So I heard that my mom had bed bugs in her apartment so I informed my building and arranged for an inspection. Sure enough my mattress and box spring tested positive (so says the sniffing dog). Before the inspection I had been bitten a month or so earlier, assumed it was a rash and now thinking back realize it was definitely bed bug bites.

I had two rounds of treatment and I prepared my apartment so much I didn’t have a single item out of a bag. I had hot sticks (these bug killing sticks you use for sheds) in each bag of personal items like books, shoes, jewelry. In each bag of clothes I washed, and then sealed in a bag with another hot stick thing. I never really had bites other than the one time before I even knew I had the bugs.

After a month of this madness and 2 treatments (during Christmas, new years, and of course, my birthday) I finally moved past it. The treatment company informed me I probably didn’t have an infestation, it was probably one bug that never laid eggs. They told me they didn’t find any bugs anywhere else in the apartment and that the treatment they believed was successful.

In all this time I inspected my bed and mattress everyday and throughout the entire experience only saw one bug and it was long dead, and it was when I first took my bed apart. I now have a top of the line mattress protector, box spring protector, threw away all my comforters, washed my sheets and am using temporary bedding and pillows that I throw in the drier every so often.

It has been 2 weeks since my 2nd treatment and I’m starting to notice bites! I never had bites other than that one time. I’ve considered maybe it was a reaction to the hot shot sticks, or perhaps that it was some other sort of bug? I’m a really clean, slightly OCD person who thought I put all of this behind me. I had just about unpacked all my belongings, extremely carefully shook out every book, and rewashed every item of clothing. I don’t know what to do.

Is it possible I’m making these bites up in my head? I am at a loss for how there could still be bugs especially since I never had a heavy infestation to begin with. I’ve poured boiling water on my floor, washed and dried all my bedding, alcoholed my bed frame and still! Someone please tell me I’m imaging these bites and that that’s possible.

I came across your site trying to look for some answers. Every week I wake up to these bites that don’t turn red and itchy until i start scratching, they vary in location but I am sure they happen overnight, especially when i use blanket, I’ve had up to 6 bites on my legs after one day. They are pale and round and swell up at first and itch for at least 3-4 days and start to turn black as they dry and I can feel where it punctured me as the it dries up because that part is still elevated.

My mom believes these are flying bugs that bite, but i dont believe it because it happens overnight! the bite i have attached is a little bit more swollen because I did scratch it but have applied ointment.

I am trying to find bed bugs but it is difficult. We have a new bed and have changed from carpet to wood floor in the past 2 years in hopes they would go away. This is the worse it has been, we’ve changed blankets, linens, vacuumed and still nothing, at first we thought it was fleas because we have pets but they have been medicated and i don’t see any fleas or bugs for that matter at all!

It’s driving me crazy!

Please help! thanks

Somewhere in the area of 4 months ago various members of my house (wife, 2 boys 3 and 7 and I) would, at different times, get what appears to be a bite – or two at the most. In the entire time, we’ve never had more than two bites on us at once. In all but maybe 2 or 3 of the bites there has been no apparent “hole” that we could see which would be from a puncture wound. A the couple that did could have just been from scratching (the most obvious was on my wife). My 7yr old only has had 1 or 2 over the whole time. My 3yr old has had maybe 5 or 6. My wife and I both have had a total of 10 max over the 4 month period.

These “bites” start out sort of white and swollen in an irregular shape, not really round. Within the day it appears the swelling typically goes away, but then turns red like a bruise and is completely gone in 3-4 days. My 3yr and my “bites” barely itch – much much less than a mosquito bite does (and my 3yr old is allergic to mosquito or horsefly bites as we’ve had to give him Benedryl because he severely swells up). My wife says her’s does itch incredibly but it can’t be that bad because she barely complained and I didn’t see her scratching incessantly. My wife thinks that they could be pimples – but they don’t have a “pimple head”.

