Vacated apartment five nights ago: new bites or delayed reaction?

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Vacated apartment five nights ago: new bites or delayed reaction?

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Started 1 year ago by stressed tothe max
Latest reply from Koebner
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stressed tothe max

newbite
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Posted 1 year ago
Sun Oct 9 2011 19:46:30
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Moved into a building in NYC that already had bedbugs. Nightmare, obviously. We had been there for under two weeks when we noticed telltale signs and found a few live bugs. I immediately bagged everything I own. Our apartment was treated twice and we were still being bitten. My roommate has a terrible reaction to the bites and had no choice but to leave.
We have been released from our lease at the end of October, which is good and bad. I was going to try and stay in the apartment until then but after sleeping in the bathtub for two weeks, I decided my well being was more important than knowing if the bugs were gone. Luckily, I found a friend to take me in. I washed all my clothes in hot water and dried them for an hour on the highest setting. Dry clean only things I put in the dryer for an hour as well. All clean clothes were triple bagged at the laundromat and sealed with duct tape. My parents bought me an extremely expensive steam cleaner which I used only on the shoes I needed to bring with me. The only bags I brought with me are nylon ones that could go through the washing machine. Any paper products I brought were in the freezer for at least 24 hours. All small electronics and toiletries were dunked and/or wiped down with rubbing alcohol.

The night I left the exterminator came again and he actually sprayed all the plastic bags of things I was taking with me. The clothes I wore to my friends were bagged immediately and washed and my shoes were thrown away. I did bring pillows and blankets that I used in my apartment but the pillows have had protectors on them for a few weeks and been through the dryer three times. I washed the protectors, blankets, and sheet in hot water and hot dryer for an hour. The pillows went through the dryer for an hour as well. Those were also triple bagged at the laundromat.

It has now been five nights at my friends but I have noticed one bite like mark on my foot. It itches a bit. I noticed some spots on my legs but I shaved yesterday and get really bad ingrown hairs when I haven't shaved my legs in a while. And of course that paranoid, itching all over feeling is back in full force.
I don't really have a reaction to the bites. They itch a bit for a few days but don't swell up or anything. Funnily, I have an absolutely terrible reaction to mosquito bites. The only reason we discovered our infestation was because of the black stains on my white sheets that prompted a search.
So could these itchy spots be new bites or old bites that I'm just now noticing? Since I didn't notice my first bites until a week or so in, does that mean that my bites tend to have a delayed reaction? The one on my foot starting itching lat night around 1am and I had been out for about seven hours. They are no bigger than a small zit and don't even itch anymore. The exterminator told me I did everything I could to not bring them to my friends place. I would never forgive myself if I brought these godforsaken things into his home.
stressed tothe max

newbite
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Posted 1 year ago
Mon Oct 10 2011 11:58:45
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Someone please respond. I need some peace of mind here.
awakened

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Posted 1 year ago
Mon Oct 10 2011 14:57:52
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It sounds like you took every precaution (and then some), but there is simply no way that anyone here can provide you with what you're asking for, which is telling you with 100% certainty that you brought no bed bugs with you. Keep monitoring and good luck.
BugsMustDie

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Posted 1 year ago
Mon Oct 10 2011 16:05:52
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I agree with awakened

But...it is also very possible the reactions are delayed. Many (including myself) have experienced that. Give your skin some time to react and calm down, which honestly can take weeks. It may not though because everyone reacts differently.

Don't panick - what's done is done - and panicking never solves any problems. Just keep monitoring. - Best
stressed tothe max

newbite
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Posted 1 year ago
Tue Oct 11 2011 2:24:22
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Thanks. You two repeated what my mom said. Mom knows best, I suppose I came home from work tonight to find the bites on my legs really red, which was just depressing. I wear these special socks at work to increase circulation and this always happens with bug bites of any kind.
I will be at my friends apartment until Saturday, which is 13 days since I left my apartment. If I don't notice any other bites by then, that's a good sign right? I should mention that other than one time, my bites have always been in groups of at least two and that these new bites are all in different spots, really far spread out. I'm also wondering if maybe they aren't bed bug bites sine they itch so much right now and I haven't had any really itchy bites ever.
stressed tothe max

newbite
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Posted 1 year ago
Tue Oct 11 2011 2:29:31
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Also, my friends couch is dark brown, so really not useful when checking for stains. But I have white pillow protectors and a white sheet and blanket and I haven't seen any stains of any kind. I had new stains every few days in my apartment. Though I suppose if I brought only one bug with me (which we all too well is all that it takes) it wouldn't be feeding every night and I wouldn't notice any news stains anyway...
AshamedandScratching

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Posted 1 year ago
Tue Oct 11 2011 12:24:10
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I'm at the same point as you. Every new bump freaks me out. And now I've developed acne on my back and bum. So helpful when dealing with this.

Trust your work.

Give it time to see what happens.

You can only do your best and it sounds like you did.

(And it only takes one bug if, a) there's already an opposite sex bug there and both are breeding age 2)it's a pregnant female. Sometimes you get lucky.)
stressed tothe max

newbite
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Posted 1 year ago
Wed Oct 12 2011 14:38:41
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Noticed two more bites this morning. I'm really starting to worry. I still can't find any other evidence though. It's so hard to tell if the bites are fresh. Once at my apartment I was awake and a bug fed off me and the bites were literally pinprick size for days. None of the bites I've noticed in the past week have been that small, so they're obviously all a few days gone by the time I notice them. Also, since they don't feed every day, how would I have seven bites in nine nights? That seems like a lot for one bedbug.

Luckily a few of my clothes are still sealed up but I'm thinking I should go wash everything that's been unsealed while I've been at my friends...?
mcb

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Posted 10 months ago
Wed Jul 18 2012 11:03:50
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Hi,

Can you update us on your situation. I am going through the same having moved from my place 13 days ago and taking all precautions possible. I keep finding 1..2 new bites per day as well as my wife. Not logical at all as even if I brought something with me I would expect a couple bugs and not more, which would mean a smaller number of bites.
Koebner

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Posted 10 months ago
Thu Jul 19 2012 11:40:06
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The OP made just this one post 9 months ago so I'm guessing you're not going to get a response mcb.

If it helps, people who successfully resolve their BB problem tend not to hang around here. Those of us who stay do so at least in part to provide reassurance that BBs are not a lifetime sentence.

On your own problem - have you ruled out all the other possible causes? If you took maximal precautions when moving, then you're unlikely to have brought them. It's not impossible that you moved somewhere that already had BBs but at this stage you shouldn't rule out other possible culprits.

You need evidence of what's going on to cause these reactions. If you haven't gone through the Bed Bug Primer here; http://bedbugger.com/faqs then I urge you to give it your attention. Consider fleas, carpet beetles, mosquitos, chiggers - the whole barnyard. Do you & your wife have any allergies? And so on.

Whilst you're trying to figure it out, you could install a BBAlert passive monitor (you can get them through this site) which will give you a rapid heads-up if there is a BB problem & if it's not BBs, will provide invaluable reassurance while you try to discover what the problem is.

(Edit) Just looked back through your old posts. If you're still in Europe, you may get a passive monitor faster through this site; http://www.bedbugbeware.com as it's UK based.