It is quite possible you or someone who comes to your home is reintroducing them. It is also possible a neighbor has them and they’re being reintroduced that way.

Another possibility is that you may have had some bed bugs all along (in smaller numbers). It is possible that you are not reacting to the odd bite, but when bitten in greater force, suffer a noticeable allergic reaction.

If you retreat, PCOs generally do a repeat treatment within 2 weeks. Single treatments do not generally work. Most cases need 3+ treatments, and if people are treated just once, it is not unusual for bed bugs to bounce back in a short time.

Moving is very tricky. Many have tried and failed. Some have succeeded. You have to decide if it is possible to get proper treatment for yourself as well as having neighbors inspected and treated if need be. If not, moving may be a good idea. Don’t assume you will not bring some bed bugs, however. Some people arrange to move while the old apt. is being treated, and to have one treatment in the new place (to kill the odd bed bug brought along for the ride).

Also, if you do send your laundry out, you must take it in sealed bags (such as XL ziplocs) and make sure the laundry service understands the bags must be emptied into the machines and washed and dried on hot, before being placed into new sealed bags. If they do not fully understand the issues involved, they may infest their shop, other customers, and reinfest your clean wash.

Good luck!

If you have further questions or comments, please post them on the forums:

http://bedbugger.com/forum

Now I wake up every day with bites, and the seem to become more frequent as hte day wear on (ie - i notice more around 5pm then I did when I got up at 10). My husband doesn’t get ANYTHING. I went to the doctor and he ruled out scabies, and pretty much anything other than bugbites.

WHY’!?!>! I’m starting to hate brining it up, as i generally get the eye roll and sigh and “well what do you want to do about it then?” and “I can’t sleep with the light on”

terrible,

Everyone else–please help us keep the posts and FAQs on topic: if a conversation gets away from the topic of the post, let’s take it to the forums. The advantage to all of us is you can easily find all the previous conversations you were involved in in the forums (via your profile) and you can also search by tags. On the blog, if the comments get off topic, it’s harder to find the relevant ones if you ever want to revisit them. Newcomers often don’t know this policy so please help me out by directing them to the forums. Thanks!

Obviously we are a little biased, since this is a bedbug site after all, but bedbugs and travel are very often linked and if you’re not yet sure if this is bedbugs, I think you should play it smart and assume the worst-case scenario. The worst case being, of course, bedbugs. They are certainly an awful pest, but if you act quickly (and you seem like you can!) you will get rid of them faster.

You might solve this just by vacuuming and laundering, but if the bites continue after you do these things, you probably want to a) tell your husband, b) call a PCO and c) isolate your bed.

At least, that is what I would do, and that is the order in which I would do it.

Read all the FAQ’s, and just a note based on personal experience, don’t think to yourself “This doesn’t apply to me because my case isn’t that bad” or “This won’t help me because it’s too early.” Listen, I never had more than 3 bites in one day. I may have had 75 bites in total, and that’s over the course of 4 months. So your case, I hate to say, is actually kinda bad already. You need to get moving. The faster you get a PCO in there, the sooner the problem starts getting better not worse.

You may “have yet to see the little monsters,” but that is totally normal. As you may have read, bedbugs are good at hiding. It is like their job to avoid detection. Their bodies have evolved for that purpose alone - that’s why they are so flat. But don’t wait to act until you see a bug - that could be weeks and by the time you DO see a bug, your infestation could be really bad.

Bites are more often on exposed areas, but that doesn’t mean bites under clothing are impossible. In fact, I’d say they are still pretty likely. Your sheets won’t do anything. The fact that your bites are all on your right side is interesting, but if you sleep on your left side then it probably just means they are biting wherever they can get access.

Please read the FAQ’s, tell your husband, and get a qualified PCO in there. Vacuuming and laundry won’t hurt, but you really need some residual chemicals put down around your place.

I also applaud your efforts to call the hotel - you are obviously an empathetic person and that will go a long way. Thanks for caring about fellow travelers - if only everyone was like you!

Good luck and keep us posted!

I have Murphy’s, so I’ll use some of that.

I haven’t heard back from the GM of the hotel. I will call again tomorrow. My guess is, since they’re a hotel they’ve dealt with bedbugs before. They’re not going to admit to having them, but they did tell me they were contacting both the GM and housekeeping. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, they’ll change the sheets and vacuum and pretend nothing is wrong.

It is also conceivable I got the bugs from my luggage being with that of others’ on the plane, and that I picked one up from the plane seats.

Whatever, I’m taking it seriously even though I have yet to see the little monsters.

In answer to your question, I have seen bites like these - from spiders. I have just never seen them so numerous and consistent, and that’s why I suspected bed bugs.

My friends just want to be optimistic. But no, they’re not much help.