Bed Bugs Bite Me!

Welcome to Bed Bugs Bite Me! This site is here to support anyone who has had a problem with bed bugs. Here you can read the experiences of other bed bug victims and find out how to tackle an infestation of these little critters.

I'm collecting stories from anyone who has had a brush with bed bugs. If you've solved the problem and want to help others, please write in! But this is also the place to vent if you are still fighting a nasty beg bug infestation.

Please send your stories to: webmaster(AtSymbol)bedbugsbiteme.com

Anon's Story (24 April 2012)

I had bed bugs five years ago in my apartment. I went through everything trying to get rid of them only to find out that my roommate's kid who came over every weekend was the one bringing them from his house! The worst part is my roomie knew of the infestation and didn't tell me, just watched me work my butt off trying to get rid of them.

I ended up having to move, get rid of absolutely everything I owned and start over again. It worked and I was bed bug free...until now! I can't believe I have to go through this again, but I just found out that my boyfriend's place has them! He didn't know because he has never been bitten. They say 70% of people do not react to the bites. Unlike myself...I get huge painful welts that take three weeks to heal! I am so upset. I don't think I'm strong enough to go through this again.

Annie's Story (27 Jan 2012)

Our home was infested with bed bugs for approximately six to twelve months before we ever knew it. It was January 2007 when we realized we had them. We live in a single family home so we were lucky as we only had to deal with ourselves and not our neighbors. Our older sons brought the bed bugs into our home over the course of months and never knew it. Their grandmother had the bugs and never bothered to tell us.

Since neither of the boys reacted to bites we had no way of knowing there was a problem until the bugs had expanded to other bedrooms. I started to notice bite marks on my two year-old and just assumed he was bitten by something. I don't think I ever knew bed bugs were real. I would wash his sheets and brush it off as nothing. My husband started to get bitten too and again we never thought anything of it.

It wasn't until one Monday morning when our older son woke up and said 'Dad I've got a bug in my bed' that it all come to light. When my husband lifted his matress there were thousands of bed bugs and the residue of bed bugs. Freaking out, my husband ripped his bed apart and dragged it out to our garage to scrubbed it down with bleach, still not knowing what a bed bug was. Our son told us his grandmother had these bugs and then we knew we had a major problem!

I called several exterminators and had a few out for estimates. We had bugs in all three bedrooms and on our living room furniture. We took immediate action and packed up every single belonging in all three bedrooms. I spent the entire weekend at a laundry mat washing everything and anything we owned (it was faster than doing load by load at home).

We packed up all of the clothes, coats, sheets, towels etc that we didn't need in XXL Ziplock bags and only kept out five or six outfits for each of us downstairs on a table near the washer-dryer. All of our belongings in our bedrooms that could not be washed and that we couldn't get rid of we put in black trash bags with one No Pest Strip in each bag.

That was all of our shoes, belts, alarm clocks, pictures, jewelry, purses...anything at all in all three bedrooms. We double bagged it all and stored it in our garage until we knew we were bed bug free, which was I'd guess a good eight or 10 weeks or more.

We called out Stanley Steamer and had all of our mattressess, floors and furniture steam cleaned and then put Protect-a-Bed covers on our box springs and mattresses. We spent a small fortune but we'd stop at nothing to reclaim our house and sense of security. It was a long grueling process.

It felt like forever but it was probably a solid two months of non-stop treatments, calling our pest control operator (PCO) every time we found a bug, cleaning our hearts out, vaccuming, steam mopping every speck of the house and being diligent about only wearing freshly washed clothes to bed and immediately washing our night clothes as soon as we woke up. It was a living hell and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Our PCOs were dedicated but really didn't know what they were doing. We didn't have any contract with them and I think only paid $600 but they never quit or gave up and when they got tired and couldn't figure out why these bugs weren't dying they called in other companies to help out.

In the meantime I called in a different company with bed bug dogs just to get second opinions, but that place was a complete scam. Not that the dogs might not have been trained properly at one time, but they weren't used correctly so it just made me more frustrated.

Ultimately this other PCO that came in spent hours at our home looking anywhere and everywhere and constantly spraying when we had problems. I think the final thing that really helped was that they drilled holes into all of our bedroom walls and halls connecting the rooms, and then treated the walls. It was a pain in the neck to have to go back and patch all the holes and repaint everything but it seemed to work. Slowly but surely we got them all one by one.

We decided to replace the boy's bedroom set completely as it was just too gross to know how bad their room was, and we replaced my two year-old's mattress as well. The boys have never gone back to their grandmother's house as I just can't allow it. She lives in a row of homes and has never had her house treated so I'm just not comfortable with it.

I was/still am furious that she had such a problem and allowed our kids to stay there and never told us. I realize having bugs is embarrassing but it's 100 times worse when you knowingly spread them to other people's homes.

