Bed Bugs in Clothing

I’ve heard of bed bugs in clothing at second hand stores, I’ve even heard of bed bugs in hospitals, but at Hollister, a store owned by Abercrombie & Fitch?

On Friday, CNN reported that Hollister clothing in the upscale SoHo neighborhood of New York, kept their doors shut to deal with bed bugs. It’s reported that in South Street Seaport, another Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store was closed for a time to deal with an infestation of their own.

Bed bugs infestations are up 500% compared to 7 years ago in New York and complaints are still growing at an incredible rate!

Dirty homes, clutter, people who are not clean are the cause of bed bugs, or so people believe – this is NOT the case! Imagine you buy a shirt from a department store that unbeknown to you, have bed bugs in the clothing; you take the shirt home end up with an infestation. Imagine how would you feel if they found out you had bed bugs? 500% is only those infestations that have been reported and there are many, many more that go unreported!

As for Hollister, they have asked the City to help come up with a solution to make sure their customers don’t find bed bugs in clothing and doing everything within their power to make sure this never happens again.

Moral of the story: When you buy clothing from a department store, no matter how reputable they are, make sure you vigorously shake out the merchandise BEFORE you bring it into your home (or car for that matter!).

How to Treat Bed Bug Bites

I explain how to treat bed bug bites below, but if you don’t get rid of them, you’ll just end up treating your bites again – so make sure to visit our section dedicated to bed bug treatment.

Bed bug bites can range in severity based on the person being bitten. Some don’t even notice the bite while others swell or even become infected. Take Julio’s picture below for example, this is was a bad reaction to bed bug bites and it wasn’t just his arm, his entire body looked like this! Think that was bad, check out these other bed bug bites!

How to treat bed bug bites? By far, the most popular answer is with baking soda and water to make a paste that you then place on the bite and let dry. Here is exactly how to treat the bites…

Horrible bite marks on arm from bed bugs!

1) Make sure to wash the bed bug bites with soap and water.

2) Make a thick sticky paste with the water and baking soda, not too runny and thick enough that it will stay.

3) Let the paste stand until completely dry and then wait an hour or so. Some let it stand for hours while others find that an hour or less is fine.

4) Gently wash the paste off and pat dry.

Other natural remedies for treating bed bug bites include:

Witch hazel, St. John’s Wort and Lemon juice – all work by removing the desire to itch (Astringents).

The gel from the Aloe plant is how many treat bed bug bites and contains anti-fungal and antibiotic properties that work great! Simply trim a tip and apply the exposed area to the bite.

Handed down from generations is the bath with peppermint oil, fill the tub with bath water, then add a half cup of peppermint oil to relieve the itching.

How to Treat Bedbug Bites using OTC or Over The Counter medication.

  1. Cortisone cream to stop the itching
  2. Calamine lotion
  3. Just about any topical anesthetic containing pramoxine
  4. Hydrocortisone cream
  5. Naproxen or Ibuprofen or a anti-histamine like benadryl to help reduce swelling
  6. Light paste of aspirin and water like you would with baking soda and water

Have a home remedy or tips on how to treat bites? Feel free to leave a comment below!

What Do Bed Bug Bites Look Like?

Although we have a ton of pictures and their associated stories throughout our site, many people still ask what do bed bug bites look like; below you will find a sample of pictures of bed bugs and their bites. We have a ton more pictures of people bitten by bed bugs, just visit our Bed Bed Bites link in the menu bar above.

Probably the best pictures of bed bugs by themselves and their home are the four pictures below; these bugs were found on the end of a mattress. These images show it all including the eggs, bed bugs, bed bug feces (dried blood – turns black / brown when it dries), bed bug shedding and more.

Picture of Bed bugs hiding on the edge of the mattress including feces, shells and eggs

Bed Bugs hiding on Mattress
[Click to enlarge]

Picture of Bed bug Heaven

Bed bugs Hiding
[Click to enlarge]

Close up of bed bugs, their eggs, shells and feces

Bed Bugs their feces
[Click to enlarge]

Closeup of bedbugs and their eggs

Bed bug eggs
[Click to enlarge]

Although small in size, you can do a quick inspection to make sure you don’t have something similar, such as when staying at a hotel. They don’t hide in plain sight and this end of the mattress was covered and facing the wall.

Picture of a bed bug filled with blood that burst open

Picture of a bed bug filled with human blood that burst open including eggs
[Click to Enlarge]

Note! This is a picture of what happened when visitor checked her bed for bedbugs using her bare hand.

Bed bugs pop easily when engorged with human blood and as you can see, she was exposed not only to the feces, but human blood as well!

Always wear some form of protection such as a latex glove when you check a bed for infestation!

Bed bed bug bites on the forehead of Ross

Horrible bite marks on arm from bed bugs!

To the left you’ll see a picture submitted by Ross showing exactly what bed bug bites look like. This happened during a stay in a cabin at Yellowstone National Park and was not limited to his head, but also over his entire body!

To the right you can see a bad reaction to bed bugs as they made a meal of Julio’s arm.

