Bed Bugs. How scared of them are you?

I don’t think about them day to day. Obviously I’d rather not ever have to deal with them, but it’s not something that occupies any of my thoughts.

I had a flea problem a couple of years ago, after coming home from holiday. We spent the last couple of nights in an Airbnb which had a dampish smell, a cat, and a few bugs. I was so worried afterwards that the bugs were bed bugs, but they did turn out to be fleas. DD and I came out in bites and it was horrendous. DS wasn't affected by them, but DD and I looked like we had some hideous tropical disease or plague. We were covered in incredibly itchy bites. In the end, I flea treated the whole house, bought a steam cleaner, washed everything on a hot wash in batches, vacuumed and steamed everything I could. I didn't sleep for about two weeks for worrying I would wake up with more bites. I was working full-time and doing it all on my own in the evenings. The DC went to their dad's after the first week back from holiday, and I did a lot then. Washed all the soft toys etc.

The lack of sleep and worry made me feel like I was losing my mind. It was about as stressful as my divorce, but fortunately didn't take as long to resolve.

That was bad enough! I'm now really cautious when I stay anywhere else, because everything I read about bed bugs means I think they'd be much harder to get rid of than the fleas.

Pharmacist and a GP both thought our bite patterns were not consistent with fleas, but DD saw something jump off her in the shower and I found something very flea-shaped stuck to a towel after a 60 degree wash. I bought bed bug traps and they didn't pick up anything.

I had never worried about bed bugs before, but I have a healthy level of caution now. Really would not want to deal with them.

They were not that difficult to get rid of

Proceeds to say step by step daily action needed for 7 months and buying new furniture.

That's most certainly not the definition of "not that difficult to get rid of".

Never thought about them in my life and I'm 55

I never even think about them, despite getting them from a hotel abroad! Nothing too terrible, just lots of spots, and I fortunately didn’t bring any home with me ,

I'm very wary of them as come from a slum background where they emerged en mass at night to feed. It was grim.

In care I trained in laundry work and they would come in on albs, humerial veils. and habits as well as sheets. They don't care who you are or how well or badly you live.

Later as a young live in hotel worker, they'd crawl across my friend to eat me.

Donkeys years later s an adult we got a sudden invasion in a van, and a couple traveled into the house. It literally only takes one pregnant one, they multiply swiftly.
Managed to control and stop the house becoming infested by very strict regimes, procedures and heat traps, Systematically sorted the van using chemicals, isolation and quarantine but we only escaped the worst because we acted quickly and I have an underlying paranoia of 'contamination.'

There's a very big difference between trying to deal with the elimination of a handful of them when you know and catch them early, which is what most are dealing with them coming in on holiday luggage, and the reality of actual infestation, which is when you move a wicker head board (what we'd put in the van from a very posh house) and the surface of it suddenly swarms with all different generational sizes and they're dropping off it, or you wake at night to find yourself with 30/40 on you and your bedding. (childhood)

Many houses and flats round here have them, both rich and poor. The rich claim the poorer are to blame, but it's often actually their Dc's returning from uni halls who are their main means of transmission.

Leaving a meeting in a London office recently, randomly discovered a live adult walking boldly up colleagues coat in the middle of the day. It didn't come from her home, (I tore it apart for her!) the office is all non soft furnishings, no carpet etc and no signs of it being them, so we suspect it was simply carried and transferred by another participant hanging up their coat. They in turn may have bought it from a hotel, or from their home, no way of knowing.

We had bedbugs a few years ago. Brought them from a ‘glamping’ weekend. They are extremely difficult to get rid of and it cost us thousands and four visits from specialists. It caused me huge stress and sleep anxiety. Seems like I’m allergic to their bites, and they were becoming infected. Some were huge and full of puss. Interestingly, my husband, who was also being bitten regularly, didn’t have a mark on him! I remember the terrible anxiety, even after getting rid of them, and imagining them crawling on my bed while I’m trying to sleep. I kept switching the light on in the middle of the night to inspect the bed and was not able to relax in bed.
However, I think your worry that you’ll catch the bugs from your friends in unsubstantiated. Obviously, I wouldn’t visit them in their place, especially in the evening (bed bugs only crawl out of their hiding places after dark). I wouldn’t worry at all about meeting them outside their home.

Is this true? Lots of expensive apartments and flats for bed bugs to wander between.

Not that difficult 😂😂

I've never come across them so never given them a thought, I didn't know it was something to worry about

I travel a lot including to hot poor countries & don't worry about it.

We travel a lot - we always check the mattresses. And we use luggage stands - we never leave our luggage on the bed.
They are an increasing problem and 5 star hotels have problems with them too - so no escape even if you go upmarket.

