<p>^^^^
This is interesting since kids are more likely to bring bedbugs HOME from their dorm than to the dorm from their home. I’m glad they are so serious about precautions and it sounds like the protocol that we go through when we travel.
Here’s what we do EVERY TIME we come home from a trip.</p>
<p>The bags are emptied on the front porch of the house. Clothes go into a trash bag which is brought into the house and emptied directly into the washing machine. I wash the clothes as I normally would but when I dry them I do it on high heat for at least 30 minutes. Clothes that cannot be washed are put directly into the dryer and clothes that normally cannot go into the dryer go in anyway, except they are dry when they go in. This will not damage them. Tote bages, etc go into the dryer.</p>
<p>The luggage gets bagged on the porch and things such as shoes, belts, etc are left in the luggage. In the bag goes a Hot Shot Pest strip. This will kill any bugs that may be in the luggage. They stay bagged for a week or so.</p>
<p>You can also wipe objects down with rubbing alcohol which will kill them.</p>
<p>IDad, trying to treat the problem yourself is risky since an application of a pesticide will not kill the eggs that may be present. We only found one bedbug when we looked for them. It was dead. I put it in a paper cup and put plastic wrap over it with a rubber band. Three or four days later, my D noticed something moving on the upturned belly of the bug. I told her she was imagining it. She wasn’t. They were nymphs that had hatched on the body of the mother even after she had died.</p>
<p>They are very difficult to treat and getting good advice from a professional is crucial.</p>
<p>As far as being able to trust the exterminator, I have dealt with shady ones in the past but the one that we hired for the bed bugs was legit. A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine thought she had bed bugs. I went over to look at the bug and was 100 percent sure it was a bed bug. Her D had just returned from her college dorm and found this thing biting her during the night. I recommended the exterminator that I used and they came out and identified it as a Bat bug. Bat bugs are nearly identical to bed bugs but are not as problematic since they only happen to be around if a bat is nearby. They will bite humans if a bat is not available but they will not contaminate a home like bed bugs will. Anyway, the pest control people were very honest with them about the nature of the insect. They could easily have bilked them for a lot of money but didn’t.</p>
<p>MichiganGeorgia, that is a good list. I am going to put that in the envelope with the health, dental, and pharmacy insurance information that I am putting together for her. Assuming she is not the ones bringing the bugs by drop off time 8 weeks from now, of course!</p>
<p>I am starting to give some more thought to chiggers. It is feasible that these are chigger bites instead (I am fervently hopeful). If I don’t see signs of bed bugs in my inspection tomorrow, I am still going to order the interceptors from Amazon and will put those out. But we are going to take some chigger precautions as well (although I am loathing the idea of mowing my lawn in this heat with pants tucked into socks). But it will be worth the peace of mind if we can figure this out. I told D no more lounging around the fire pit in the grass as she has been doing, she has to get the folding chairs out of the garage for a while until we sort this out.</p>
<p>If you think there is any chance it’s fleas you can try this method see if that’s it. Sadly I used it during an awful infestation at my house some years back and was horrified at how many fleas it attracted. Fill an aluminum pie pan or better still, a low sided white bowl 3/4 full with water first, then add some liquid dish soap to cause the fleas to sink and drown instead of floating atop the water. More soap is better than less. Swish it around gently to mix evenly without creating bubbles. </p>
<p>Place the bowl of water directly under a downward facing lamp (or if it’s against a wall it can be a night light) and turn on the light. Fleas will gravitate towards the warmth and light, then fall into the soapy water. </p>
<p>It really is disturbing to see how many fleas you will attract if they are present, particularly at night when the rest of the room is dark. In that unhappy circumstance you can also use it to monitor your progress in dealing with the problem.</p>
<p>Yes, this. I did it as a precautionary measure after dd traveled to a foreign country and stayed in several different lodgings. Of course it helped that it was the middle of summer!</p>
<p>Although I know this will not help the OP, one thing travelers should do <strong>immediately</strong> upon entering your hotel for the first time is to check for bedbugs. Pull up the side of the bottom sheet and look along the mattress seams. Choose the darker side of the room, if possible, and turn on a light or use a flashlight. The light can cause any bugs to scatter. Look all along the seams along the side of the bed. Look for dried blood spots on the mattress pad or mattress itself, whatever is underneath the sheet.</p>
<p>The other resource I use when making hotel reservations is [Bed</a> Bug Registry - Check Apartments and Hotels Across North America](<a href=“http://www.bedbugregistry.com/]Bed”>http://www.bedbugregistry.com/) and looking through recent comments at TripAdvisor.</p>
<p>I had bedbugs once - the product of staying in an otherwise fantastic $5 per night Malaysian backpacker’s hostel. The hostel owner had clearly dealt with it before, and the ways of spotting them were (a) raised red bites in a row across skin, and (b) looking in the corners of the mattress, inbetween the little folds of fabric. </p>
<p>The treatment involved
moving the bed away from the wall to prevent transmission
washing all my clothes in a washing machine
putting everything fabric-based that couldn’t be washed in black bin bags, on the roof (not in the garage!) all day to heat them up and kill them (the hot Malaysian sun helped!)
