Does finding bugs on walls mean anything? « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

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Does finding bugs on walls mean anything?

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HelpinDC

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Jan 20 2011 10:50:25
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I know that it's very difficult to determine the source of an infestation, but I feel that answering that question would help us to determine the most effective treatment.

We have had one round of chemical treatments (3 treatments spaced 1 week apart each) and a heat treatment and still have bugs. I have found almost all of the bugs on the walls of our living room or office (which shares a wall with the living room). The only other place that I have found bugs or any evidence of bugs has been on the couch. I've found two live bugs there and all of my bites have taken place while I've been sleeping or lounging on the couch. We've had our couch steam-cleaned and heat treated.

Does it mean anything that we keep finding the bugs on the walls? They are usually very high on the walls, next to where the wall meets the ceiling. Sometimes they are even on the ceiling. I'm trying to determine if we keep getting reinfested from adjoining apartments or if they are still coming from our apartment (the couch?).

There are 12 apartments in my building, 4 on each floor. Apparently the only other infested apartment is the one directly below ours. This apartment was heat treated (and perhaps sprayed with chemicals too). Dogs have been out to our building and search all of the other apartments and found nothing. However, there was a dog in our apartment last Thursday that found nothing too.
itchyincharmcity

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Jan 20 2011 12:20:23
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Are you sure the bugs on the walls are actually bedbugs? I had some bugs harboring in the joint where the wall meets the ceiling, just as you describe. My PCO said they were definitely BBs. Then I caught of few of the wall-harboring buggers and sent them to Dr. Pollock. Turned out they were spider hatchlings.

I'm not saying you don't have bedbugs, but it is possible those particular bugs on the wall are normal household residents. It might be worth catching a few and having an entomologist check them out, if only to ease your mind and give you a better idea of the scope of the infestation.
HelpinDC

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Jan 20 2011 12:39:22
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Nope, positive they are bed bugs. The one I found today was a perfect adult bed bug specimen. I've already had several of them (including the one I found last week) identified by our PCO as bed bugs. I even smashed the bug I found last week and blood oozed out.

I've also found other things on our walls, including curled up spiders, but at this point I am very confident about what a bed bug looks like.
Richard_Naylor

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Jan 20 2011 18:58:40
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It is not uncommon to find bugs wandering around like this when there have been chemical treatments as the bugs will often move to avoid the chemicals. This is a particular problem with people treating infestations themselves with off-the-shelf products. Another reason for infestations becoming dispersed is if the bugs can't get access to the bed or if there are no available harbourages in or around the bed. In ideal situations (for the bugs) they will be able to squeeze into harbourages as close to the host (you) as possible. You have to be careful when taking steps to tackle infestations not to inadvertently disperse the bugs around your home.
HelpinDC

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Posted 2 years ago
Thu Jan 20 2011 19:13:21
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My main question is if finding bugs on the walls means that they're comin gin from a neighbor's apartment? They've never been in our bedroom and we haven't done any self-treatments (besides dusting the bedframe with d.earth). There is nothing preventing them from getting on/in the couch, which is where the activity has always been. The chemicals were sprayed 6 days before I found this bug on the wall - would that really be related to chemicals?
DustinBBKiller

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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Jan 21 2011 1:28:59
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I have been to a few BB jobs where I have seen BB's hiding in the crack between the wall and ceiling. I remember one job not too long ago where there were tons of them all along the ceiling. They were in clusters all around the room a foot apart. It was bizarre.
cilecto

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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Jan 21 2011 16:24:27
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Could the spacing relate to minute differences in the environment relating to studs, voids and other features of the building?
toledo

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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Jan 21 2011 22:25:05
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There is nothing preventing them from getting on/in the couch, which is where the activity has always been.

Now that is a problem. You need to isolate the couch, so you can see if they are coming from or going to the couch. You do this by using climb-ups and making sure the couch isn't touching the wall or any other piece of furniture. The bugs will get caught in the climb-ups and because of the way they are designed, you will be able to tell if they're coming or going.
HelpinDC

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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Jan 21 2011 22:53:32
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Yes, well the "new plan" by my PCO is to put out NightWatch monitors around my apartment, including one by the couch. I had considered getting climbups or a passive monitor for the couch and isolating it, but didn't know if that would work if they were already living in/on the couch and because we're not really using the couch anymore (definitely not sleeping on it). Hopefully these new monitors will tell us something useful.
HelpinDC

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Posted 2 years ago
Fri Jan 21 2011 22:55:03
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I thought that the point of the monitors, though, was to see if we still have a problem and since we found a live bug yesterday this all seems to me like a moot point.
toledo

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Posted 2 years ago
Sat Jan 22 2011 9:22:01
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You want to be able to use your couch again. You need to find out if it's clear, as the PCO claims. I haven't tried the Nightwatch, but I think you are asking where the bed bugs are coming from. The only way to know if it's your couch is to use some type of passive monitors on all of the legs, and continue using the couch. All the advice on this web site says you need to stick with your daily/nightly patterns. Moving around can only make matters worse.