So, location. My 3yr old has only had them on his tummy or back. He wears shirt and bottoms to bed. My wife has had them on her hip (closer to her buttock) and at her pantyline on her front. She usually sleeps with pants and sometimes with a shirt, always with a bra. She thinks she may have had one or two on her arm – she doesn’t remember. My 7yr only had them on his side and probably slept shirtless. Me, I’ve had a dual bite on the back of my thigh where it meets the buttocks, I’ve had one on each side at the same time, and on my shoulder blades. Since these started, I’ve been wearing pants and shirt to bed, shirt tucked into pants and pants tucked into socks. (I told you I’m going nuts.) The reason I am bringing this up is because in my reading, I saw that they usually snack on exposed skin – and I’ve never had a bite on my face or arms which are always exposed. And we’ve never had the breakfast, lunch, supper type of proof either.

So… detection. Nothing. I have literally torn apart both bedrooms (the boys sleep together in the same room in separate beds). I have a high powered LED flashlight that can literally shine through the edges of the mattress and boxspring. I’ve been searching and searching. We had (thrown out, cleaned, moved, inspected) many places where bed bugs would probably have flourished. We had two old dresser drawers slid under the best for storage (one empty and one full of papers and books). Nice and dark and wood. Nothing there. Bottom of bedside tables and drawers full of books and junk almost never opened/moved. Nothing. Under the bedside tables, nothing. Wall sockets/jacks, nothing. Nothing on the bed frame, box spring, floor, mattress, etc and have found no solid evidence of blood, feces, shed skin, eggs or live bed bugs. I’ve over turned the bedside tables, the one dresser my wife uses, our luggage, up ended the beds, etc. I’ve been doing checks several times a day and night and through the night. Nothing. Checked along the walls, floor closet, etc.

Now, today after moving some clutter my wife found small, white bugs in dust along the baseboard where I had not checked very closely before. The bugs, when exposed to direct light, didn’t really react – until she disturbed the dust and them and they started to move – not very fast – up the wall. She says that she pretty much killed them trying to catch them. So when I got home, we got out some black electrical tape and tried to “catch” stuff. Attached is two pictures of them. The first has the small white bug, squished unfortunately. Now from what I’ve read if bed bugs are this small, they should be colorless? It, to me, looks like a mite (we do have two indoor cats). The second has two ball-like… things but don’t appear to have legs or anything.

It’s really the white, squished bug that is concerning me… is it a mite? Or is it a nymph? Can you even tell from my pic? Now, the caveat to all of this. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada. We had a really warm Fall, so at first we thought “We DO have bugs…” Common household spiders. We have ants (our whole subdivision is one large ant hill – but at this time of the year we do not see live ones). I’ve seen some catepillar like dead things – no idea what they are. I’ve even seen what looked like a grasshopper in the unfinished part of our basement. Fruit flies. We even had a moth flying around outside on Dec 6th. But those are all pretty big, and rarely seen alive except for the odd spider in it’s web. So I have lots of ways to explain away these “bites” yet I keep coming back to the fact that we’re getting bit through/under clothes and not on exposed skin, but they itch (to varying degrees depending on who has em) they don’t typically have a puncture but it may be so small we can’t see it. None have become infected or required medical attention. There’s been no noticeable blood left on the bed. Also the time of the year, it’s cold now so we know we’re not getting them from outside so it has to be inside and it’s driving me nuts.

And the biggest thing – after this length of time you’d think that we’d be able to find some type of evidence given the insanity of my checking that we’ve got an infestation. I have literally checked everything short of hauling the baseboard off the wall.

We don’t have much in the way of spare money, and to get anyone in to “inspect” is going to cost me good – and I’m not sure they’d look any closer at things than I have in my insanity.

Thank you for reading.

:,( Insane Bug Brain

Can you take a photo and send it to me at BadBedBugs@gmail.com? This will help. Also, go through my bedbug checklist at the top of this page. Also, there are a ton of tips on this site for spotting them, including a bed bug trap you can make yourself!

Yes, bed bugs can target just one person in the bed, and yes, just a part of the body. Once I see the pics, I can tell you for sure.

Thanks!

the bugs in my house are small very small a clearish colour hard to describe all around my house, not like it is infested but I do notice one or two every now n then through out my day on a wall or my tv cabinet any ideas what they might be??

You posted your picture of bed bug bites on photobucket which is asking for a password. You can send your picture to badbedbugs@gmail.com and we’ll get it up on the site.

Have you tried the bed bugs trap to see if you have them? Also, can you send pictures of your bites to badbedbugs@gmail.com and I’ll get them posted to help figure out what is really biting you. Before you do anything, check out my Bed Bug Checklist to see if you can find the bug(s).