Found one adult, no bites, no other evidence - help!

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Found one adult, no bites, no other evidence - help!

(4 posts)

Brooklyn res

newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 5

Posted 2 months ago
Wed Aug 26 2009 13:49:44
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I saw an adult bedbug crawling on my living room window yesterday morning. I looked online and I am as positive as I can be that what I saw is an adult bed bug. It matched all the life cycle charts I saw. It was fairly big, about the size of an apple seed. I first saw it from the couch about five feet away, then went over to the window and got a very good look (but didn't kill it -- I wish I had, of course).

In response, we checked out mattresses and box springs and didn't see anything; they looked pristine. However, I had two tiny blood smears on my fitted sheet, as well as what looked like pinprick holes. I have a cat who sleeps on the bed and has claws, and I also had a cut on my arm this week (and the blood smears were located around where that arm is in sleeping position). And no bites on me or the roommate. I was bitten by what I'm pretty sure were bedbugs backpacking many years ago, little itchy bites in a line, so I feel like I am not one of the few who don't react at all to bites.

I swept the entire apartment today and found two small dead dried out bug casings/bugs -- but they looked much more like carpet beetles than bedbugs.

I have no idea how to proceed. I don't want to cause a ruckus and cost a fortune if it's one lone bug. But what would a big adult be doing wandering around a window in the morning? (around 8 a.m.) I certainly don't want inaction to cause a bigger problem.

Any advice would be hugely appreciated. The idea that I could be being bitten without even knowing it is horrifying. I'm trying not to go nuts here but -- help!
Brooklyn res

newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 5

Posted 2 months ago
Thu Aug 27 2009 7:59:51
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Seems like it's too late to edit this post, so:
Did some further mattress scrutiny last night and saw two possible bb-related smears, one near the head, one near the foot, on the underside of the mattress. This morning when I took off the top sheet for inspection I found a dead (I think) bug. I'm no amateur anymore apparently, so I put it in a pill bottle and will take digital pictures later. To my horror, it looked very dark red and juicy. AGGHHH! I don't understand this. I'm infamous for reacting horribly to mosquito bites, huge, itchy messes and I have super sensitive very fair skin. Could I be getting bb bites without realizing it anyway?? I put vaseline all over my face yesterday to try to keep them off (thank goodness for dry skin).
Also, this morning I saw what looked almost like cigarette ashes on my windowsills (which I cleaned religiously last night). But clumpier. It's not cat litter. Does this sound like any kind of insect excrement?

Do you advise telling the management of my (large, multi-unit) building right away? Or wait for picture ID?
buggyinsocal

oldtimer
Joined: Jun '08
Posts: 1,130

Posted 2 months ago
Thu Aug 27 2009 9:36:56
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I would wait for picture ID. The description you give of the bug itself is highly suggestive, but without a photo, no one can be sure.

The stuff on the windowsill doesn't sound bed bug related to me.

RE: allergies and sensitive skin.

Remember that allergies are the body over-reacting to something relatively innocuous that it thinks is something really evil. In other words, those of us with hay fever have bodies that view pollen from some plants like it's a horrible, nasty parasitic bacteria or organism, and in trying to fight that off, our immune systems get a little more zealous than the thing in question warrants.

But you won't have an allergic reaction to something until you've been exposed to enough of it to tip your body's system into perceiving it that way. (For example, when I would first move to a new region of the country that had radically different flora than the places I'd live before, my first spring, I would have no seasonal allergies. The second season, I might also be okay. By the third spring, my eyes, nose,and throat would itch with a vengeance. It took that long to get sensitized to the new allergens.

And now, I can tell you a day or so before the Santa Anas arrive that they are coming, since I start sneezing. I'm not sure what allergens they carry, but I know for sure that they darned sure carry them because every time they flare up--regardless of season, I start sneezing before they get here.)

Bed bugs in particular seem to take a bit more exposure before people react than many other insects--at least from what little research has been done on them.

The good news is that you caught a bug specimen. That will make IDing the process a lot easier.
Brooklyn res

newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 5

Posted 2 months ago
Thu Aug 27 2009 15:48:22
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Thank you so much for the response. I did end up calling the building just out of fear that waiting could be worse. I had a rather cursory exam (they said no bbs) and I am kicking myself because I didn't kill or capture/preserve the adult I think I saw. Not only do I have no proof, but it's probably holed up somewhere, hungry. Arrgghh.

What you say about it taking a while to react to bb bites freaks me out, because my big fear is that the exterminator didn't say anything because we have only a light case but by the time I show bites we'll have a bad case. Argh again.