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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder where the f*** bed bugs have come from

64 replies

Pob13 · 23/02/2018 20:21

Last night I was eaten alive! I am covered in bites.
The sheets were clean, the bedroom is clean, we havent been away recently. Where the hell have they come from?! (And why am I so tasty)

OP posts:
Original poster
Pob13 · 23/02/2018 21:13

Ok, I went and looked. There doesnt seem to be any signs.
I will see what happens tonight and then have a proper inspection tomorrow.
Wish me luck for a bite free night

OP posts:
LynetteScavo · 23/02/2018 21:17

Bed bugs are actually quite a serious problem Shock

LynetteScavo · 23/02/2018 21:20

Posted too soon....hope you're not bitten tonight, but if you are then you seriously need to google what to do, and I think it might mean a new mattress.

Fleas are easier to deal with, if you catch them early.

And it's not that you are tasty, it's that you react to bites more than people who don't itch.

PrimalLass · 23/02/2018 21:21

We had them years ago. DP did work trips to Africa and we kept the suitcases under the bed. We did actually move and throw out our mattress, but we were moving anyway.

Nemesia · 23/02/2018 21:24

Google bed bug traps (very simple) and put them out tonight. You will know in the morning...

Nemesia · 23/02/2018 21:25

Basically the advice is not to sleep in another room. Try and contain them to one room in the house.

TalkinPeace · 23/02/2018 21:26

Bed bugs are the mother of all PITA
family in New York spend thousands per year controlling them.

movingtowardsthelight · 23/02/2018 21:27

If you spray the bed, all sides, under the mattress too, then get lots of rolls of clingfilm and completely wrap the bed up.
Turn it so the base is covered.

You are aiming to keep the fumes in, to kill the bugs.

This works.

GinUnicorn · 23/02/2018 21:27

Can you get bed bugs from adjoined houses seriously? (Sorry to high jack!)

CougheeBean · 23/02/2018 21:31

Ours came through the shitting walls. I didn’t suspect bed bugs for ages because DP didn’t appear to be getting bitten, despite the permanent pile of neighbours mattresses outside. It was itchy awful confusing hell, spent a full summer fully clothed to hide the bites. Don’t bother looking for them they’re disgusting, get someone to come and spray your house! You have to clean everything, they’re sneaky fuckers.

ugghhreally · 24/02/2018 01:12

Bedbugs are little bastards. Hotel (upmarket and not cheap) we stayed in in Italy was riddled with them - didn't realise1st night. Woke up covered in bites, put it down to mozzie bites.

2nd night was like a horror film when I woke up - pouring out of cracks in walls, bed-frame the lot. They were coming out of the tiniest cracks. New ones are translucent and the size of a pin point. They only grow bigger and go dark when they have fed (bit someone and drank blood).

I binned my suitcase and most of my clothes. I kept some basics to be professionally cleaned.

I refused to go on holiday for a long time after, and even now 1st thing I do is inspect the mattress (I know it's weird but I'm not taking chances)!

They can apparently go months without feeding and are buggers to kill. They like the dark and carbon dioxide (ie). Night time when you're asleep.

Good luck. If it is bedbugs, don't hang about, get professional help in.

WombOfOnesOwn · 24/02/2018 03:17

A high-heat tumble drying will kill them from your laundry, don't feel like you have to get rid of all your clothes. Clothes are much easier than upholstery etc.!

Dragonfree · 24/02/2018 04:19

Random one....

I thought I had bed bugs (woke up covered in bites). As it turned out, it was bird lice. There was a place in the roof where pigeons would nest, which had been wired over to stop them. The lice got hungry and in the night followed the scent of CO2 to my bed....

Ant spray thankfully dealt with them quite well.

ItsAHardKn0ckLife1 · 24/02/2018 04:26

Anyone suddenly itchy reading this?

Terfinater · 24/02/2018 05:00

Holy shit.

Apocalyptichorsewoman · 24/02/2018 06:55

Don't move house!

Burn it down 🔥💣💥

snewsname · 24/02/2018 07:05

I saw what I thought was bed bugs once. Took them to environmental health where several people inspected them and after a heated discussion, pronounced them as baby grey ladybirds. How on earth they managed to get between my sheet and mattress, I have no idea.

Believeitornot · 24/02/2018 07:10

We ended up with bed bugs. Not sure how but my guess was our neighbours can back from America and used to spend a lot of time with us and vice versa.
I found one behind a picture frame one morning 😷
I got the place sprayed.

We have a tumble dryer which I think kept it from being too bad.

squiglet111 · 24/02/2018 07:31

Bed bugs can be terrible :( I used to live with my sister and she brought bed bugs into the flat. She went on holiday somewhere and stayed in a hostel so guessing she brought them back in her luggage. The main prob was she didn't have a reaction to them when they bit her so they may have been in her room for months breeding before she realised. By that point they were well in her mattress, bed base, headboard. Even in the walls. That's where they live. We got professionals out and they used plaque lights to find them. Once she realised she had them she went to sleep on the sofa with her bedding and then that brought them into the living room. They then got to my room from there and the whole place was infested. I did get reactions to the bites luckily so knew they were there!

The advice she got was to wash all her clothes on a high heat and keep them in vacuum sealed bags or tightly tied bags. Get rid of mattress / bed / boil wash bedding, pillows or get rid... We then had to get flat fumigated.. it was very unpleasant and expensive! So I would take it seriously now before they start breeding!

BernardBlacksHangover · 24/02/2018 08:34

Anyone suddenly itchy reading this?

I have to confess I was up at 3 this morning, (feeding baby), and ended up reading some of the posts on this thread and then traipsing down to the living room to inspect our newly acquired, second hand sofas for bugs Blush! Dh thinks I’ve gone bonkers.

We’re getting rid of them anyway as they stink of cigarette smoke, but I’m deeply suspicious of them now...

Babdoc · 24/02/2018 08:44

If it is bedbugs you need professional help. The bugs live in places like under skirting boards, in cracks in floorboards etc - you can’t eradicate them by simply changing the mattress or washing the bedding. They can live months without feeding and lay loads of eggs. They can also reinfect your property from a neighbour if you’re in a flat or not fully detached.
If you don’t fancy toxic insecticides, you can move out for a couple of days while your house is sealed up and industrial heaters brought in that cook your rooms to a temp high enough to kill the bugs and their eggs. You most probably picked them up on holiday- hotels are really struggling with them, and even British Airways has had repeated trouble with them infesting plane seats on long haul flights.
I think it’s been an unwanted result of DDT being banned as an insecticide- it used to be very effective against them (but environmentally disastrous!).

Kidssendingmenuts · 24/02/2018 09:20

Are you sure it's bed bugs? Is anyone else being eaten in the bed? Have you changed your washing powder maybe an allergic reaction to something? X

Original poster
Pob13 · 24/02/2018 12:56

My DH isnt being eaten. Im starting to think it could be a rash. Started a course of antibiotics 2 days ago, so maybe its that.

OP posts:
Pleasebeafleabite · 24/02/2018 13:30

It might be OP

It’s unlikely that bedbugs have gone from causing zero bites to many many bites overnight in your own home

Kidssendingmenuts · 24/02/2018 16:06

Sounds more like a reaction to me if your hubby hasn't been bitten too, they would eat you both! X