I’m *very* allergic to mosquitoes, so I would assume that the anti-coagulant from bed bugs would also make me itch, but I’ve found one small, red, hard raised bump on the back of my hand and two on my face and I’m panicking a little that they’re bed bug bites.

They do look like the bumps on Ross’s pictures, but there are so few of them and none in the three-bite configuration that people mention a lot. Should I be worried?

To make a long terrible story short…my hubby works nights so its only me and my 75 yr old Gianna in the bed. (yeas she sleeps w mama) lol..anyway I’ve noticed about 4-5 bites on her..not as bad as mine though. mine are huge, itchy painful..welt like…hot, did i mention huge? they ooz and i’m just terrified. i go to bed when i cant keep my eyes open anymore. i stay with a flashlight like a loony! its just terrible please help me.

I’ll even give u my home number for crying out loud. aaaaahhhh!!! help. i have more pics i will send u ok. please i am begging you on my knees for some help. i cant afford an exterminator. is my landlord supposed to do that? i cant get a new bed..a new anything. i’m willing to throw it all away. i really am. we live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes can even pay our bills or buy food so its rough.

my neighbors in the next building over (our walls are attached. ) had them bad. her baby was chewed up to say the LEAST! poor kid. i’m so ashamed. ahhh.. thanks Jim hope to hear from you. i am so desperate its sickening. I need help bad. just tried to email u and cant for some reason my comp is messed up.

I’m gonna go to my AOL account and email u some pics that way! thanks and hope to god to hear from yo and get some helpful advice. my hubby thinks it isn’t a big deal as i do. I’m terrified. is it spiders? i am literally so afraid I’m willing to go to a shelter!

First of all I can sympathize with each one of your stories. Let me start from the beginning. My fiance when we first started dating, lived in one of the most disgusting places I’ve ever seen and ended up almost dying from staph because his roommates wouldn’t clean and wouldn’t let him clean.

Then they were all evicted and we loved each other so we decided hey, lets move in together. About a month later we kept getting bites on the backs of our arms…only there. Went to the doctor they said I was having an allergic reaction to something gave me a corticosteroid cream. Took us 2 more weeks to figure out that there were bed bugs living in the chair in our living room. So…we threw out the chair.

Actually when we realized this it was midnight and went to leave it outside good will and we watched a guy sneak up and steal it….karma came back to bite him in the bottom. Anyway, we were fine after that for like 5 months. Didn’t have them on any of the other furniture nothing. One night in January after having the heater on we woke up one day with bites all over our arms and upper bodies. Took us not long this time to figure out the bed bugs were back.

After looking up state laws we called the apts. cause pest control is their problem and they also owned the apts. where my fiance used to live. They said they would spray. So they did. Fine for a few weeks and then tons of bites again. About this time we took the bed apart and realized how bad it was. So we threw out the bed and had them spray again…lived on an air mattress while I had bronchitis.

One night i notice movement on the wall. Apparently, they had crawled all the way up to the ceiling and were living behind pictures. I started scrubbing EVERYTHING and we were moving anyway in a few months so I started packing. stripped the room bare and the pest control guy sprayed again…then we put down food grade diatomaceous earth and after a few weeks they were gone. (We coated the mattress box spring and bottom of the actual mattress in it too when we got a new one). Hadn’t seen them since.

I will tell you though. It does make you paranoid. I have definite mosquito bites on one foot and i immediately checked my bed. gl to all of those out there oh and remember put gloves on when handling food grade DE it isn’t toxic but will dry out your hands….also our roommates busted our vacuum vacuuming it up b4 we all moved out so make sure u dump it frequently. OUTSIDE of course :-)

Yes, people have reported that the reaction to bites can be delayed and appear hours later. If you do have a bed bug infestation, use our bedbug checklist found at the top of this site in the menu bar to help you locate them.

Let me know if you find anything, will you?

About day 3 in the cabin, my husband and I noticed bug bites. We didn’t think much of it because we had spent several hours the previous evening outdoors. Neither of us developed “welts,” so at least we are not having an allergic reaction. I emailed the cabin owner and she said that her pest control company checked it out and there were no signs of bed bugs. I am kicking myself because I ALWAYS check the mattresses and I didn’t this time because the cabin seemed so clean and well-kept.

I have not seen any actual bugs yet. We vacuumed everything, and have the suitcases sealed in plastic bags now.

After my first encounter my company got an exterminator to come there and treat it. It was inspected and given the seal of approval by the exterminators that it was bug free! When my boss called me and asked me to work that location again he assured me the problem was taken care of so I agreed to go there….BIG MISTAKE.

I was there on Monday and while I’m sitting at the desk I feel something on the back of my neck. My natural reaction was to swat it off of me and so I did but I didn’t see what it was nor where it went. I thought nothing of it as there are a lot of bugs in that place and my boss assured me there were no more bed bugs.

The second day I was there which was today, I was about to close up at about 3:30pm. It was real cloudy out and so it started to get a little dark in the office. I was sitting there at the computer with a book I was reading right beside me. That’s when I noticed a bed bug scurrying along the desk toward the book. I immediately freaked, jumped up, ran outside and called my boss. He told me to just go home for the day but I could tell he didn’t really believe that it was a bed bug so I ventured back inside and trapped the one on the desk in a bottle to show him.

While doing so I turned around toward and old, dirty upholstered chair and there was another one crawling from the seam. At this point I was on the verge of a heart attack as I am afraid of ANY bug let alone a BED BUG!!!!! Luckily, I was smart this time around for the MOST part and I left my purse in my trunk so not to provide a venue for them to travel to my home (just in case my boss was wrong about their eradication) but for a brief period the first day for about 2 hours I did leave my purse on my desk while it was bright and sunny outside (hence, the source of my worries) but aside from that I only carried my book, my phone, a bottle of lotion and my car keys with me inside.

So after seeing the second bed bug, I grabbed my keys and phone only (left the lotion and the book) and went outside to wait for my boss because he was on his way to see the bugs for himself. When he got there I showed him and he took pics and got rid of the old, dirty chair (I think that was the main source of the problem) and when he threw it outside one of the wooden pieces on the bottom of the chair broke off and there were MORE bed bugs in it….yuck!!!!! So now it’s just sitting outside waiting to be thrown away. I have a few questions….

#1: Are the bed bugs going to stay in the chair until tomorrow when it is thrown out or will they just make their way back into the office or into a car that’s parked about 50 feet away? I’m asking because I have to go back tomorrow but I told my boss I am not willing to go inside the office so I will do my work from outside and during down times I will sit in my car which I’m going to park as far away from the office as possible.

#2: What are my chances that in that brief period of time (2 hours) that I left my purse on the desk, that a bed bug or two made its way into it? Keep in mind it was bright and sunny outside (I know they are nocturnal) and I didn’t see any that day.

#3: The guy for whom I’m filling in for has brought them to his house also and has an infestation there so he could be transporting them back and forth….what can my company do about this if anything? It’s costing them a fortune to keep treating the office only for him to still have them at home and bring them back to the office.

Your answers are much appreciated

I threw the mattress out that night and washed my sheets. I ordered some bedbug spray online and I have been spraying the carpet. I either times sleep on the couch and on my air mattress and no longer have a traditional bed. I don’t have any bites. I still spray the carpet. I was lucky I only had about 10 bites, but I have a few permanent scars from the bites.

My advice that I give to anyone don’t buy any used furniture or take it!! Even if it is a close friend. If you have to please get it cleaned professionally!!

If a bed is infested with bed bugs, I’d throw it out…the entire bed and buy spray or get an exterminator!!

Good bless you…pray about it!