Bedbugs/history

The infestation started in the middle bedroom upstairs, some time in mid-2019. The occupant of that room had been experiencing mysterious skin irritation and itchyness for some weeks before identifying the problem as bedbug bites, at which point the rest of the household was immediately informed. The occupant immediately threw out or bagged many items from their room.

Not long after that, Harena and I found evidence of infestation in our mattress (in the left bedroom) -- which we immediately quarantined in a disused car, and swapped in a spare (and very uncomfortable) mattress for several months.

We have several times since found isolated bedbugs in the left bedroom, and one time an apparent cluster of recently-hatched bugs, but no ongoing infestation. The bedroom on the right did not seem to be a problem for some reason.

We did two bombing runs over the next 9 months or so -- each one being a short-term success but not getting rid of the problem.

The whole-house heat-treatment which is apparently the gold standard for eliminating bedbug infestations did not seem to be an option, both because of the expense and because of the sheer quantity of meltable things that would need to be removed from the house.

I came up with a plan for fighting the problem in the middle bedroom the morning of May 27, 2020. That same morning, we became aware that the problem had escalated to the right bedroom. I posted the plan in our household Discord on 5/29.

Daily Status Reports

2020-05-30

It was somehow easier for me today just to do these checks than to ask @everyone else to do them -- but either way, we need daily checks of sleeping areas if we're going to keep ahead of this thing.

• Left Bedroom: Harena & I each have bites. Did not find any bugs when I checked the bed.
• Middle Bedroom: still being eaten alive and seeing active infestations. I am expecting that to change after the bombing Sunday, though obviously that's not a complete solution.
• Right Bedroom: Found one small bedbug at the foot of top mattress. I'm guessing it was hiding in the bedframe -- which just underscores the need to keep checking actual sleeping areas even when we have traps in place. (It had apparently just eaten -- squished red, but no stains.)
• Living Room Couch: I checked the edges of the couch cushions and underneath them; no evidence of anything.

2020-05-31

• Left bedroom: no live bugs found before bombing. Steam-cleaned floor/wall/loft all around head of bed.
• Right bedroom: steam-cleaning of the loft frame flushed out a couple dozen live bedbugs and some dead ones (probably killed by the steam). Prior to that, I found several live ones, various sizes, on the upper mattress.
• Living Room Couch: B vacuumed it, with help from others. No definite bugs seen; 2 stains which didn't quite match the profile of bedbug stains were found. Probably not from bedbugs.

2020-06-01

Taking a break from doing a proper bug report.

• Left bedroom: had probably several bites between us, nothing unusual, seems less than previous nights.
• Middle bedroom reported finding several arm-bites before going to bed.
• Right bedroom reported several bugs of different sizes on both beds. Nothing on sticky-traps.

2020-07-18

As expected, after that I lost the energy for making regular reports. I have been heat-treating our bed daily (at first, twice daily -- once in the morning and once right before bedtime), but the morning treatment didn't seem to make any difference.

We also were getting bites from sitting the CoA (and occasionally actually finding bugs), so doing something about that became a priority. After a couple of heat-treatments, I got to the point where it was possible to remove the giant sheet from the bed (it was helping some but also providing more hiding places; net effect seemed more cost than benefit) and trying it on the CoA -- that had to be early July, just before the Smith Family Reunion. It barely fits over the arms, but this seems to be sufficient: we haven't been getting bites from sitting on the CoA since then, and the one time we took it off for cleaning I found a bug crawling across my shirt (presumably having been trapped by the sheet the whole time and now desperate to feed).

The Couch of TV, where B sleeps, also needs heat-treatment, because he has been getting bites; I haven't had the energy to push on that.

2022-02-23

It had been weeks since the last live bug sighting, and months since anyone was bitten -- but both B and I both got bitten while sitting on the living room couch. He found a near-adult-size bug, not looking especially gorged. I'm refraining from heat-treating the couch in order to determine if there are any more (i.e. does he get bitten more overnight), with the plan to heat-treat it tomorrow in the daylight.

(P.S. I ended up not doing any heat treatment, but there have been no more bites on the couch since then -- so I have to think it was a single rogue, not a sign of a regrown infestation.)

2022-03-15

Found two more medium-sized bugs at bedtime, after I felt a bite on my elbow:

• One on the pillow, right after I realized the bite was more than just a random itch; it looked fairly desiccated still
• One under the mattress a few minutes later, when I got suspicious that maybe I had been bitten again. This one looked much better fed.

It seems likely that I somehow stirred these up by moving around some of Mel's stuff in the same corner of the room I'd been in the last time a bug appeared (2/23). There were signs of infestation in a floorboard crack under a box I picked up.

2022-03-16

Found one more under the mattress, head of my side, at pre-bed check. Gave the underside of the bed a heat-treatment.

Felt like something bit me on the back after that; will have to heat-treat the topside as well tonight.

