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Are we really in the clear - how do we know?
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nervousaboutbedbugs
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Joined: Jul '09
Posts: 69
Posted 1 month ago
Fri Oct 9 2009 22:16:26
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We've had 2 thermal treatments to deal with what we suspect was a minor bed bug infestation. We had no clear evidence of the bugs, but quite a bit of circumstantial: comet streaks and other blood spots on the sheets, lots of bites on my daughters, three positive canine alerts from two separate teams, and a possible nymph sighting on our bed (I squashed it before I looked carefully, and don't know if it was a nymph or a book louse, which we also had lots of).
While we know it is not a good idea to treat for bedbugs without first finding one, we felt that using thermal we would not be exposing ourselves or our children to any toxic chemicals and would get some peace of mind before our 3rd child is born. We live in a single family home and had both our work and daycare checked, so weren't terribly concerned about re-introduction.
After the first thermal my daughter continued to get bites and the thermal provider requested we use a NESDCA dog team, which we did, and which alerted again in my daughter's bedroom only. A second thermal treatment was performed 3 weeks after the first.
Since then, our house has been cleared by the NESDCA dog team. We've gone back to living basically like normal - I still vacuum like crazy and dry the heck out of everything, but no more ziplocs or spraying our shoes. We have our mattresses encased and interceptors on the beds and couches, but those seem to collect only dog fur and gnats.
Good news, right? Only, of course, I'm still terrified that we have them. The day after the all-clear by the dogs, I found several suspicious blood stains on my new sheets, by my feet. Several of the spots were pink blood while there were also 3 or 4 darker smears. I decided they had probably been left there by my cat, who most definitely slept on that part of the bed the night before. He's old and sometimes leaves 'gunk' behind where he lays. I was reassured to find that one of the blood smears actually had some residue I could scrape off of the sheets, which I assume a bed bug would not leave behind.
Tonight I found more blood spots, small ones, on my husband's side of the bed. Could it be bed bugs? Could it be that his sensitive skin occasionally bleeds a little at night?
Only my daughters ever reacted to the bites, and while they've gotten no more of the huge itchy welts they were getting daily during the height of our problem, they do continue to have little bites or pimples. Which is it? I have no idea.
How should we approach our current situation? Should I still be following all of the protocols, even though we used thermal and the dogs cleared our home? How will I ever know if the marks on my daughters are caused by bed bugs or something else? What will ever give us peace of mind again?
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Bugbitten Meg
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Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 59
Posted 1 month ago
Tue Oct 13 2009 15:08:04
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nervousaboutbedbugs - 3 days ago »
Tonight I found more blood spots, small ones, on my husband's side of the bed. Could it be bed bugs? Could it be that his sensitive skin occasionally bleeds a little at night?
Only my daughters ever reacted to the bites, and while they've gotten no more of the huge itchy welts they were getting daily during the height of our problem, they do continue to have little bites or pimples. Which is it? I have no idea.
How should we approach our current situation? Should I still be following all of the protocols, even though we used thermal and the dogs cleared our home? How will I ever know if the marks on my daughters are caused by bed bugs or something else? What will ever give us peace of mind again?If neither you nor your husband reacts to the bites, it's difficult to say whether any bugs are feeding on your bed... it's a lot more clear cut if somebody on the bed does react. Personally, I know I stare at the sheets a lot more, and stray things that I would never have noticed are now definitely nerve-wracking... and everybody in my family is a 'responder,' so we really should notice a consistent bite pattern by even one live bug. (It doesn't seem to stop me from worrying, tho'.)
About the 'little pimples' your daughters have, I react to several things, including bedbug bites, with an auxiliary case of acne rosacea on my face, and acne across my upper back. (That's in addition to the itchy bite site, not instead of it.) These persisted for maybe a week or so after I stopped getting bitten, but were fine by a month on. I know I get them for things other than bedbug bites, too, though; it's generally a food sensitivity sign for me. So it's quite possible that there's still a delayed bite reaction, but no current bites (in which case, hopefully it'll fade soon.) It's also possible that it's a reaction to something else entirely. For what it's worth, nymph bites apparently come up exactly the same as adult bites (search 'nymph bites' in the search box if you want the gory details) so if you're not seeing the big itchy bites you used to see, that's a good sign.
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