What a bummer! (boy that line dates me) But you're right - we should all be more aware and cautious in our purchases. Thanks for the reminder. I just offered and gave away 3 large floor pillows and a quilt on Freecycle - I know they were clean but the recipient takes a risk. It's a shame.

I bought something once that I knew was infested with bedbugs....it did go into my car, but then stayed on the drive and got scrubbed and hosed and sunned.
Another time I brought home cockroaches in cardboard boxes. It was my habit to buy a "box of stuff" at an auction and bring the whole box into the house to sort at my leisure, and I didn't know what baby cockroaches look like! So they grew into lots of big ones before I took action!
Yep...that's why I like glass.....now here for them to hide.

Bedbugs aren't contagious--they don't live on people. There are plenty of other critters that do, though...

Bedbugs may not live on people, but they sure live where people live and hide in the things where people have been....and need to bite a person to breed.
So...I suppose not "contageous" like the flu, but certainly able to be stread by people to other people through things.

Oh karin!! I feel for you...DD somehow picked up the merest touch of a case of them in a one night stay at a particular hotel outside Reno (there for a sports competition). We changed hotels the second day for a completely different reason, but she suddenly had all these little red bites all over her that *itched*. I washed everything she had worn and did useless things to her suitcase, kind of prayed/rested in a state of denial that they hadn't gotten into our suitcases, and waited to see if she kept developing them. She didn't, thank *goodness*...but if we'd stayed one night longer I know we'd be in the midst of a whole-house debugging...which makes me tired just thinking about it. I read it even includes unscrewing *light switch covers*! Poor you...and thanks for posting about it. I'm so sorry.

Absolutely, Linda--I just meant it's OK to go out in public! :)

(Provided you don't tell the public you have bedbugs, of course.)

It's a good warning about something we really don't think about very often--thank you for sharing your misfortune, Karin. Good luck with the extermination!

karin, on the lighter side: there's an episode of 30 Rock in which Alec Baldwin gets bedbugs and it eventually drives him to hire a mime as the show's new member...really hilarous--maybe misery would appreciate company? Available online at hulu maybe? or nbc? For your viewing commiseration :)

Many thanks for the commiseration! Yes, it does get down to brass tacks like light switch covers. You notice things about your house you never thought of.

The pest control officer was here this morning; I didn't want spray yet but we needed "bed bug coaching." He was actually quite encouraging, suggesting that the measures we have taken so far may be enough, and in fact raised the lovely possibility that we might have been so lucky as to have brought home just males bugs, which will not be able to reproduce. We are tracking bites, and so far things are looking good.

He also helped understand the issue of transmission, saying that they don't tend to crawl onto live people but rather onto stationary objects. It is the fact that I always travel with stuff that makes me feel like I might be putting other people (or their places) at risk. I've parked my precious shopping baskets for a couple of weeks, for instance, so have to incur the disapproval of the environmentally conscious as I cheerfully accept bags in the grocery story. And we have curtailed our visiting activity just to be on the safe side - I need a clean conscience, and I don't want anyone to be uncomfortable when we visit. If nothing else, it's about our shoes, which stand just outside the bedrooms in our odd house.

Oh, and the PCO also looked at the book that prompted me to post here... he wasn't so sure that it was a likely source, and upon hearing the story of my mother-in-law's place, suggested that as the more likely source after all (whew!). My husband and kids visited her over Christmas and put their coats on her bed. There is a history of her house guests getting bitten, so it is likely she's gotten them from a neighbouring apartment (she's a little confused so it's hard to establish). But that is still small comfort, as he did emphasize that used furniture is by far the most likely source, and I buy a lot of that. (I've also read that they like cardboard, so Linda, maybe that box could have included more than one kind of baby!)

So again, whether our fight is over already or not, I will be collecting with a careful eye from now on. He says the most common signs are the droppings and the moults (shed skin) of the intermediate stages as they grow. Eggs are harder to see. So for avid collectors, of which I know there are a few here like me, it is probably prudent to look online for pictures to be sure you know what the bugs look like. Also know that the adults can hibernate for up to 18 months if a meal is not available.

The PCO did provide one other bit of cheering information for collectors, namely that he emphasized the degree to which bed bugs are programmed to seek out humans. So you can assess risk a bit by the history of an item if you know where it's been in a house.

If our bites stop now that we've isolated the beds and encased the mattresses, maybe I'll have time to watch 30 Rock :-)

Thanks again, and shop safe out there!...

Just reading this thread made me ITCH! LOL Can you *see* bedbugs or are they like mites, not seen with the human eye? Just curious, as I go to thrift stores all the time, and most of the time, bring *something* home w/me. I just hope i've never gotten a 'freebie'. ;o)

The adults are good sized, bigger than a standard tick, but the immature stages start off pretty small.