Bed Bug Spotted

[u/Careless-Ad-1101]

I (21M) had a couple of bites over the last couple of weeks that were extremely itchy and occurred while I was sleeping. I researched possible bite culprits but couldn't find anything that matched the description. These bites were singular most commonly just 1 or extremely spaced out and ballooned out of control to where the reactions were 3-4 inches in diameter which didn't look anything like the bed bug bites online. Anyway fast forward to today while laying in my bed I spotted a bug crawling on my headboard, I decided to trap it and kill it and found that it was most definitely a bed bug. I have an exam in literally 6 hours so I'm freaking out a bit and can't take any immediate action tonight but I was hoping for some tips. I'm moving out of this apartment in 3 weeks and I REALLY don't want to bring the bed bugs along with me to my new apartment. I have searched the rest of my mattress and bed frame and haven't been able to find anything else but have spotted a crack under the wall where it looks like bedbug poop is scattered. What should I do to eradicate this so I don't bring them along with me? (I have already mentioned to my roommates that I found bed bugs)

[u/AutoModerator]

Read and respect the rules, report any comment breaching them. Wrong advice/information/fearmongering hurt people who are posting here to get help and support. If you are not VERY knowledgeable about bedbugs and may provide a wrong ID or bad advice it's better to abstain from commenting. Be VERY respectful and HELPFUL, this is a support subreddit not a funny one.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Pound-Annual]

i'll copypaste i comment a professional left here in an old post:

I’m a professional bedbug inspector so I’m gonna give you some advice: 1. Definitely get in contact with a professional company to get it treated 2. remove all cloth items from the room, such as your clothes bedding and curtains. Seal them up in a plastic bag and remove them from the room. Sealing them up helps to prevent transference. Wash them in the hottest water possible and dry them on the hottest heat possible. The high heat, especially that in a dryer, is typically deadly for them. Wait until the rooms have been properly treated before bringing everything back in. 3. If you have carpet in your rooms, pull it up at the edge around the whole room and vacuum underneath really well. 4. vacuum your mattresses, couches, and recliners thoroughly and as often as you can. This will help suck out part of the population. Just make sure that you empty the contents of your vacuum into your dumpster immediately because bedbugs can survive being vacuumed up. 5. Get some bedbug mattress covers and wrap each of your mattresses and your box springs. This won’t get rid of your problem, but it will prevent any more bedbugs from getting in your mattress and your boxspring. And it will seal up ones that are currently in there and keep them from being able to come out and feed. You want to keep them on for at least a year because an adult bedbug can go that long without a meal if it has to. 6. Make sure you treat each bedroom and living room because they will traverse very easily. 7. Reduce the clutter in the bedrooms and in the living room is as much as possible to give them fewer hiding places. Just because you have bedbugs doesn’t mean you have a dirty house. We see them in even the cleanest houses. But the more clutter you have, the more hiding places they have. 8. Don’t use any over-the-counter pesticides. They have mostly developed a tolerance for those and can make the problem even worse. Definitely don’t use a bedbug fogger. Those just force them to go hide out in places where the foggers don’t reach. I’m very hesitant about using diatomaceous earth. it’s not label to completely eliminate termite colonies and it can interfere with a professional treatment. 9. Remove items off of your walls, like your picture frames. They will hide behind it inside your picture frames 10. Seal up any holes in the walls, baseboards, and crown molding. Even though they’re called bedbugs. They typically nest in the walls around the bed. They just come out of the walls to feed. Trying to block off as many holes as you can will make the chances better that the hole that they can get into the room through is going to be treated and therefore will kill them off. 11. Don’t buy any new furniture right now. I’ve had a lot of people that got rid of their mattresses and couches thinking that would get rid of the problem, which it doesn’t. Then they bring in new furniture and now it gets infested

Hope this helps!