My advice if you're going through this? Be relentless. Stop at nothing to do all you can to get rid of the bugs. Don't count on just the PCO treatments. Clean, declutter and be diligent! Don't leave your beds...it's sickly, but you're the bait and you need to stay there night after night. I didn't - I was pregnant and couldn't do it, so my husband slept in our room and I slept on an air mattress for four months because I was scared to death to go back to my bed.

Honestly, after having these bugs and learning what I did, if I ever got them again I wouldn't freak out as badly as I did. It takes time to get rid of these bugs but it can be done, especially when you live in a standalone house and don't have to worry about connecting neighbors. I'll never travel the same and am always on alert. It does get easier over time though. God bless and good luck with your battle!

Ken's Story (6 Jan 2012)

I was infested in 2006, which is before the bed bug problem was in the public's consciousness. So much misinformation. Doctors diagnosed bite marks as allergic reactions. One even suggested that a friend of mine's bite marks were a psychological disorder. I had exterminators spray five times, and eventually the bed bugs were gone. But I've treated other friends' problems in better ways, as enumerated below. Learn from this:

Never sleep anywhere else except your bed. If you seek refuge in another room, you've just doubled your infestation. Encase your mattress, put the bed on risers, and coat them with vaseline. Dust around the bed area with diatomaceous earth (more later). Like it or not, your being the bait is the best way to kill them.
Vacuum frequently. You can use a bagless vacuum - just make sure to empty it and wash with scalding water after each use.
Wash your bedding and clothes frequently - only in hot water. Dry on high. You can also put bedding or clothes in the dryer without washing to kill them. Quarantine your cleaned clothes in two-gallon ziplock-type bags. Don't isolate suspected clothing in bags, unless you plan on washing it, otherwise, the bugs will just wait you out.
If feasible, put anything you like, including furniture, books, and clothes, into storage for 18 months, and the bed bugs will starve to death in that time.
For your mattress: just get a good encasement from Bed Bath and Beyond. There's no need to throw it out. You must tape the zipper to ensure a complete seal.
Diatomaceous earth is the best mechanical killer, and there's no worry about immunity to pesticides. It's also very safe, especially if you have pets. Put it in a sock, wear a good mask and lightly tap it around the bed and baseboards. Don't make huge piles. It should look like a light talcum powder dusting. For $25 you can treat an entire house.
Forget about freezing. It's impractical and doesn't work well. What are you going to do, stuff your freezer full of sheets?
For the most comprehensive source of info, please go to http://bedbugger.com which was started in 2007 as a public service for the dissemination of up-to-date findings, news reports and myth-busting about bed bugs.

El's Story (5 Jan 2012)

I first thought that I might have bed bugs when I thought I saw one crawling up the wall. I got a good bunch of bites on my arms and legs and some of the bugs must have either crawled up my leg while I was sleeping in bed or got into my clothing, I cannot be sure which. I had a friend staying at my apartment and when I asked him if he saw anything, he said no, but I kept getting bitten and kept asking him and he kept saying no.

I got an exterminator, but we never looked my friend's area which was fairly dark. Then one night I got tired of him saying there was no bugs in his area, there had to be, as it was where other people came in and visited. So in the middle of the night I got up and went over to him and pulled back his blankets and discovered he had a bunch of bugs on him.

He was only supposed to stay a few weeks, it was now about a month later and he had no place to stay, but I needed him out of there so I could treat the place. Later on I discovered there was a fairly large infestation around the couch where he slept and they were on the drapery as well as the couch. They had crawled up that drape and were crawling along the wall toward the bedroom as well as the dining area where I had my computer.

They were on the ceiling above the bed, and I heard they were known to crawl across ceilings and drop down on you while you sleep. I also heard they detect not only the carbon dioxide in your breath but also that they can detect when you are in the REM state of sleeping, so they can crawl up on you and get off by the time you wake. I actually never saw any on on my body but the other guy had them in his sweatsuit which he slept in.

I used the exterminator again, and this time the boss came, but the treatment was useless and I believe he stole several items in my apartment, including a camera which I never recovered.

I had friends who had the bugs and they may have been the ones who brought them into my place, either them or the guy who was staying on the couch, but who knows, actually. They told me to spray alcohol directly on the bugs and they will die. I also looked online for more natural treatments, but they really didn't do anything, only diatomaceous earth worked on them. I found a number of dead ones who had bled to death from walking over that stuff, but I never found another one alive.

I put the diatomaceous earth all around the wall edges and all around my bed, tons of it. I don't think I got any big bites after that, but I think I got a number of small bites. They probably got on me OK, but when trying to leave they got beaten by the diatomaceous earth.

