Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Detection / Identification of bed bugs
bedbug egg size relative to nymphs??? HELP please, kinda freaking out a little
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wchicago
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Joined: Oct '09
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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Oct 27 2009 2:39:37
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hello,
i know for sure i have bedbugs (PCO found cast skins on sofa). but he thinks (based on less than 5 minute inspection and asking me where i get bitten) thats its just in living room sofas, bedroom, and sunroom. i am happy to believe him - BUT - i found something today that looked like an egg on the dining room floor. translucent white, glued to floor (i had to scrape it with my thumbnail through a paper towel to get it up, eeuw, i know). but here's the thing -it was big. now, big is a relative term -but it was definitely bigger than the "O" in the "In God We trust" on a penny (which according to fabulous pics someone here posted, is size of first instars.) It was more like the size of a grain of rice. When i looked in the baseboards (i have huge gaps between boards and floor -and yes i WILL be caulking after PCO comes in 10 days for second treatment, though like i said, he didn't treat the dining room) i saw lots more of those egglike things. And, something straw colored and itty bitty (but elongated) crawled quickly out and then back into the baseboard. was long and skinnyish, so think it was a booklouse? are nymphs always kind of rounded? if so, was not a nymph. my question -did i find bb eggs? booklouse eggs? other eggs? please someone tell me they are not bb eggs.or if they ARE bb eggs, i can steam the gaps in my baseboards with my vapor steamer -for gaps i assume i use the jet nozzle but on lowest pressure?? (if i used a bigger head, it seems like i wouldn't be able to get steam to the eggs). remember, he did not treat the dining room, so if i steam, i won't mess up his work (he sprayed phantom on baseboards of bedroom, living room and sunroom -the residue is visible. no residue in dining room and indeed, his sheet says he didn't treat anywhere but BR, LR and sunroom, even though i asked him to specifically treat my office, where i get bitten, and where, in fact, i found more of those mysteriously rice looking egg thingies under my desk (like 3), and also found 2 in the sunroom (where he did treat) just in the middle of the floor, one of those was amber (much like brown rice, in fact).
anyone? are those BB eggs? if so, should i call my PCO and let him know? would he come out and treat the untreated rooms that are harboring eggs? does phantom even *do* anything to the eggs? i know bedlam does. . .i could buy bedlam (its sold in hardware stores in chicago) and spray myself but i'm trying not to self treat beyond steaming places he did not treat (i.e., spent 6 hours dissassembling and steaming my bedframe sunday cuz he didn't treat the bedframe or clearly even inspect it because a cursory glance and i found 2 live bugs and a few casts, hence the spending of my sunday with my vapor steamer and bedframe despite the last of the lovely fall weather. this sucks).
thanks! i would post a pic with a penny for relative size (but just so you know, they are more like the length of the whole word "God" or "Trust" much longer than the "o" albeit skinny) -but i only have an iphone as a camera and it has crappy resolution. however, if in terms of relative size you think it would be useful -i could get one <eeeuw> from under the baseboards and post an iphone pic
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parakeets
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Joined: Mar '07
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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Oct 27 2009 11:44:36
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I have seen bedbug eggs. They are supposedly 32 to an inch, but mine obviously were "jumbo eggs" and were about 24 to an inch. I found that mine, when laid, were secreted and not right out glued on the floor like yours were.
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tinyvampire
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Joined: Oct '09
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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Oct 27 2009 15:20:50
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i think i found some eggs in the seam of a chair...they were definitely larger than a 1/32 of an inch. they were hard, and didn't seem that sticky -- they fell on the floor if i wasn't careful while scraping them out.
i don't have an image, either, but do these sound like BB eggs? or maybe flea eggs?
another question:
i've sprayed the living **** out of the chair with sprayway goodnight a couple of times now, and this morning i started trying to dig them out (my poor husband, already beyond his saturation point with my obsessive anti-BB vigilance, awoke to find me hunched over the chair -- wearing a headlamp and rubber gloves -- picking at the chair). if a few tumbled to the floor, are we in trouble? also, does anyone have a good method for digging them out and disposing of them without losing a few in the process?
thank you,
-tinyvampire -
parakeets
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Joined: Mar '07
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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Oct 27 2009 19:43:19
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Could they be carpet beetle eggs? I found some of those eggs. (I have carpet beetles). They were definitely larger than the bedbug eggs and I found some of these eggs just out on the wood floor as you described, though I didn't detect my carpet beetle eggs attached with a glue as you mentioned though my bedbug eggs were strongly glued to the substrate. You might want to Google photos of carpet beetle eggs.
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junior member
Joined: Oct '09
Posts: 61offline
Posted 3 years ago
Tue Oct 27 2009 19:54:35
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If you want accurate sizes and appearances there are metric measurements on the lifecycle diagram found here:
http://www.bedbugbeware.com/aboutbedbugs.html
I also have a number of images of eggs and bed bugs close on my gallery.
If you can take a picture of what you have seen its often easier in getting a rapid identification.
David
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wchicago
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Joined: Oct '09
Posts: 268offline
Posted 3 years ago
Tue Oct 27 2009 21:10:27
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Parakeets you're a genius!
i googled carpet beetle eggs and indeed thats what they look like
which makes some sense as i kept finding them in really linty places (which carpet beetles apparently love cuz they like to eat old hair. um, better than blood suckers but still yuk). the folks who lived in the apartment before me had cats, whose hair apparently drifted like tumbleweeds into the gaps between baseboard and floor which is where most of the mystery eggs are (aside from the one glued on my dining room floor that started off the whole frenzied hunt ending with panic and despair and posting). i guess carpet beetles come inside to lay their eggs in the autumn, so this seems to make sense (given they are mostly in linty baseboard crook in dining room rather than bedroom? bbs i assume aren't crazy about dust and lint?). also, i have seen a carpet beetle on my carpeted sunporch (thought at first it was a bb, but nope, it was black and shiny -so carpet beetle). i had trouble finding info on size of carpet beetle eggs relative to bb eggs, but since you said they are bigger, i bet thats what these are. YAY. now still must go buy a bagged canister vacuum from sears before they close (i threw my old cheapie vac away yesterday cuz bagless and eeuw, impossibly gross to clean out after bb vacuuming) then will can suck out all the linty/eggy mess below my dining room baseboards into a nice clean bag and toss it (in dumpster outside, sealed in ziplock in case they ARE bb eggs. but if they are bb eggs? boy howdy am i infested. like horror movie 'i vill be drained of all blood' infested )
you know, before i had bedbugs, i would never have thought i would be spending late nights crawling on the floor peering into icky dusty gaps between baseboard and wall . . .. *sigh*and david -thank you very much as well. very helpful image of lifestages. this is the second time in a week you've helped me on the forums with my general panicky 'new to bedbugs so many questions' thing. i really hope you're enjoying vegas! i can't take good pics of anything small because i only have an iphone as a camera. and its a marvelous device in general, but a good bugcam not so much (crappy resolution). and obvs, with all current bb expenses -i am not investing in a new camera anytime soon.
tiny vampire i hope hope hope those were flea eggs. and a headlamp huh? hmmm, maybe i should get one of those. i am hoping to save the infested (NEW) sofas and if it requires headlamped excavation of places i cannot steam, so be it..
oh -for those curious as to what carpet beetle eggs look like <and who isn't really>
see googled link belowthanks again for responding. sweet lord i hate bedbugs, but i really kinda like this site. nice folk.
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