our old mattress....all I could think about was people were having their bed bug infested mattresses hauled away and they were next to my NEW CLEAN mattress,....ick, ick, ick....the truck could have had them too right? But it was sealed in plastic....I hope that is sufficient protection!