I used alcohol to get them off the ceiling and sprayed anything that might have had them on it, like chairs and tables, bookcases and such. I went through everything I had and put lots of it in storage as well as throwing many things away, including all my furniture. My business was going down anyway, and I had spent at least $2,000 on this problem in about a month or two. I had to move out of this nice apartment in a nice area where I have I lived for 18 years. I am still traumatized and look for bed bugs in my air bed where I am staying now. I look for them everywhere.

Athough I have now lost my apartment after 18 years, I had the bed bugs on the run before I left. I moved into a small place a month or so later, and so far, I haven't seen anything, and my bites itches are finally subsiding. I think, I hope, but yeah, I am traumatized.

A friend of mine found them on his property, and hopes they aren't in his house, just his guest house. I was never in that house, so we think his tenant in the guest house may have brought them in, but there is no way of telling.

Alcohol and diatomaceous earth will keep them at bay once you find the infestation, but they linger and you don't know where they are. It's freaky and I'm still traumatized, but hopefully I won't see them or get bitten again. Only one friend of mine got them, so I hope it wasn't me that brought them in there...

Elaine's Story (10 Dec 2011)

I moved when I had bed bugs. I lived in a smaller building (10 units) with crappy ghetto management. The management wasn't responding to my complaint, so I hired a good exterminator and got rid of the bugs the right way (with heat not chemicals). For the heat treatment, they basically bring in propane heaters and heat your place up to 140 degrees fahrenheit for a couple hours. It cost me $2300, but sadly that's really the best way to get rid of the bugs.

I was paranoid that the heat treatment might not have worked for things like books, so I put all those things in garbage bags with a hot shot no-pest strip for three months. Yeah, that was an inconvenience.... big time. I have a full-time job. But I could see the bugs were making me crazy, and I wanted them gone in one shot. After the heat treatment I waited 10 days, moved, sued the slumlord in small claims court and won.

It was an awful, awful, awful experience. I threw away all my furniture and had to dry clean all my clothes. The good thing is that I got rid of the bugs within 10 days of first seeing them, and never got them again. I'm very glad I decided to do things right, and not tolerate any substandard treatment from management. Getting information really helped me, so hopefully I can pass it along.

Fred's Story (8 Dec 2011)

My first real encounter with bed bugs occurred when my boss came back from holiday covered in nasty red bites. I'd heard of beg bugs before of course - we've all heard the saying 'Sleep tight - don't let the bed bugs bite!', and I had had a vague idea that they were very tough to get rid of, but that was the extent of my knowledge.

My boss had been on holiday with her family and stayed in a holiday cottage that, it turned out, was infested with bed bugs. Her upper arms were completely covered with bright red marks - there must have been at least 100 bites, possibly more, the classic symptoms of a bed bug problem.

So my boss asked for a refund from the holiday company, eventually her bites faded away, and I forgot about the incident. For a while...

Until the guy who lives in the flat upstairs knocked on my door one day, introduced himself, and waved a little plastic box in my general direction. Inside that little plastic box was a dead bed bug.

He told me that the flat that he lived in with his girlfriend was now crawling with the creatures. They had both been noticing bite marks for a while, but hadn't known what was causing them. Until the bite marks got worse, and then worse...They had tried searching for bed bugs but hadn't found anything, mainly because these insects are like vampires and only come out at night.

So what they had done was put some clean, white sheets on their bed (they'd been using dark colored sheets before). When they woke up in the morning, the sheets were covered in blood. This was war.

The next thing they did was call the landlord. The house that I live in contains four little flats, all owned by the same private landlord, two flats upstairs and two flats downstairs (I live downstairs at the back of the building).

The landlord helpfully informed us that a) there had been a major bed bug problem before in the front downstairs flat, which he hadn't bothered to mention to the the other tenants, and b) bed bugs weren't his problem so he wasn't going to pay for any spraying or treatment. And that was it.

Needless to say, none of us in the building were very happy with this. The couple upstairs called the local environmental health department, who said that as it was a privately-owned building it wasn't their responsibility (this is in the UK). So they called the landlord again, and again, and eventually he offered to pay for the treatment needed.

The treatment needed was almost as worrying as the bugs themselves. Every flat in the building would need to be sprayed with a liquid chemical. We were told to move all of our furniture away from the walls so that the spray could be directed into nooks and crannies.

We were also told that if the spraying didn't work then the flats would need treating with a kind of airborne 'bomb' treatment that would poison the bed bugs when they breathed in and fumigate the life out of them. Unfortunately it would also poison us if we breathed it in and could contaminate any food we had in our cupboards...

The spraying was carried out, in every flat in the building, and then we waited...and that's where we are today. As yet, no bed bugs have returned. But the more I read about these creatures, the more worried I get. They can, apparently, live for months in the cracks of buildings. They can move from flat to flat and from house to house. And I live in a small building that has been severely infected twice with bed bugs...

Please share your bed bug story!

If you have been battling against bed bugs and want to have a good old rant, or if you have beaten the little pests and want to help others, please share your story. You can include pictures or videos.