2022-03-22

Got bit several times around 1am. This morning, found 3-4 medium-sized bugs living at an intersection in the bedframe; none anywhere else. Heat-treated the area and my pillows and corner of the mattress/frame.

2022-03-25

At bedtime, after looking under the mattress and the fitted sheet (finding nothing), found a medium-sized bug on top of the fitted sheet, slightly engorged with fresh blood. (Seemed like it fell from somewhere -- pillows? Heat-blasted both of my pillows, and the edges of H's.) I don't think I went into Mel's room today, so maybe I brought it in last night and just didn't notice getting bitten. (I did have my suspicions at one point, but the itch never seemed substantial enough to be a bug. Perhaps I disrupted it partway through.)

2022-03-29

Got bitten on the back at least twice around midnight. Today, ran all of the bedclothes and pillows through the dryer, and turned over the mattress -- whereupon I found a medium-smol bug on the underside. Heat-treated my side of the frame and most of the mattress. Checked the mattress zipper pretty carefully.

2022-04-01

I think I got bitten again last night, on the back. Will have to heat-treat tonight.

2022-04-02

Found 2 medium bugs on the TV couch when I checked (left side, toward front of house). One was engorged, but it might have been old blood: when I tried to pop it, I didn't see anything come out... but I didn't check carefully.

2022-04-04

Got what felt like a single bite in the middle of my back, but nothing more. Wasn't sure if bedbug or not.

2022-04-05

Bitten repeatedly on right arm and shoulder last night.

Fig. 1 That's my blood you got in there, dude. Personal space!

Evening: pulled out the bed and pretty thoroughly heat-treated the pillows and head-side, especially underneath, and under my side -- and then I noticed a suspicious-looking spot on the wall which turned out to be this guy (see Figure 1).

2022-04-06

Found three small bites on my arm in the morning; possibly not a bedbug, or possibly there's another smaller one still at large. Will see what happens tonight.

2022-04-07

Bitten repeatedly -- but then it made the mistake of heading towards my feet and biting near my knee, where I was able to find it by touch and squash it. So hopefully no more tonight.

Found a medium-size bug on the left side of the couch again, under the skirt. Brown engorgement.

2022-04-09

Solitary bite on the back, a little after midnight, just like on 4/4. We'll have to see if the pattern repeats...

2022-04-13

About a dozen bites, but they all seemed to be sequential -- so I think it was just one very hungry bug.

Fig. 2 It was this guy.

At bedtime, we flipped my half of the mattress over and started heat-treating underneath. I actually smelled the bug before I saw it -- it hit my nostrils right after I had blasted a joint between a 2x4 and the cedar joist on my side, so I doubled back, and saw it on the floor (see Figure 2).

They're pretty easy to catch, but they can be very tricky. When I picked this one up, I thought for a second I had dropped it -- but it had crawled to the back of my hand. When I turned my hand over, it crawled into the joint between two of my fingers. Lesson: they are good at clinging to any kind of skin, you can't feel them, and they will instinctively find the places you're least likely to see them.

We gave the rest of my side of the bed a pretty thorough blasting. By the time we went to bed, I noticed I had several bites, so I was concerned that maybe B or Z had brought up another bug from downstairs and I would get bitten anyway...

2022-04-14

...but no, I didn't get bitten at all.

Heat-treated my sweater (which I had been wearing most of the evening, and feeling possibly bitten in), on the theory that a bug might have been hiding there.

2022-04-15

About a half-dozen bites last night.

Found more than six bugs -- all about the same size as the ones found upstairs -- on the TV couch. Gave the couch a pretty thorough heat-treatment. We obviously need to resume doing that regularly.

Fig. 3: 2022-04-15

Bedtime check: found and disposed of one bug (Figure 3), saw another fall off (probably sufficiently in line-of-fire of the heat gun, but who knows). Both were in wooden understructure, near my head.

2022-04-16

Got about 4 bites last night. The kids won't be coming up for reading for awhile (finished reading series), so that should make it easier to isolate the source and figure out what areas our heat-treating regimen needs to focus on.

Evening: found one bug sitting on the rafters, when I lifted my corner of the mattress. I decided not to do a heat-treatment because I wanted to see if that was all of them, or if that smaller number of bites could have been more than one bug.

2022-04-17

Got about 3 bites overnight. So I guess there is another bug. Will heat-treat if I can't find it visually.

Heat-treated under my side of the bed at bedtime.

2022-04-18

Got bitten 4-5 times overnight.

Found one in the doorframe at bedtime. Didn't continue heat-blasting after that.

2022-04-19

Did get bitten again, aplenty -- but it started a good hour or two later than usual. Hm.

Also experimentally did a bit of blasting during the night, after I'd been bitten several times. I think I still got bitten once or twice after that, but I probably waited too long to try the experiment; will try doing it right away, as soon as I notice biting, henceforth.