spraying some potent-looking insecticide onto the mattress </p>
<p>The treatment worked perfectly. </p>
<p>In terms of other things it could be, I did once experience identical symptoms from an ant’s nest (under my bed ***) in an Australian hostel.</p>
<p>Check your dog for fleas. My cat got out for 30 minutes a couple of weeks ago, and that’s all it took to invest my house with fleas.</p>
<p>I’m still trying to get rid of them and crossing my fingers that the home health agency with whom I moonlight does not call to say the clients that I’ve filled in with are all calling to report flea infestations…</p>
<p>Check the bedbugs in the carry-on bags in the overhead compartment and in the clothes of the persons sitting next to you right away when you board the airplane!:)</p>
<p>I was up watching TV, and this infomercial about a book on natural ways to get rid of insects said 30 pages in his book addressed bedbugs. He said pack suitcases with dryer sheets, and stick 1 in each corner of hotel bed, under mattress.</p>
<p>My co-worker’s husband works for a large extermination company doing inspections for commercial properties (not the actual exterminations). The things she tells me and the places he visits have totally shocked me. There are a few particular tourist destinations in his area that has to visit repeatedly. He also says they bedbug sniffing dogs are extremely busy to the extent that some of his co-workers have now gotten their own dogs because it is such a good business.</p>
<p>I feel for you. Oldest DD works in a daycare (in a very bad area of her city) and a few weeks ago one of the kids came in with bedbug bites all over an eye. The mother said the child had been to the father’s house for a visit and only after the visit did he tell the mother he had a problem with bedbugs. DD did not panic until about a week later when the child turned up with more bites. It was a good lesson as we did a lot of research about working in a possible environment where someone could bring in bedbugs (specific info we found pertained to social workers who do home visits) and how to prevent bringing them into your own home. Luckily, DD has not seen any instance of bites on her or the other children since so she is hoping the second round of bites was from fleas or another insect.</p>
<p>It isn’t that easy to pick them up person to person. They just don’t travel that way. Bags, etc are the things to be cautious of. Working in a daycare or school is more problematic in terms of lice than anything else. I would tell your daughter to keep her coat and bag away from where the children’s things are stored and she should be okay.</p>
<p>The dryer sheet thing…if it were that easy to prevent them, the exterminators and dog inspectors wouldn’t be so busy.</p>
<p>When we were going through it, we did have a dog inspection. It was amazing to watch this animal in action. The man said “find your Bs” and the dog took off all over the house. He alerted us to bugs in two of the three beds and in the luggage in the attic (clearly the way they came here). I came right out and asked the man how I could be sure that he wasn’t scamming me. He went to another floor of the house and hid a ziplock bag that held a bed bug nymph in a drawer that the dog had previously inspected and had not alerted to. The dog was with me on another floor when he did this. The man said nothing as I released the dog. That dog ran around the downstairs, stopped briefly at the cabinet that held the dog food and then started whimpering at the kitchen drawer that held the ziploc bag. Pawing at it and whining. I was convinced.</p>
<p>I think owning one of those dogs is a very good investment. 300 dollars for an hours work. They are trained somewhere in Florida, I believe.</p>
<p>So… OP here with an update. I think I have solved the “bug bite” mystery, and it was not bedbugs (whew!). I was fooled by the fact that chigger bites can take a couple of days to really show up and start to itch. It is definitely chiggers. Several weeks ago I started being very, very careful about how I dressed when I stepped onto the lawn. Long pants (either sweatpants with elastic at the ankles or some hiking pants I have with a toggle that can pull an ankle drawstring tight). And always tucking in my shirt. Socks and tennis shoes (not sandals). Once I started this, I stopped getting bites.</p>
<p>A couple of times I have been too tempted. Moving the sprinkler or walking around with our builder to discuss roofing in shorts. Whammo. Two mornings later I have a ton of bites again. They itch like crazy (have sprung for a couple of boxes of Benedryl allergy already this summer!). But they are NOT bedbug bites. Whew.</p>
<p>I am not sure if it is a weather thing or what. I have only had chigger bites once (I think) since moving to our state 30 years ago, and that was when I sat for a couple of hours in a lawnchair in grass with bare feet. All over my ankles. But I have done yardwork, gardened, etc. for my whole adult life here and not had this problem. So why is it such a big problem this summer? I feel like there must be more chiggers (since my initial encounter with them was several year ago, and I think I would have reacted if there had been more bites over the years).</p>
<p>I am pretty tired of bundling up to walk on my lawn (c’mon, we do that in the WINTER around here, we shouldn’t have to do it in the summer!). But at least I think I solved the problem, and I didn’t have to pay an exterminator.</p>
<p>A few sprays of Deep Woods Off won’t do the trick? You have to wash it off once you come inside, but I’d prefer that than the mummy solution.</p>
<p>I’m an insect magnet. Can’t be in the backyard without coating myself with repellent or I get a bunch of bites–and they all blow up into angry welts and itch like crazy. And then because I’m very fair-skinned, I also need a strong sun block. Between the two, I feel like I’ve been slimed. Mostly I stay out of the yard</p>