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Can an infestation grow this fast?

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Started 2 years ago by Grateful for Help
Latest reply from jrbtnyc
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Grateful for Help

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Posted 2 years ago
Mon May 16 2011 23:27:46
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Ok, so an acquaintance of mine had a preventative/informational dog inspection recently, and was cleared. Good news. He had never, to his knowledge, had bedbugs but since close friends like I, had, he figured, why not?

That was 5 weeks ago or so, maybe 6. It doesn't seem anyone has been bitten, or any signs seen.

Then he had a sibling stay in his unused 3rd floor guest room (all other bedrooms are on the second floor). That guest found a bedbug on him, and then in the morning, when they inspected the mattress, they found over a dozen big ones, a bunch of tiny ones, most filled with blood, and the poor guy had been bitten multiple times.

Now, the guy who stayed in the room has intermittently stayed there over the last 6 months, but only about once a month...he travels alot, so there's lots of chance for infestation from hotels, foreign and domestic destinations etc, etc.

SO, my question is...for those who know the lifecycle of these little horrible critters,
IF the dog missed, say, one bug (I know the K-9 industry doesn't claim 100% accuracy, just more than a human's nose...) then could that bug, with only perhaps two nights of having a human stay there in the period of 6 weeks, possibly grow into over a dozen adults, and many little nymphs? Don't they have to have people to feed on to get bigger?

Can a small population stay in a room very seldomely used like that one, and slowly grow over months and months? Would the bugs seek warmer, CO2-ier pastures if no one is in the room more than once a month? There are 6 people sleeping every night one floor down!

So confused, thanks for any help or light to shed on this, my friend is just assuming the dog totally messed up and there were already a dozen+ bugs back when he got his dog check done (which I have to say, I'm leaning towards myself...I don't see how this population could have grown this fast on two feedings in 6 weeks, but then, I'm SO not an expert). Which would make one seriously question the dog's nose, something I don't really want to do, since I'm basing *some* of my treatments and peace of mind on my own k-9 inspection recently. (any little bit helps, right?)

Grateful for Help
BugsInTO

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Posted 2 years ago
Tue May 17 2011 0:01:44
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Six weeks is just barely enough time to have as many bedbugs as you found from just a single bedbug (female and inseminated before arrival) but they would all need a meal every time they molted, and you say that is unlikely.

The usual stuff comes to mind. As you suspect, maybe a poor canine inspection. Also, the possibility that other residents of the house are not reacting to bites.

A very long shot, since you mention the 3rd floor, is the possibility of bat bugs.

I'm not a PCO. These are just some thoughts.
Grateful for Help

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Posted 2 years ago
Tue May 17 2011 0:21:38
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yes, I wondered about non-reaction to bites, but if all the bugs were found in one bed only, thus far, on the 3rd floor, is that likely? The other beds have BB passives given to them by me, which have been on for the whole time period.

Maybe he can get a photo since the bugs were all put in ziplocs, to see if they are batbugs. Just the other day I saw on here somewhere a comparison photo of a bedbug and a batbug...it was crazy how similar they looked to me except for size, the batbug looked more hairy I think.

I thought the same about the need for feedings between molting, and if they were somehow wandering downstairs each night for feeding, (no one uses the upstairs room who lives in the house) then why wouldn't they stay down there, near the food? Do they wander that far each feeding?

Thanks for the thoughts.
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jrbtnyc

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Posted 2 years ago
Tue May 17 2011 9:37:48
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Grateful for Help - 10 hours ago »
Ok, so an acquaintance of mine had a preventative/informational dog inspection recently, and was cleared....

Not expert am I, but...did you ask specifically whether the dog inspected the 3rd floor?

If not, there could have already been a bb population there which, if they've had six months altogether of intermittent feasting on the guest, could easily reach those numbers in that time if, in between, they've been subsisting on rodents or birds or etc.. Do you know whether your acquaintance has mice, or birds nesting in the gutter, or squirrels or raccoons in the rafters, or whatever? The bb's may have been dispersed around the 3rd floor and not concentrated in the bed...*until* the guest arrived this last time and they all made a bb-line his way because humans are the only food they're passionate about, the others being eww-get-by-for-now dishes to them.

Or for that matter, six *weeks* might even be enough time, if the bb's were feeding at will on, say, relatively immobile micelings, or baby birds in a nest.

And whether six months or six weeks, maybe the bb's feeding on rodents or birds were behind walls or whatever and that helps explain why the dog didn't detect them if the dog was led to sniff only human-type places in the abode.