Bed bugs - oh nooo

shh said:
from research I did awhile back, i remember the bites are in a distinctive linear pattern. Hoping it's something else! 

 thats a myth.  they can be in a straight line, groups of 3, zig zig, but they can also be single bites or in no pattern, especially with multiple bugs biting, may be a large group on one area of the body

Rivoli said:
So both Jerry Buckingham and a guy from Viking Pest Control came over, looked at my bug-in-a-bag and said, without any trace of doubt, "That's a bedbug." Viking said they could do one treatment tomorrow, one treatment in 2 weeks and then an inspection or treatment in another 2 weeks for $850. Fine, I said. But my god, the prep is going to kill me. Everything in our 3 bedrooms on beds and in closets, dressers, drawers, bookshelves, night-tables, etc. has to be removed and if fabric, has to be washed or at least, dried at high heat, then put in garbage bags. Ninety percent of that stuff will have to stay bagged until the final inspection, so a month of chaos. And Christmas!
At least it's not a chronic, incurable disease, like the eczema she was diagnosed as having and I spent $$$ trying to treat. 

 doctors are one of the few professions that get to keep the fees for not doing their job...other professions have to correct their work to get final payment....an ethical doc would reimburse you...but I never heard of one doing that

for anything that is hard to treat and you can't be sure there are no bugs, consider, treating a garbage bag, letting it dry and then storing stuff sealed in it

You may want to consider whether anyone else, such as a school, friend’s house, etc., should be notified. We had a coworker tell HR that he had bed bugs in his apartment. In response, my employer had a dog walk through our office at night and they found his desk area to be loaded.  They sent people in his immediate area home and tested their houses as well.  

hauscat said:
You may want to consider whether anyone else, such as a school, friend’s house, etc., should be notified

Yes, I called the people whom we’ve visited. It was like having to call all your partners to tell them they might have an STD - not, thank god, that I’ve ever had to do that! But it’s not news anyone wants to hear. So far, no one has any infestation at all, except for the person whose summer house gave the bugs to us. My daughter slept there on a lovely settee he had bought from an antique store. (Bed bugs must be killing the vintage business.) 

But here’s the Christmas miracle: my daughter’s arms are already clearing up!!! After six months, three doctors, and six rounds of many different and increasingly potent medications, she’s finally getting better!

Rivoli - we’ve dealt with them twice in NYC.  They aren’t as hard to get rid of as you’d think, as long as you’re methodical and thorough with the prep. Both times, we got rid of them with one treatment, though they still did follow-up. Also, if you are in a house, it is so much less stressful. In an apartment, you can’t help what your neighbors do or don’t do. In both of our experiences, our building was infested and moved from one apartment to the others.

Did the people with the summer house know before you told them?  I would be really annoyed if they knew and did not contact people that may have been affected.

And I hate to say it, but any place you visited in the last couple months just might not have enough bugs to notice yet.  But, if you haven't brought anything into those places like a backpack stored in a bedroom, they are probably okay.

and with about 30% of people not reacting to bites, they won't have a clue there is a problem until it gets very bad or they specifically go looking.  This is especially a problem for people who live alone or just have their own room as the more people in a room, the more likely it is someone will react and notice a problem.