We Bedbuggers know that bed bugs can be very difficult to find, even for trained Pest Control Operators. Time and again, people with bites are told they do not have any “evidence.” Since other conditions and pests can cause similar symptoms, it is of course important that other “signs” are present–but too often, […]

In Reno, they have so few bed bug cases, that the health department called three residents of an apartment complex to tell them their building is infested. (New Yorkers, are you laughing?!)
Unfortunately, as Geralda Miller of the Reno Gazette Journal reports, the advice being given to tenants is not great:

“They’re an indoor critter,” [Jeff […]

I’ve heard reports from various areas that haven’t seen many cases of bed bugs yet that Pest Control Operators often don’t know how to deal with them. We’ve heard this from readers near Yellowstone Park, and in Yorkshire, England. It makes sense of course, but the reasonable response is to do your homework. […]

Reader Edgie wrote me an email which she asked me to post on the blog:
I’m Edgie in San Francisco.
I moved to this apartment last June and learned from a
neighbor that there were bed bug problems. I didn’t know
what a bedbug was, but quickly learned. I also started
getting small bites pretty regularly, not big […]

Many of us went to doctors (both internal medicine specialists and dermatologists) with our bed bug bites and were misdiagnosed. Some people are wrongly told they have scabies and treated for it (as I was, without the doctor having done a simple scraping to diagnose a scabies infestation.) People are sometimes even […]

I just updated the most general FAQ: “What are bed bugs? How do I know if I have them? What else could be causing similar symptoms?”
You may notice that I am beginning to remove the comment function from the FAQs, since people are overwhelmingly using them to post tales of bed bug […]

This guy is grossed out because he thinks “bed bugs” eat his dead skin cells and discarded hair.
Alas, if only.

The Johns Hopkins University Gazette (11 September 2006) reports that the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center has come up with a helpful acronym for doctors in diagnosing the source of childrens’ rashes. It highlights features of bed bug bites and other conditions, which many of us adults who suffer from bed bug bites have also […]

Oy, Bradenton / Sarasota / Manatee Florida: Bradenton Herald business reporter Robin Roger is steering you wrong. The article “Mattress sweeper prevents the bed bugs’ bite” is about dust mites.
Back in August, there was a local station which covered the NYC City Council hearing on bed bugs and used a photo of a […]

The FAQ on this issue has just been updated (including links to info on other possible causes– bird mites, scabies, hot tub folliculitis, and delusory parasitosis). Click here to see it!
Coming soon: shed skin and feces photos, thanks to Lou Sorkin!

A friend of mine recently said she was told that her building was being treated for “a new kind of roach.” Then she described the treatment–all the tenants would have to put all their things in plastic bags in the center of the room, the treatment was going to be done 3 times over a […]

What bed bugs (or bedbugs) look like depends partly on their life stage and whether they’ve just had a blood meal or not. You need to know that the adults are about the size of an apple seed, and the youngest nymphs can be the size of a speck of dirt. In other […]