If you have a bed bugs photo you would like to include, please send me an email with the picture attached to badbedbugs@gmail.com; this not only helps you, but helps others figure out what bed bug bites look like and possibly identify their own bites.

Can you get aids from bed bugs

Can you get aids from bed bugs? You’ll notice that when the CDC and other organizations talk about the transmission of disease from bed bugs, they are talking about the feeding process, specifically when the bed bug inserts its tubes into your skin to deliver anesthetic and drink your blood.

Their statement might go something like this:

Tests conducted by the CDC do not show any evidence of HIV transmission from bed bugs or other blood sucking insects, however, viruses like West Nile, Yellow fever and Malaria can be transmitted by Mosquito and the same may hold true for bed bugs.

These bed bugs popped in Vees hand when seaching!

Human blood burst onto hand from bed bug!* Click to Enlarge *

The conclusion is that the blood from one human host is not injected into another human during feeding. However, a bedbug engorged with human blood can burst very easy as shown in this picture provided by a visitor that was simply checking for bugs and ended up with human blood on her hand!

If you inspect a room with your bare hands, you may run the risk of being exposed to human blood as you accidentally pop the bugs. Depending on where the bed bug was located on you as you rolled over during sleep, you could crush and expose yourself to human blood.

So, rather than ask the question “can you get aids from bed bugs”, I prefer to ask, “can you get aids from being exposed to infected blood from a bed bug”. It’s not the feeding process that I am concerned about, but rather exposure.

My advice – play it safe and wear gloves when checking for bed bugs.

If anyone finds a straight answer, please feel free to comment!

How to get rid of bed bugs

Want to know how to get rid of bed bugs without reading this entire site or without spending a fortune on pest control? I’m going to explain how you can do this yourself using natural products found at most stores.

- Perhaps you live in an apartment complex and the owner feels it’s too expensive to hire a pest control company;

- Perhaps you want to erect a barrier that will prevent bed bugs from entering your apartment or condo;

- Perhaps you have been bitten, are afraid that your brought them home with you and want to prevent them from spreading?

- Perhaps you have no idea what is biting you, but want to put an end to it?

How to get rid of bed bugs is as simple as spreading around a power called Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth (also know as Silica Dioxide or Silicone Dioxide). This is non toxic, can be purchased at just about any feed and supply store and as you can read from visitor comments, works great!

Some people have had luck with flea and tick power which does the same thing as Diatomaceous Earth; that is, it dehydrates the bugs and causes them to die.

You spread this around your room (create a perimeter) and when the bed bugs cross the dust / power, they coat themselves and become dehydrated.

That is exactly how to get rid of bed bugs and prevent them from entering your rooms, etc.

Just this week I read a report where a team of scientists have found a way to scare bed bugs.

Bed bugs usually don’t come out to feed until humans are in a deep sleep which seems to be around 4am. They don’t usually appear in the day and can be very hard to spot (they are good at hiding!).

By spraying an area with a synthetic version of a bed bug’s alarm pheromones, bed bugs were found to start moving within five minutes after the application regardless of the time of day!

Diatomaceous Earth works great as long as the bed bugs walk through the power; with this new discovery, the bed bugs become so agitated, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll cover themselves with dust (provided it’s applied in the right locations).

There needs to be more testing before you’ll be able to buy Diatomaceous Earth mixed with these alarm pheromones, but if all goes well, you should start seeing products very soon.

For now, the best way to kill bed bugs is by applying Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth in the right locations. There are a ton of comments from visitors from around the world explaining how they got rid of bed bugs using this natural power found on our bed bug treatment page.

Warning! Make sure it’s FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth – if it isn’t, it’s dangerously unhealthy!
Diatomaceous Earth (aka Fossil Shell Flour) is sometimes found in amorphous form, which can cause silicosis; it should NEVER be mentioned without a safety warning near enough so it can’t be missed. On the other hand, food-grade DE is considered a safe additive in foods and feed, and regularly used to prevent digestive infestations. In livestock.

If you would like details on the study I refer to above, visit the Journal of Medical Entomology’s article on how to get rid of bed bugs.

Bedbugs Pose a Health Hazard?


It is said that bedbugs are not a health hazard and they can’t transmit disease. But I believe they are talking about a bedbug transmitting disease from injecting saliva into your skin during the initial stages of feeding on your blood.

After a bedbug has finished feeding (about fifteen minutes), it is engorged with human blood. The slightest pressure will cause the bug to burst open and spray blood in all directions. Picture of a bedbug that popped and was partially filled with blood can be found at http://www.badbedbugs.com/bed-bug-bites/

Now, imagine that you are unfortunate enough to stay at an infested hotel. During the night, a bed bug full of blood from last night’s victim crawls near your face; you roll over and the pressure pops the bug and exposes you to human blood.

If the blood was from an infected person, where does that leave you?

You can minimize your risk of exposure by making sure to use the Bedbug Checklist found at BadBedBugs.com. When you check the room out, make SURE to wear disposable medical gloves to prevent exposure.

