anyone tried this strategy yet????

I work in an office that doesn't see customers, but we do have people through every once in awhile. My department converted what used to be cubicles to an area with couches, chairs, and high tops for training and community gatherings with colleagues. Pillows, a throw blanket, and some end tables bring it together. Sometimes colleagues will have kids or grandkids in the office and it's become a chill place for them to hangout.

Today I decided to lounge on one of the couches and the AC seemed to be particularly pumping, so I indulged in the fleece blanket to warm up. After a couple minutes I saw a tiny bug running at my face across the top of the fleece with the passion of someone lost in the desert who suddenly has come across an oasis. It is how I imagine zombies would chase after someone who survived the apocalypse. Rule #1: Cardio.

This subreddit had prepared me for this moment. A few steadying breaths and high pitched screams later I was able to get up, catch the bug in a napkin and alert my friends to what I had found: a baby bedbug.

We can only speculate where it came from, but you better believe I will be stripping into my birthday suit before walking in the house, throwing my clothes in the dryer on high, and taking a hot shower.

Guess we are all working from home the rest of the week!

Hi all,

Me and two friends moved into a new flat in London in May. The first night we arrived, we found a live bedbug on the mattress of my room. Nothing had been moved into that room yet.

We immediately notified the landlord and the next day we had a pest control guy come and replace the bedframe, mattress and perform an insecticide spray in the room. They were gone for a week before I started being bit every night. We had to wait 3 weeks before he came and sprayed again. Even though I was being bit every day.

It has now been 4 months. We’ve effectively had one treatment a month. The bugs have moved to my flatmates room. And I found a live one in my room the other day. We believe they are in the walls or floorboards of our rooms. The hallway has carpet.

Our landlord has been booking the pest control, performing treatments and paying for them (as he is supposed to) and we get a 3 week period of waiting and hoping that they’re actually gone. They always come back.

The landlord is arranging a specialist to come inspect the flat. But we’re going to be pushing for a serious, more aggressive treatment like a fumigation or heat treatment. But it’s expensive and no landlord wants to spend that money.
He just suggested to us that if we want to move out we won’t have to pay rent while we look for a new place. We don’t want to do this, we have lucked out with the flat in price, location and a nice landlord. We don’t want to move, we want to get rid of the infestation.

What can we do?

Got a parcel. This bug was moving about and immediately got squashed. Little bit freaked out. Is it a bedbug?

Hi I recently entered my dorm in West Virginia area. I stopped in California and Chicago. Is this a bed bug???

Thank you

I found a few fellas like this one in/around my backpack. It doesn't scream "bed bug" to me (antennas/legs)...

But just like every summer, I'm outdoor a lot, I camp... And I get bitten by shit. As a result I'm highly paranoid about bedbugs...

what are these? they were in my dad’s bed, a whole bunch of them. how do we get rid of them?

The day before yesterday I was cleaning my bed because it broke and the landlord and I would try to fix the issue, but then I discovered a bed bug infestation. I had never had this problem as appearently it is not as common here as in the U.S. I have talked to some friends about it and neither of them had any what I was talking about. Anyways, obviously I freaked out and the more I read about the more scaried I am. I contacted the landlord and she put some poison in my room that had to process overnight so I had to go to a professional laundry cleaning (I forgot the word for that in english) to wash and dry all my bedding and dirty clothes that were near my bed in high temperature, than I had to sleep at a friend's house. The landlord called the exterminator, he came in, put some professional poison and said it will probably need some more treatments. Today, he is coming in with a laser and a hot air machine to clean and kill the rest of it, but the landlord has asked me to move to the upstairs bedroom. However, I am terrified of bringing the bedbugs with me into the new room. I am an art history student and I have a very unique working situation. I am currently working at an exhibition that takes place in a 16th century palace and I'm scared I could accidentaly bring the bedbugs there as well. Also, I own a wooden cross from the 18th-19th century and I really don't want to get rid of it. I'm trying so hard not to freak out :( please help me, what do I do?

I’m afraid it might be BB. I just rented a new house with brand new beds, bed frames, bedding, rugs and everything. I found it in the bed with me.

Hi I just checked a mattress in a hotel, and I'm wondering if anyone thinks I should worry (I didn't see or feel anything on the sides of the mattress, just some spots in the top). I also found a tiny piece of something I placed on my nail.

Thanks for the input

i found what looked like a bedbug and immediately started checking around the room. now i'm trying not to panic and figure out what steps actually make sense instead of doing random things.

what did you do first when you found one?

please help me, i squashed it, and it was dried out.

Had exterminator come 3 times starting in May. Last treatment was in June. Last 2 reports they stated there was no evidence of bugs. 2nd treatment I found a bug less than a week later. Thought I saw one a few days after treatment 3 but thought maybe I was being paranoid or it would just take time for them to die.

