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I'm pretty sure I have them I have bites all over and they look like the pictures on the net.

I live in an apartment; do you think it's my landlord's problem? I still have to read my lease, but this place is shady, and I don't trust them.

Can anyone give me suggestions, thoughts, experiences?? I'm pretty adverse to using poisons and harsh chemicals, but if that's what it takes...

It takes a lot to gross me out, but this is doing it.

(((Sad))) I have no advice, but I just wanted to share hugs.

Take the sheets off and look under the mattresses along the end ribbing. They hide inside the wall sockets and the undersides of wooden furniture. Use a flashlight and a magnifying glass. This is what we use to inspect homes and it is enough to find them. Look online and you can see what bedbug droppings look like. Other places to look, along molding, edges of carpeting, inside curtain hems and folds.

They are very difficult to get rid of. Safest non toxic way is with extreme heat (also incredibly expensive). You can try bombing the place but if you are in an apartment, they can travel through the duct work.

They cannot climb slick surfaces, so usually the inside of the tub is safe however they have been seen crawling along the ceiling and "dropping" on their food.

If you are in an apartment, it should be your landlord's responsibility to get rid of them since again they may have traveled from one apartment to another.

NO!! Ugh. I am SOOO sorry. (((((Sad)))))

This happened to my mom when she bought a used chair.

She had to have an exterminator bomb her place three times in a row but it did the trick. She was getting bit too.

They can be hard to get rid of.

(((Sad)))

Do I remember that you were gone over the weekend and had a *free* stay in a motel? Could you have gotten the bites in the motel room? Or brought the bugs home with you?

Xpos told me I was ridiculous and paranoid because I would tear motel/hotel room beds apart to check for them before settling in.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/bedbugs/faqs.html

I'm clutching at straws tonight. I read they don't like scented dryer sheets, so in addition to buying a bed bug proof mattress cover and pillow case, I've lined my bed with lavendar scented dryer sheets--I'll probably wake up with a migraine. (I hate dryer sheets.) I've washed and dried the sheets & the mattress cover in hot water/hot air settings. Unfortunately, my bed is a box, so I can't put duct tape around the legs--there aren't any. I've also vacuumed the couch and put dryer sheets all over it.

Now I'm sitting outside on the landing watching the storms roll in. I'm drinking wine; that's the only way I'll get to sleep tonight. I hate this.

I just spent the last 3 weeks working on my SO's place, because he too was getting bit shortly after moving in. We inspected every piece of furniture with a flashlight. Pulled off all the molding in the apt and sealed the space between the carpet and the wall as best we could, then put diatomaceous earth in the space. He took off the wall heaters and sealed all the holes behind. Caulked all the spaces in the molding around the window after dusting with the DE. Dusted DE under all the bookcases and furniture. Sealed all the cracks and spaces in both futons, and taped over the mattress zippers. Washed every piece of fabric in the apartment -- clothes, futon covers, bedding, etc. and sealed it all in bags to keep them from being recontaminated. Ran pillows through the dryer. Steamed bags and luggage and anything that couldn't fit through the dryer but might be harboring bugs or eggs.

In addition, we built CO2 traps out of water bottles, yeast, and dishes. See youtube for instructions! We built traps for each leg of the bed (put the leg in a cup, put the cup in a bowl, taped the outside of bowl to make it climb-able, and dusted the inside with DE. Put CO2 generators/water bottles at each one.) as well as traps in random corners.

So far, we found all of 2 bugs, one of which he caught and one that got away. He has not been bit since we started treatment, which is good because he is having massive allergic reactions to the bites and they are forming 1/2 inch blood-filled blisters surrounded by huge welts and swelling. I have not been bit, despite having stayed there every weekend but one since he moved in at least one night.

They are attracted to CO2 and to heat, so if you set traps and then stay elsewhere you don't have to be bait, but putting the bed in the traps and then staying there is the best bet.

This guy seems to have the system down: http://julesnoise.com/665-2/

Good luck getting rid of them!

I should add I've seen no physical evidence of them other than the bites. I'm just totally freaked out by this. The silver lining is that it's making me clean my apartment . I finally bought a vacuum cleaner.

:(

My mom, who lives in a senior apartment complex, thought she had bed bugs, too. It turns out that her bites were/are caused by chiggers that have gotten into her place through the window screen. She's has always opened her windows to allow for fresh breezes to flow through. It's safe for her to do this as she lives on the top floor which, by the way, is closest to the tops of the trees where the chiggers reside

Hmmm...yme; are they palm trees by any chance? I have palm trees outside my windows and being on the 2nd floor, I like to have them open...

How do you get rid of chiggers? With my luck, they love lavendar scented dryer sheets!

Although chiggers are seen on trees, their main habitat is in woody areas that contain tall grasses and weeds especially around lakes, waterways and wetlands. They also dwell on well-manicured lawns and golf courses. The crawly bastards thrive almost everywhere in the world. Tenacious little beasts.

http://feelgoodtime.net/how-to-get-rid-of-chiggers/

http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/treat-chiggers-zm0z05zarc.aspx#axzz2PMrwWTcj

[This message edited by Yme at 10:38 PM, April 2nd (Tuesday)]

We had them after buying a used love seat.

We had to have the house bombed twice. I think they're finally gone.

Mine loved fabric softener....I noticed an increase in bites(they were only biting me..not WH) on the nights after I had put freshly laundered sheets on the bed..I had heard they didn't like scented things...so I used EXTRA softener...nope...they loved it.

OMG....we had a scare after buying a sofa and love seat from Goodwill.

I can't find my post at all, It was in November and the pages dont go back that far.

I read that vacuuming is not as helpful because they just cling tight to the carpet fibers, and to use the part that has that rubber piece on it.....it took me about an hour, but I vaccumed my whole living room with the upolstery attachment LOL.

Basically - we had a company come in that has K9's come and sniff for the bugs.

It cost us 350 bucks for them to come out, do the test, and for the 1 year warrenty on the K9 test.

some things to know.

1. You dont have to wash everything - you only have to dry them. So if you throw your sheets and towels and what not into the dryer for 45 minutes, it will kill all stages of bedbugs.

*we had to dry our clothes first thing in the morning and then get dressed next to the dryer. We didnt want to track the bugs anywhere else.

2. They dont like hair, so stop itching your noggin. They go for the most open exposed skin they can find.

3. Apartment buildings are tricky because chances are more then just your apartment is affected. You need to check your renter laws in your state to find out if they are liable since its a multifamily unit.

Here are some helpful videos to look for them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTcCfbxj_m8

[This message edited by Undefinabl3 at 12:44 PM, April 3rd (Wednesday)]

Thank you for the tips; I have been using the dryer, but I had read on the cdc website that 20 minutes was enough heat to destroy them in the dryer. I think I've been going a bit longer anyway. I do have a washer/dryer in my unit.

I lined my bed with the dryer sheets and had no new bites this morning but I'm not rejoicing, just somewhat relieved.

I also thought I had them at one time...turns out I had forgotten I had started a new antibiotic and it was an allergic reaction to the new pills. I was so relieved, because I had spent 3 nights in a row crawling around the bedroom with the flashlight and magnifying glass!