How Do You Get Bed Bugs?

How do you get bed bugs? Most people bring them home by accident, usually after travel, used furniture, shared items, or time spent in an infested home.

• Staying at a hotel and not using this checklist to make sure your room is bedbug free!
• Buying used clothing and bringing it into your home without first washing it.
• Bringing old books into your home.
• Letting someone enter your home suspected of having an infestation and not recognizing the signs.
• Furniture from a dumpster.

Of those listed above, bringing used furniture in from the curb or a dumpster is one of the most common and costly mistakes. Daniel’s story below shows how quickly one piece of infested furniture can turn into a bed bug problem.

I had never encountered bed bugs before. I’m in college now, living in an apartment complex with five other people because shared rent makes our lives much easier. However, having six beds in a two-bedroom apartment is challenging, so most use couches and comfy sofas as our beds.

Most of our furniture came from Craigslist, but the last one I got for myself was one that a roommate noticed was left near the dumpster outside a few days ago because one of our neighbors was apparently moving away.

It was a cozy green chair that perfectly matched the green sofa in our living room, it was only out there for a few hours, and I wanted to keep it for myself in my bedroom, so on that same day, I cleaned it, vacuumed it, and sprayed it with a can of Febreze to give it a more refreshing odor before bringing it in.

I was sleeping on the floor with some blankets underneath beforehand, so I was relieved to finally find something I could sit and lay on in my bedroom. But once we set it up, I noticed a red bug crawling along the armrest. I’m unsure if I killed it or just flicked it off, but I assumed it was an ant or some beetle from the outside that found its way on it.

I don’t care for bugs, only spiders and cockroaches bother me, so I didn’t think too much of the bugs I saw. Though I did suggest to my roommate that it might be a bed bug, he told me the size was too big to be one, so I never thought about it.

On that same night that we brought it in, right before falling asleep I noticed another one crawling along my shirt. I tried to crush it with my finger, but I’m not sure if I made contact because it slipped off my shirt and down between the crack of the chair and the cushion, and again I just ignored it and fell asleep.

The next morning, I felt a little itchy when I woke up, but I just continued on my way to go to school. Throughout the day, however, I noticed how often I was itching. Several red marks appeared on my left forearm, mostly around my inner elbow.

Later I realized the same red marks on my right forearm around my outer elbow and both of my knees. I knew it had to be bedbugs because the only time I was ever bitten so much was when I went to the pool area one night with my friends. I never did again after getting bitten so much. But this time, I had way more bites than a few mosquitoes could do without even being outside, and as the itch spots hardened, I counted at least a dozen bites on each arm and leg.

I remembered that the underside was ripped while I was cleaning the chair when I brought it in. You could see the springs and the cotton (or whatever the white cotton-looking stuff surrounded the springs), full of a dozen dark red and black spots.

My same roommate told me it was probably just soda or juice that soaked through the cushion and stained the cotton. Still, the marks were very spread out, not congested in a single area or anything. Although the spots looked nothing like the bedbug feces or shells, as I see in the pictures above, they ‘did’ look more like someone may have tried to thoroughly wash and clean them up as if there was a serious nesting ground here before which is a scary thought. How do you get bed bugs? Used furniture, that’s how!

After three days, I couldn’t take it and threw the chair out. One main problem, though, is that I needed something for my legs to rest on while I attempted to sleep on the chair those two nights. For that, I used my luggage bag that contained most of my old clothing that either didn’t fit me or didn’t wear very often.

But still, yeah, BIG mistake. Unfortunately for me, to have chosen my luggage out of anything else I could have used as a footrest. And now that my feet and legs also have bites on them, some of those bugs may be hiding out in my luggage.

Today is the third day, and I’m washing all my blankets and clothing. I threw out the couch as soon as I arrived from work, and I showed my friends why by revealing my arms to them because I’ve been keeping the issue to myself since day 1.

I hope all those bugs stay in the chair and haven’t tried nesting anywhere else. Still, I’m not sure, and I’ll have to wait a couple more days or weeks to see if I still get any new bites or if anyone else in this house gets itchy. By the way, the two roommates with whom I share the bedroom have shown no signs of my problem…yet.

I’m doing as much research as I can on these little *insert curse word here* because I have over 50 bed bug bites that are incredibly hard not to scratch. I pray it goes away cause I’ll feel horrible and responsible if the entire house gets infested, including all my roommates and all their clothing and furniture. Then we have to resort to exterminators or even fumigation, which will cost a lot. But that’s the worst case scenario unless we have to move.

So I wanted to post my experience here, the pictures were incredibly helpful, but I’d also like to ask if anyone could give me some tips on some methods and techniques that work and don’t work.

Like if I should wash my clothes with certain detergents at certain temperatures, or if I should burn that chair as well as my luggage, or what traces of these bedbugs I should be looking for to locate them, or if you recommend an anti-itch cream that works very well and lasts long, etc. Thank you so much. This site is great, and I also hope scientists find some cure or remedy to this growing issue in our society.

How do you get bed bugs? Used furniture left next to trash is one of the top methods for bringing them into your home; second is staying in an infested room, be it a hotel, a friend’s house, or used clothes. If you find yourself with an infestation, check out our step-by-step guide on how to get rid of bed bugs.