Bed Bugs. How scared of them are you?

PennyWistful · 2025-04-27T03:08:32+00:00

Me? Bloody terrified. Know someone who has them and would avoid them like the plague until they sort it. AIBU to think I need to stay away? They’re a nightmare to get rid of.

AgnesX · 27/04/2025 08:09

Where do you live that you have bed bugs?

I've never heard/seen them in the UK?

squashyhat · 27/04/2025 08:10

I never even think of them

Init4thecatz · 27/04/2025 08:16

I think it all depends on your living situation. Bedbugs are (mainly) an issue in deprived areas, council flats, etc, because they can walk from flat to flat. They're also an issue in hotels/hostels because people carry them in from their homes.

If you're relatively clean, wash your sheets, etc, and are reasonably sensible on holidays, you should be fine.

JMSA · 27/04/2025 08:18

OP, I get scared of this happening too. It’s because I’ve read on here about how horrendous they are!
One poster’s mental health took a battering because of how difficult to get rid of they were 😱

Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse · 27/04/2025 08:19

I have OCD and get quite worked up over the thought of them. I check all hotels and villas basically anywhere I stay. I even put my suitcase in the bath while I check a room if they don’t have a suitcase stand. I know I sound crazy but I can get very worked up over it. I do have a plan strategy incase it does happen. However I hope it never does.

Canterranter · 27/04/2025 08:21

AgnesX · 27/04/2025 08:09

Where do you live that you have bed bugs?

I've never heard/seen them in the UK?

There are plenty in the UK. It's a good idea for hotels etc to have the little traps set up so that they can see as soon as any arrive, if they do.
Bed bugs don't equal dirt - they just travel around on luggage.

Pigeonqueen · 27/04/2025 08:24

Never ever worry about them. I mean yes I know in theory it’s possible to get them but I only ever either stay at home where I know I wash stuff properly and have clean beds or stay in very good hotels etc where I trust they don’t have them.

Flutterbees · 27/04/2025 08:27

AgnesX · 27/04/2025 08:09

Where do you live that you have bed bugs?

I've never heard/seen them in the UK?

My family visited England 2 years ago and met up with my sister and her family who were also travelling then. We both booked reputable hotels and expensive Stayz accommodation and checked reviews before booking. My sister came across bed bugs twice in two separate accommodations, we found them once. In our instance it was a super fancy hotel that was due to have a well known lifestyle magazine come to stay and review the following week. Had to do some serious decontaminating of luggage when we got home, it was a nightmare. Have never come across bed bugs in our home country, but when we reported the bugs to the accommodation providers we were told they are rampant across England and parts of Europe.

JustAnInchident · 27/04/2025 08:28

I have to be honest, I never even give them a thought!

MissedItByThisMuch · 27/04/2025 08:30

I’ve never given them a second - or indeed first - thought. But suddenly they seem to be cropping up all the time on my newsfeed and on here. Weird.

Anyotherdude · 27/04/2025 08:31

We had them a few years ago when DS returned from holiday with them.
They were not that difficult to get rid of - just took a lot of persistence from us for a few months. We used a hoover, sellotape to catch bugs and remove eggs, and a steam cleaner, daily for four weeks, every other day for four weeks, twice a week for four weeks then once a month for four months…
We did have to dispose of his bed though!

Agix · 27/04/2025 08:33

I never even really think about them. My previous accommodation was infested with fleas, I suppose bed bugs can't be much worse.

Tusktusk · 27/04/2025 08:34

Anyotherdude · 27/04/2025 08:31

We had them a few years ago when DS returned from holiday with them.
They were not that difficult to get rid of - just took a lot of persistence from us for a few months. We used a hoover, sellotape to catch bugs and remove eggs, and a steam cleaner, daily for four weeks, every other day for four weeks, twice a week for four weeks then once a month for four months…
We did have to dispose of his bed though!

That does NOT sound like “not that difficult to get rid of” - you had to throw away his bed? 3 months of constant steam cleaning? That sounds like a load of hard work and hassle!

Lindy2 · 27/04/2025 08:38

I never really thought about them although I would sometimes give a hotel bed a quick check.

Last year though DD went on a sleepover at a house with a big bed bug infestation. I had no reason to suspect that there was a problem before the sleepover. I'd had a chat on the phone with the mum before she stayed and she seemed pleasant. The house is a large, detached home in an expensive area. I'd have never let DD go if they'd mentioned the bedbugs.

Thankfully DD told me about the strange bugs everywhere when I collected her. I made her strip off on our porch and I checked all her clothes and bag. There were live bedbugs on them. 🤢

Everything went in a hot wash and I sprayed our house because DD had visited there previously but not slept over. After spraying we found 1 dead bug in her room.

Thankfully we narrowly escaped bed bugs infecting our home. I am a lot more cautious now though. I check a lot more. It was very stressful.

EvilBeaker · 27/04/2025 08:38

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.

Phunkychicken · 27/04/2025 08:42

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

DaisyChain505 · 27/04/2025 08:45

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.

Anyotherdude · 27/04/2025 08:49

@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…

ChompinCrocodiles · 27/04/2025 08:50

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.

Sonolanona · 27/04/2025 08:51

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!

Gundogday · 27/04/2025 08:51

Never worry about them.

ZiggyZowie · 27/04/2025 08:52

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.

SP2024 · 27/04/2025 08:53

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.

bigknitblanket · 27/04/2025 09:01

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.

PencilsInSpace · 27/04/2025 09:04

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.