Any blocks of flats ? Or just council flats ?

This is not true. They don't care if you are clean or dirty. They don't care how often you change the sheets as that's not where they live. They are most often found in the creases of the mattress, in the bedframe, behind headboards, on the underside of the drawers in your bedside table, behind skirting boards - any nooks or crannies within a few feet of where your head lies.

They can walk from flat to flat (or any adjoining properties, however big and posh!) but it's a lot less common than bringing back a hitch-hiker on your luggage, or just from a bus or train seat. You can be as careful as you like on holiday but then your luggage goes in the hold or the overhead lockers with everyone else's ...

Not at all. Never think about them. Never seen them.

YANBU. I've had them and they almost destroyed my mental health.

I'm a lot more relaxed about them since as I now know how to get rid of them without completely dismantling the house. There's this stuff called CimeXa, which is a dust made from silica gel. It's relatively non-toxic and you can leave a light dusting under your bed and in the bed frame indefinitely. That way if you do pick them up from somewhere they will die before they become established.

They never cross my mind, I’ve never seen one or woken up scratching and I’m someone who sleeps in a lot of beds (I travel a lot).
That said, if I was aware someone had bed bugs I wouldn’t be willingly staying over.

I’ve not had bed bugs but have had cockroaches thanks to a delightful neighbour in a terraced house. It was awful and I actually moved back to my parents whilst the treatment was going on. Bedbugs are also hard to treat and unpleasant. I’m not worried about them on a day to day basis but I know I would hate it if they happened to me.

When I was a child in the sixties I had lots of red spots.

My mum kept sprinkling Keatings Powder on my bed which was a horsehair mattress in an old metal frame .
The powder had a horrible picture of a red devil on it which gave me the creeps.

Only recently I worked out that it was bedbugs giving me the spots and the powder was an attempt to get rid of the bugs. Wasn't successful though.

Never worry about them.

Dh brought them home from travelling.
Nightmare. They only got as far as our bedroom, but we threw out all the furniture, bed, carpet, had the house fumigated, and boiled every item of clothing and soft furnishings. Cost us thousands (tho our new bedroom is much nicer!)
It was horrible.
But I still don't panic at the thought. You are just unlucky if you pick up a hitchhiker bug when travelling... they can be anywhere there are soft furnishings.

I'm as careful as I can be, when travelling tho!

I'd never given them much thought before.

Then ds2 went skiing with school last February. He came back at 9pm, greetings, hugs, he was knackered so went to bed. The next morning I tipped his suitcase upside down on the landing (carpet) to empty it and make a pile of all his clothes for washing.

Then he appeared from bed about 11am, topless, and casually said 'mum what do you think these are, I've had them since the second day there'...and he was bloody COVERED in bedbug bites. And I mean covered, all over his torso and back and barely two inches between them 🤢🙈

It was an awful day. All ds's clothes and suitcase I chucked out of the bedroom window onto the patio 😂 All his bedding, his coat, the clothes he and I were wearing, the sofa throws and anything else fabric him or his clothes had touched followed. Then frantic showering and hoovering/cleaning of everywhere before all his clothes, bedding and everything else were gradually retrieved from the patio and put through a hot wash.

Luckily we seemed to catch it in time and didn't get infested. Maybe due to me going psycho OTT and slinging everything out the window 😂😂 However, a couple of his friends' households were not so lucky and were battling with them for a few weeks.

@Tusktusk in comparison with @Phunkychicken I think we got off lightly!
Yes, it cost us time and effort, but the only expense was the removal of DS’s bed (there was an alternative one in the room we moved him to, and we never replaced the bed in that room) and a set of furniture movers to assist with the main effort - that of moving our bed clean away from the wall each time.
Five years on and we are still clear…

Why worry about something until it actually happens to you. Because in reality it probably won’t happen so you’re just worrying for nothing.

Save your worry for situations as and when they occur because this really isn’t something you can stop or control until it’s here.

DS brought them pack from a school trip and it cost us about £1500 and 18 months to get rid.

The school helpfully warned us about them 48 hours after they'd returned by which time we'd brought his stuff and thus them in

Apparently they're becoming more prevalent due to increasing travel, bedbug immunity to the stuff we use to kill them (which is why heat treatmentis recommended), and changes in how we wash our clothing and bedding (they are only killed at high temperatures so washing at 30 or 40 degrees doesn't kill them).

Bedbugs are like nits, as in whether you get them is nothing to do with how clean or dirty you are , it's to do with exposure. And once you have them they're very difficult to get rid of.