It's confirmed. We have bedbugs.

[wencit]

OMG, kill me now.

Thankfully, it's just a mild infestation, as the technician says, but still. Bedbugs!!!! Now I have to clear the rooms so that they can come in tomorrow morning and treat with chemicals.

Ugh.

Please send good vibes that the treatment will work the first time. $1500 out the door for the exterminator, plus $1000 for a new mattress set.

Ugh!!!

[ArizonaGirl]

I am so so sorry, you have my complete and total sympathy.

:grouphug:

:hug:

[karstmama]

oh, wow, i'm sorry. :(

[elektra]

Oh no!

Anytime I see a bite on any of us I have to talk myself down that it is not bed bugs.

Feel free to totally ignore but:
How did you know?
Who did you call for help?
Any idea how it might have started?

Hope none of you guys are itching!

[queenmama]

Aw, man. So sorry. :(

[liz]

oh yuck, I am so sorry :(

[citymama]

Sending bug-free mojo your way! How did you get them in the first place?

[infomama]

I'm so so sorry!

[wendibird22]

Oh how awful. I recall there was another BBBer who went through this. Hopefully she chimes in with advice.

I hope you get it resolved soon!

[hellokitty]

I'm so sorry. This is becoming so common now, it's scary. I hope that this treatment takes care of it and you don't have anymore issues!

[mytwosons]

I'm so incredibly sorry! I hope they are gone after treatment!

[Cam&Clay]

Oh how awful. I recall there was another BBBer who went through this. Hopefully she chimes in with advice.

I hope you get it resolved soon!

:wavey:

Is there anyway to make that smilie look less happy?

I was fortunate enough that we did not bring them into the house. I was eaten alive while on a vacation, had an allergic reaction, and had to medicate myself in order to sleep for months. Almost ended up in therapy. I still, after two years, check my very own bed every single night. You should see me when we go to hotels. It greatly affected my life. I know it sounds ridiculous but I still have the emotional scars from that experience.

I feel for you and if there's anything I can do to support you, let me know. I am so sorry to hear this.

[Melbel]

Oh no! I think I am still scarred from Cam&Clay's ordeal too. Sending prayers and positive thoughts for a successful eradication.

[wencit]

How did you know?
Who did you call for help?
Any idea how it might have started? A couple months ago, I started getting random bites in the middle of the night. It being the summer, I chalked it up to a stray mosquito in the room. I noticed in the past couple of weeks that the bites started to increase in frequency, to maybe once every several days. Then on Sunday morning, I woke up to a bunch of bites, all down the side of my upper thigh. The thing that made me suspicious was that the bites were clustered in 3's, indicative of the "breakfast lunch dinner" feeding pattern of bedbugs, and were also in a straight line. When DH and I picked up our mattress to inspect it, we found a tiny, tiny bug (less than 1mm) wriggling around on the underside, which we killed and kept.

We threw out our old mattress set and immediately went to Costco to buy a new one. I also washed/dried all the linens on hot. On Monday, I woke up to new bites again, which meant that the bedbugs are still in our house somewhere.

I called the Orkin guy, per a recommendation I read here, who came out this afternoon. He inspected the bug we found under a magnifying glass and verified that it was indeed a "baby bedbug." (I looked at it too, and it was just like the pictures on the Internet.) Then he took a look at our old mattress, which we were going to throw away ASAP but decided to save in our garage for the exterminator, and found a couple dead bedbugs in the box spring. /shudder

Interestingly, even though DS2 co-sleeps with me and DH, I'm the only one who ever gets bitten. I must be tasty to bugs, as mosquitoes always find me first, too. Honestly, I have NO IDEA where we might have picked them up. We stayed in a couple different hotels in the Los Angeles/San Diego area back in mid-August, but I can't remember if the bites started before or after then. Otherwise, we've taken no other trips.

I'm really, really hoping that we'll only need one treatment to get rid of these suckers. My mind keeps racing to the worst-case scenarios (getting rid of all the furniture, buying an entirely new wardrobe, ripping out the carpet that we just installed a few months ago, getting bitten for months on end), and it's hard to keep from panicking!

[rin]

Oh no!!! :grouphug: We had bedbugs several years ago, and I still feel a little twitchy whenever the subject comes up. I'll be sending lots of positive thoughts that the first treatment works!!!!

[Nicsmom]

I am so sorry. Did you get a second opinion? A friend of mine was told that she had bed bugs and when she asked for a second and a third opinion, it turned out that they were wool mites (I think that's their name) and they are totally harmless. It was all part of a scam.

[Cam&Clay]

My whole family was in the same hotel room when I was bitten. DS1 had one bite. I had more than 200. I was told by the Orkin guy that they usually pick one person. The bites can also take up to a week to appear which is why some people don't even realize they have been exposed until they are home from vacation.

[lalasmama]

Yikes! Sorry you're having to deal with this!

We have a family at work that is a "frequent flier family" (ie, they come in a lot over minor issues that could have been dealt with over the phone)... They have an untreated infestation, so e.v.e.r.y. s.i.n.g.l.e t.i.m.e they come in for an office visit, we have to shut the room down and steam it. Totally sucks! (And, of course, then we all spend the next week worried about finding more bugs.) Seriously, this is one of my worst fears now!

Hope you get all the buggers gone with one treatment!

[rin]

Different people can also react very differently to the bites. When we had them, I got the classic bug bite marks in clusters of 3, but DH got these weird rashes that looked like poison ivy. We were told that some people don't react at all, so they can have a horrible infestation and never know until someone else spends the night.

[gatorsmom]

I'm so sorry. I worry about this a lot since DH travels for business very frequently and he is in denial that this could ever happen to us. :rolleye0014:

Fortunately it sounds like you caught it early and can now be on the lookout for the little buggers.

[KpbS]

So sorry to hear it! Hoping they are gone for good in a flash!

[maestramommy]

:hug:

We went through this last summer. Worst summer of my life. Even though it was pretty much confined to the master bedroom. I must've washed every piece of clothing 3 times over. Forking over the money to the exterminators was the easy part. We rarely travel and stay in hotels even less. The last trip I took before this was to my parents' house. We probably got unlucky and a bug was transferred to our luggage on the plane? You can drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out. Now when we travel and stay in hotels I all these extra precautions while packing. Saves in the long run.

If you're worried about your carpeting you can get these: http://www.amazon.com/ClimbUp%C2%AE-Interceptors-pack-passive-traps/dp/B0028Z0LDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351527253&sr=8-1&keywords=bed+bug+trap

they have different sizes for fat or skinny bedposts. They were part of our exterminator treatment. I still talk to the staff entomologist and he said these are probably the best detector and preventative. Our guest room gets used a lot, so he suggested just leaving these dishes around the room. We've never caught bedbugs in it yet, but we get plenty of other bugs (spiders, earwigs, silverfish, ladybugs). It will make your bed a safe "island" and you will know if you still have them in the room. Just make sure that your bed isn't leading against the wall. A few inches is a good margin of safety.

Now every time I itch (I have mystery sensitive skin) my bp rises.