Well, it’s almost 3 in the morning and I’m currently laundering my sheets. Why so late, you ask? Because apparently God wanted to give us a reason to appreciate mosquitos.
Around noon today I started itching. Around midnight, there were huge itchy welts, mainly on my knees, elbows, and hands. I was just getting ready to get into bed, then it occurred to me: bed bugs. Well, I’m not entirely sure they are bedbugs, as the bites aren’t red and aren’t really in a straight line, and the itchy welts seem to still be appearing out of nowhere even though I haven’t been in bed in over 14 hours.
I don’t know if bedbugs would be the good news or the bad news.
I had a bedbug infestation a little over 2 years ago. My ex, who lived with me, brought them back from a convention. We both ended up having to beg our families to help us pay for Terminix.
Today was my last final exam. I worked my ass off all semester, and now this. I don’t have $1000 for Terminix to come and gouge me again. I don’t have a clue what to do. I’m tired and itchy and all I want is to go to sleep.
I was supposed to spend the weekend with my girlfriend. I was supposed to have company over Saturday night. Looks like all that is questionable now. If I tell her I have bedbugs, she’ll never want to spend the night here again.
I’m also searching for a new roommate, since mine moved out last month. I can’t in good conscience have someone new move in while I have a bedbug problem, yet I can’t afford to cover the rent on the entire house myself for another month.
This may be kind of weak for the Pit, but I’m way too tired to garner a sufficient amount of vitriol.
Are the welts the same as when you knew you did have bed bugs? If not, I wonder if you’re getting hives. I’ve gotten hives before due to stress, or something we were never able to figure out why - not an allergy. I had them for 5 months once, and once in a while a few just spring up on my fingers, or lip, or armpit. I take 50mg of Benadryl and give it a day.
If the infestation is early and you have hardwood floors, start by getting mattress covers, washing all linens (at least put in the dryer, it’s heat that kills them, use a meat thermometer to make sure the center of the load gets to 130F for 20 minutes) and sprinkle/dust diatomaceous earth around under the bed.
I did a Google image search for “stress hives,” and they certainly look closer to what I have. I hope that’s the case. I don’t have Benadryl in the house, but I’ll be getting some tomorrow morning, possibly with some diatomaceous earth. I’ve already put a bedbug cover over my mattress and last of the bedsheets are drying.
You can get relatively inexpensive traps to find out if you do have bedbugs about, and there are a number of ways to treat for them that are a lot less expensive than what you mentioned. Here’s a good resource for more info: http://bugspray.com/article/bedbugs.html
Another nonbedbug thing that can give you a rash is carpet beetles. They don’t even bite people (they munch on wool, carpets and shed animal/human hair), but the larvae shed these teeny spines that some people are allergic to.
A bedbug scouting party from one of the neighboring units tries to colonize our place every few months. Bedbug spray from Raid gets rid of them nicely and fresh dryer sheets like Bounce seem to discourage more from getting in the beds.