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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Bed Bugs. How scared of them are you?

64 replies

PennyWistful · 27/04/2025 04:08

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.

OP posts:
PrimitivePerson · 27/04/2025 09:08

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

PencilsInSpace · 27/04/2025 09:20

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.

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 ...

notatinydancer · 27/04/2025 09:35

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.

Any blocks of flats ? Or just council flats ?Confused

Flightfromhell · 27/04/2025 09:40

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.

lljkk · 27/04/2025 09:46

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

B1indEye · 27/04/2025 09:46

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!

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

misssunshine4040 · 27/04/2025 09:53

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.

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

Monoceros · 27/04/2025 10:00

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.

Elleherd · 27/04/2025 10:08

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.

Sahara123 · 27/04/2025 10:12

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 ,

Iloveeverycat · 27/04/2025 10:15

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

toomuchfaff · 27/04/2025 10:25

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!

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".

NiceCuppaTeaaaaa · 27/04/2025 10:31

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.

MereNoelle · 27/04/2025 10:34

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.

CatherinedeBourgh · 27/04/2025 10:35

Enough that although for ecological reasons I try to buy all my furniture second hand, this does not and will never extend to any soft furnishings.

I have had them twice, both times on holiday (in nice, clean places). I have a massive allergic reaction to them, So although others only had a few red spots, I was covered from head to foot in bright red, beyond itchy patches, which took weeks to go away.

I am quite paranoid about them now.

Flightfromhell · 27/04/2025 10:36

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.

You know you can't get rid of bedbugs by being relatively clean and washing your sheets?

Lentilweaver · 27/04/2025 10:36

Never think of them..Ever. And I travel in hot countries.
Why make ife hard?

Flightfromhell · 27/04/2025 10:38

We don't sit on the Underground in London because apparently that's quite a common source of infection.

CamillaMacauley · 27/04/2025 10:39

I wasn’t worried until I read this. Dd returns home today after hostelling round Europe. I think I might fumigate her now. 😂

Lentilweaver · 27/04/2025 10:40

Flightfromhell · 27/04/2025 10:38

We don't sit on the Underground in London because apparently that's quite a common source of infection.

Ha, I take the Tube daily and sit down.

Lanzarotelady · 27/04/2025 10:42

Never ever thought of them, I am however sat here itching haha

Notsuchafattynow · 27/04/2025 10:47

All the time. I travel in the UK with work.

Do things like use hard luggage, don't put it on bed etc. But realise now I'm quick to unpack and unworn clothes go straight into the wardrobe. I might start a quarentine!

MaiAamWaliHun · 27/04/2025 10:48

AgnesX · 27/04/2025 08:09

Where do you live that you have bed bugs?

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

I've travelled all over including Africa, India and South East Asia and I only met bed bugs once-- in a hotel in Manchester! I was bitten before they moved my room, I never thought that I mightve taken them home. Luckily I didnt.

TheRozzers · 27/04/2025 13:01

I had a boyfriend with bed bugs. It split us up in the end. His housemate brought them back from travelling, infected his whole flat. They hitched a lift in BF’s overnight bag and infected my whole flat too. We spent £100s fighting them but just couldn’t get rid of them. They bite you on the neck at 5am. Nasty little fuckers.

This was London about 15 years ago.

The relationship ended and never been bothered by them since. Stayed in multiple hotels etc all fine.

I think you have to be pretty unlucky to encounter them but if you do watch out.

curtaintwitcher78 · 27/04/2025 13:10

My husband brought some home from a trip many years ago. It happened before he lived with me but he's still paranoid. Diatomaceous earth is your friend. It kills them and their nest mates. Have a look on YouTube for more scientific and comforting explanations of this. I dust some over the laundry and even our own mattress whenever we come back from a trip.