my bed bugs MOVED with me!! so distraught =( « Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums

Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Tales of Bed Bug Woe

my bed bugs MOVED with me!! so distraught =(

(7 posts)

Tags:

asulli7

newbite
Joined: Oct '10
Posts: 1
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Thu Oct 21 2010 2:22:51
#

Login to Send PM

my bed bug tale dates back to about 3 months ago. i am a junior in college and had just gotten my first apartment with my roommate. should be an exciting new time in my life, right? well after a few weeks of being in the apartment i started breaking out in what i came to later find out (after about a month of being there!) that we had bed bugs. i dont even need to bore you all with how long and horrible of a process it was just even determining that bed bugs was the source of our problems, and little did i know that was only the very beginning. We immediately left upon discovery of the bed bugs and stayed with my roommates sister, who lived about 25 minute commute from school. we had done our research and were smart to not bring anything with us except for one change of clothes which we immediately placed in a hot dryer upon arrival to her sisters house. this tedious routine of basically living out of my car and feeling homeless carried on for nearly a month until our apartment decided to let us out of our year long lease. by this time i had found a new home right by campus living with 4 other girls my age and i was very excited to move in and move on and put the horrible past 2 months behind me forever. well i have been here for about 2.5 weeks now and you guesses it...the little [expletive deleted] moved in with me!!!! i have absolutely NO idea how this is possible. not only did i stay at my friends sisters place for a month without infesting her, but i also stayed at my relatives house for over a week and did not infest them either! also when i moved into my new home i brought absolutely nothing from my old apartment! i threw away my bed long ago and bought a totally new one to my new home. i of course have my clothes but i have washed and dryed them all on extreme heat constantly before unpacking, and again i had these same clothes at my relatives home without infesting them! i just do not understand anymore why or HOW this is possibly happening but needless to say i am beyound distraught and depressed =( I have enough to stress out about being in college, in my hardest year, away from home, worrying about money, papers exams etc and on top of all this i also have to deal with these [expletive deleted] bed bugs who have literally taken over and ruined my life!!! before when i initially was being bitten, my bites were extremely severe, all over my face and entire body, there was not a single place on my body that was not covered. I had to continue to go to classes looking like this and it seriously took a dark toll on my normally outgoing personality. I felt that by finding this new home with these fun girls I was finally getting a fresh start and maybe that everything before had happened for a reason. but now its all happening all over again!!! and i dont know what to tell my new roommates either! i dont want to infest their beds, rooms, belongings, or cause them to get bitten or harmed! the weirdest thing is the bed bugs seem to be mainly in our bathroom at the new home. I have not even really seen any in my room specifically, though I have gotten new bites so I know there are at least a few. PLEASE someone give me advice on what to do or tell me something to try and console me!! this experience has taken such a negative toll on my mental health i dont even know if i can continue with the semester =/ i just know this is such an impossible battle and i feel so lost right now and dont know who i can turn to for help or advice....
nycyn

senior member
Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 701
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Thu Oct 21 2010 2:50:19
#

Login to Send PM

First off, it is not clear you brought them with you. Could it be they were already there? I take it you know one when you see one--that the critters in the bathroom are bedbugs?

Hang on! You've come to a great place.
Sleepless in NYC

senior member
Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 543
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Thu Oct 21 2010 3:03:12
#

Login to Send PM

So sorry to hear that you're going through this. But, like nycyn said, you may not have brought the bedbugs with you.
I think it's very possible the bedbugs were there already. You mention that they seem to be mainly in the bathroom. Have any of your new roommates seen one? Just because you have gotten bitten in your bedroom doesn't mean that you brought them. The bbs may have walked over to your room to have a meal.
Now, on the other hand, perhaps it's something else that's biting you? or perhaps what you've seen in the bathroom has caused anxiety that's causing your skin irritation and possibly are not really bites?
Are you sure they're bbs in the bathroom? Try to take a picture and upload it to a photo service like flickr or photobucket and then paste the link here. There are experts that frequent this forum and can ID the bug for you.

Hang in there. You've come to the right place. Alot of people have great advice here. You can always use this forum as a sounding board.
bugnut

senior member
Joined: Feb '10
Posts: 528
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Thu Oct 21 2010 9:41:51
#

Login to Send PM

Agreed - if you have that many bites, unless you brought a load of them with you, they sound like there were there already.

I would not worry about telling them - I am sure they already know.

Do post a picture - your bites could be something else. Any other evidence in the room? Bites all over means more than one bug and they like to crap a lot - look for fecal.
parakeets

oldtimer
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 1,011
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Thu Oct 21 2010 10:49:58
#

Login to Send PM

At the 2nd Boston Bed Bug Conference, inspectors talked about moving people who had bed bugs into a bed bug-free location with nothing but their wallets and medicine and the clothes they were wearing--and in a few days it was obvious that bed bugs had moved with them. Even the inspectors were surprised. So it is extremely easy to move with bed bugs. But I agree with the posters here that in your case it looks like they may have come from a different source or they might not even be bed bugs. I can't imagine why you would mostly see bed bugs in the bathroom (though I have seen one or two in a bathroom so it is not impossible), or why you would readily see the bed bugs at all since they are so stealthy. Be sure to save some bed bug samples and you can post them here or show they to a pest control operatior. Hopefully your campus health services is aware of bed bug bites and can distinguish them from other skin situations that might possibly also be causing the skin agony.
banishbb

newbite
Joined: Sep '10
Posts: 6
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Mon Oct 25 2010 6:57:53
#

Login to Send PM

Please don't give up. It isn't your fault and you did nothing "wrong".

I think your new place was already infested - based on the fact you stayed at TWO new places during the interim time frame -and neither of those places were infested.

please consider taking a one semester LEAVE OF ABSENCE from your college. That is exactly what I did. I wound up moving to a new place and realized that I couldn't even stay in school part time. I looked for affordable housing for FOUR MONTHS until I found a place I could afford.

I am in my brand new place for 35 days and NO BB. I didn't have money to do the expensive stuff like buy a Pack Tite machine or any of that high tech stuff.

just read my post - it WORKED and I am really so happy and I want you to have HOPE

keep on keeping on!

banishbb
delorpompom

newbite
Joined: Nov '09
Posts: 17
offline

Posted 2 years ago
Tue Oct 26 2010 3:33:11
#

Login to Send PM

If you end up moving I would recommend looking into using Vikane to fumigate your moving van. It's much more affordable than trying to fumigate a residence and forget the cost of it to fumigate an apartment building.

I got bed bugs my senior year of college and have been living with them for over a year. I was able to keep them at bay by deep cleaning my apartment every two weeks and have a small-medium infestation. Now that I'm moving, I'm going to Vikane my moving van, it was less than $500 which is dirt cheap compared to how much a lot of people spend overall for their bed bugs treatments.

I'm sorry you're going through this. Having bed bugs while in college sucks, I didn't have any friends over to my brand new apartment the entire time I've lived here because I didn't want to be responsible for my friends getting bed bugs. It hindered my social life and I'd never felt so lonely. But you have roommates to commiserate with so you won't be as lonely as I was since I live alone.