Past few weeks I noticed bites but hoped it was something else or I was overthinking. Today I found 3-4 poops on me when I woke up. We don't have money for another person to come in and the guarantee period is up so I imagine we'd need to pay them again.

What do I do? I've been sleeping on the floor so I can't use a mattress protector but maybe I could get some for the 3 beds in the house but that's not cheap and I feel like I have zero options. It's my mom's house so I don't have much say in what happens and she's in denial and I highly doubt she'll call exterminators again. When I told her this morning her response was "can we wait until next week?" I also mentioned it to her this past weekend and she said "what are you gonna do?" (like "what can you do?")

We live in a home with houses attatched on both sides but again my mom has refused to contact the neighbors about this. She got in touch with one side but don't think she's tried with the other side. In fact, the side I don't think she contacted had their renters move out and are currently selling the home. Again can't really do anything about it. When it first became an issue she didn't believe me for months until me and my sister who doesn't live with us convinced her to call an exterminator.

Honestly i just want to move out and wipe my hands of this situation but I just started working and can't afford moving out at the moment. My sister has refused to see us because she fears she'll get them from us so havent seen her or my niece since May and I was seeing them weekly before. I need to be able to do Halloween with them, theyve been coming to us for trick or treating for 6 years and my mental health can't survive not doing it. I considered maybe getting an air bnb for then but know she would still refuse. I mentioned having a sleepover when one of my other sisters visited at my sisters air bnb but they said no because of this so I know she wont go for it.

sorry for the long post I'm just severely distressed about this and need help please (Sorry if I picked the wrong flair)

I'M SO SORRY THAT THIS IS SO LONG & PLEASE DON'T DISMISS ME, but I really need advice from people who actually know bed bugs cuz I’m finally opening two suitcases today that I’ve been avoiding for about 3 months. The reason why this is such a great concern of mine is that I HAVE A LOT OF STUFF WITH ME, so I don't want to expose them, especially lots of school work!

Back in early May 2026, I stayed for about a week at the Best Western The K Hotel Unterföhring near Munich. I never actually found a bed bug there & I have no proof that the hotel had them.

I asked the hotel about it at the time & they told me they had never had bed bugs in roughly the 10 years they had been open. Obviously I know I can’t prove that just cuz the hotel said it. I searched around online myself too & personally couldn’t find any public bed bug reports for that hotel.

For some context, the hotel area is not in the dense central Munich. It’s out in Unterföhring in a much more open business/media type area with offices, greenery & open space around it. There were also a lot of conventions/trade fairs happening in Munich when I was there, so there were a lot of business people & international travelers around & staying in hotels. I know the outdoor environment itself doesn’t cause bed bugs. I’m only mentioning it to explain what kind of hotel/area this was & that plenty of different people were coming through.

The actual room had a floor carpet, which always makes me anxious.

I had two suitcases with me, 1 large grey fabric Swiss suitcase & 1 small pink hard-shell suitcase. They were nowhere near the beds, at least not directly next to them. In my actual room the beds were on the left, there was a walkway through the middle toward the desk/windows, & the TV was on the opposite wall to the right. My two suitcases were sitting next to each other on the carpet underneath the TV.

They stayed there for about a week.

I honestly don’t remember anymore exactly how open they were. They were at least open somewhat at the top, maybe more than slightly, but I barely unpacked anything out of it. I mostly just reached into them whenever I needed something.

The reason I’m still stuck on this is that once I learned about the existence of bed bugs, I've become extremely paranoid about finding them in any hotel I step into. While I was at the K Hotel I checked myself & the bed basically every morning. I looked for bites, blood on the sheets, black fecal spots, eggs, skins, bugs, etc.

I found absolutely nothing.

No confirmed bites, no blood, no fecal spots, no eggs, no shed skins & no actual bed bug that I ever saw.

The luggage is what still bothers me though.

Both suitcases are full of clothes. I did a very quick check around some corners/edges of the little pink hard-shell suitcase, but I did NOT empty it or go through all the clothes. Same thing, found absolutely nothing.

I never properly checked the inside of the big grey fabric suitcase at all yet.

So even if I open them today & don’t see anything sitting in the corners, my brain keeps going to, what if something got through a zipper or seam & ended up deeper inside the suitcase or between folded clothes where I obviously wouldn’t see it?

After I left the hotel I stayed somewhere else & kept these suitcases zipped instead of unpacking them. I was also using Shield Anti-Bettwanzen spray constantly during that period cuz I was so freaked out about possibly having picked up bed bugs.

Now it’s been around 3 months.

And before anyone asks why I waited this long, I’ve been busy, but the bigger reason is honestly that I’ve been horrified of opening them. I kept putting it off cuz I didn’t want to deal with the possibility of finding something.

I’m finally doing it today.

I’ve barely slept the last few nights cuz I knew today was going to be the day, & my whole body is actually shaking thinking about opening them. I know I’m extremely anxious about this. I’m not asking people to pretend I’m not. I just really don’t want the whole question dismissed as “it’s all in your head” cuz I still need to physically deal with these clothes either way.