Caution goes a long way – make the time to check your room for bed bugs before spending the night!

MRSA Bed Bug Bite

MRSA is a dangerous bacteria usually acquired from hospital visits. It often happens when a person has a cut or bite, such as those you might find from bed bugs. It’s not the bite itself that causes the problem, it’s itching the bite and causing an infection that brings you to the hospital and eventually in contact with the MRSA Virus (although not really a virus, it’s a strain of bacteria Staphylococcus aureus).

When you catch MRSA and have not been in a hospital, such as a bed bug infested apartment complex, it’s called Community Associated MRSA or CA-MRSA for short.

What makes this bacteria so dangerous is its resistance to oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin and other antibiotics. This is how a few simple bed bug bites can turn into MRSA as in the picture below.

MRSA Bed Bug Bite

MRSA Bed Bug Bite

You can see that the bites started small, then the hand started to swell, then blisters and eventually the underlying skin begins to deteriorate; another bite that is prime for MRSA looks like the one on Lisa’s face below:

Looks like MRSA started from a bite

Looks like MRSA started from a bite

If you think you have this, then visit What Does MRSA look like.com and match up your bite to their pictures and learn about products to treat the infection.

The best treatment is preventative – when you have a bite from bed bugs or similar pests, make sure you keep the area clean, use an antibiotic ointments or gel and monitor the bite frequently to prevent infection and a hospital visit.

Mattress Cover for Bed Bugs

You’ll see a large number of bedbug sites out there selling specialized mattress covers to keep bedbugs from getting inside your mattress (or outside, if you’re infested), but did you know that you can buy them right from your local store?

Mattress cover for bed bugs

It’s a lot less expensive and you need only ask the clerk to direct you to the mattress section and look for allergy relief / dust mite barrier covers; these are effective enough to stop bedbugs from passing through.

For example, if I go to Walmart.com and search for ‘mattress cover’, the first result is an allergy relief / dust mite barrier pillow and mattress cover set for $25.

Check with your local store and see what products they have to keep out the dust mites and you’ll have found yourself an inexpensive bedbug cover!

For more information on how to get rid of bed bugs, then check out http://www.badbedbugs.com/bed-bug-treatment/

Bed Bugs Scar Child for Life!

Hena Daniels from Eyewitness News did a horrible job on segment where a boy who brought bed bugs to school. [wsmv.com/video/17818727/index.html?rss=nash&psp=video]

The school is Washington Elementary and the video shows a resident being interviewed; when the resident was asked if he would allow his children to go to school with bed bugs and why, he said ‘no, it’s pretty obvious’. The reporter then made a statement that ‘Obvious to some, apparently not to others’. One resident said that she would not allow her child to go to school until the areas the child had been in were cleaned.

The video states that Fernando Silva, Vice Principal, sent a letter to all parents which included the statement “… A small health incident today involving bedbugs” and also stated that they “…removed, sanitized, and returned the affected clothing…”.

Child scarred by Bed Bugs

Did the school handle this properly? If you watch the video, you’ll hear Hena mention that it was a ‘little boy’ who brought in the bed bugs. Did the school release this information?

If the child’s name is known, that child could very well be scarred for life! The fact that gender was released is something many would consider poor judgment!

Children can sometimes be cruel; should any child be associated with having transported the bed bugs, that child may have to endure a traumatic experience that could scar deep enough to last a lifetime!

  • Does the school know for a fact that the child brought the bedbugs to class?
  • Was the classroom already infested?
  • How does the school know that another child didn’t bring the bugs to class with them and they found their way to this child (or his coat, etc)?

People are afraid to talk about having bad bugs because there is such a stigma associated with the whole topic. People see those having bed bugs as being poor and unclean.

Narrowing it down to a classroom, then gender, could cause panic and push others to point the finger, likely at a student that had nothing to do with it.

Personally, I think Hena Daniels did a very poor job at reporting! The video should have taken a spin on how bed beds can find their way into schools rather than how negligent parents can be!

Washington School is located at 685 Baldwin St in Waterbury, CT 06706 and can be reached at (203) 574-8177 waterbury.k12.ct.us/was/ – http://www.badbedbugs.com 10/28/08

Family Reports Bedbugs at Value Place Hotel and is kicked out!

KCTV5.com released a report that on Oct, 16, 2008 that a family was kicked out of their hotel room by management for reporting bed bugs! The hotel they pointed to is Value Place Hotel in Kansas City, MO (KC South – Grandview Triangle) 11301 Colorado Avenue Kansas City, MO 64137 (816) 761-4545

They stated that the management claims people like this bring in the bedbugs and kicking them out was the right thing to do. However, after researching this story, I found that comments were left on Trip Advisor reporting bedbugs back in September of 08.

A tricky tacit? Sure is, by kicking the family out, they put the family on the defensive and thereby reduce the chances Value Place Hotel will be sued. Amazing!

Story from KCTV5 can be found at: kctv5.com/print/17727509/detail.html