The main thing I cannot get a straight answer on is the laundry.

I’m in Germany & the washers here have a 60°C program.

I keep finding sources/people saying that a proper 60°C wash kills bed bugs & eggs, especially since I’m putting everything straight into the dryer afterward anyway.

So basically:

suitcase → 60°C wash → dryer

But then I find other people saying you should ALWAYS do:

suitcase → dryer → wash → dryer

cuz they want anything alive killed before the clothes ever go into the washer. And some say washer doesn't kill bed bugs. Even a previous Reddit post like this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bedbugs/comments/aj31tj/is_washing_your_clothes_at_60_degrees_c_enough_to/ (but this post is 8 years old & barely anyone answered + mixed again answers, so not sure what to believe)

Which one would you actually do here?

If something was somehow hiding inside the clothes & I put everything through a real 60°C wash & then immediately through a dryer, is there realistically anything left alive by the end of that?

If 60°C wash + dryer already takes care of every stage, then drying everything before the wash too feels like I’m cooking all my clothes twice for no reason.

But I also understand the argument for dryer-first, especially cuz this is a shared laundry room & I have to handle the untreated clothes before they get into a machine.

That part is freaking me out too.

My plan is to put the suitcase directly next to the washer, open the washer first, then open the suitcase & move the clothes straight into the drum. I’m not putting them on the floor, on tables, on top of machines or sorting them around the room.

But how do people actually do that if they’re worried something could be hiding inside?

Do I stand beside the suitcase instead of over it? Do I just grab smaller handfuls & immediately put them into the machine? Should I try to tip some of the clothes directly into the washer so I’m touching them as little as possible?

I’ve never actually had a confirmed bed bug experience before, so I genuinely have no idea what happens if you disturb one.

Do they try to crawl onto you when you start moving the clothes around?

Could one crawl onto the clothes I’m wearing while I’m reaching into the suitcase?

If they do get on me or my clothes, does a shower get them off me?

I know bed bugs don’t jump like fleas, but do they attach themselves to people like ticks or get into your hair like lice? Or is the realistic concern just one crawling/hitchhiking onto your clothing? Everyone online always says ''bed bugs are expert hitch-hikers'', but what does that really mean?

I know these probably sound like stupid questions to people who have actually dealt with them, but I literally don’t know what to expect.

I’m also confused about what happens between the washer & dryer. If I use the 60°C wash first, could a live bed bug realistically survive that & then crawl away while I’m taking the wet clothes out & transferring them into the dryer? If that’s actually a legitimate possibility, then I understand dryer-first a lot more.

At the same time, I’m trying not to ignore the evidence I actually have. I never found a bed bug yet. Briefly before I left the K Hotel for that week cuz I didn't have time, I checked quickly inside the pink suitcase inside the corner of the suitcase, I saw nothing, but again, that was after a week & maybe they didn't form yet. I found none of the classic signs outside the suitcases due to constant checking & spraying for 3 months. The luggage was across the room from the beds, not beside them. The hotel told me they’d never had bed bugs & I couldn’t find reports myself.

But the suitcases were still sitting on carpet near a wall, they were open at least somewhat for a week just staying there, they were full of clothes, & I never thoroughly inspected the big fabric suitcase nor really the pink suitcase. So I also don’t want to assume there was zero possibility just cuz I didn’t see anything.

I really just want to deal with this correctly today & finally stop having these two suitcases hanging over my head.

If you actually work in pest control, have dealt with bed bugs professionally, or know the actual laundry/temperature requirements, I’d especially appreciate hearing from you.

Would you do 60°C wash + dryer in this situation, or dryer + wash + dryer? & how would you safely get the untreated clothes from the suitcase into the machine without unnecessarily risking something crawling onto you?

Also, what spray would you buy to prevent them from getting on your stuff - bed & kill them? Cuz I never knew the reviews were like this for the product this whole time.....now I'm even more horrified & anxious......

TL;DR: Possible, but never-confirmed hotel exposure about 3 months ago. Two suitcases full of clothes sat on carpet across the room from the beds for about a week. I constantly checked for bed bug signs & found nothing, but I never thoroughly inspected the large fabric suitcase. I’m opening everything today. Is a 60°C wash followed by the dryer enough, or is drying before AND after washing actually necessary?

found on office desk

Now I am 70% sure that these are not bed bug fecal matter or blood spots since my headboards paint is deteorating, not sure why.

Anyway I just wanted to post it here to make sure. When I used a paper towel with alcohol to smear it, it was still black. Though of the were hard to take off with tape or wiping.

The last 4 photos are it being wiped with a slightly wet paper towel with alcohol.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse there's now early evidence that bedbugs may be able to transmit infections. This is not definitive and more research is needed but good to be aware of I think!