The Bed Bug Disaster

My husband goes on business trips quite often. Usually, I am happy for him and I have no problems with his trips until last month.

He came back late in the night, straight from the airport. I was waiting for him, already wearing my pyjamas. When he entered our bedroom, he was so tired he barely managed to leave the suitcase by the bed and take a quick shower. Then he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. We didn't have time to unpack the luggage and this was our mistake.

On the next day, we didn't notice anything, not even the slightest sign of bed bugs. But when we woke up on the morning after that, I noticed a red rash on my leg. At first, I had no idea what caused it and I thought it was some kind of an allergy reaction. Then my husband noticed he had the same rash on his shoulder and we realised there was something wrong.

We stood up and inspected the bed sheets. I was terrified when I saw the little brown faecal spots on the sheets and mattress. My husband tried to calm me down, but all I was thinking about was bed bugs crawling in my bed.

I ran into the bathroom, not that it helped me somehow but at least I was able to think while taking a shower: 'OK, my home is infested by bed bugs, but how did that happen?' After a while I realised that perhaps my husband brought the bed bugs with his luggage. I've heard that hotels are one of the top places which get infested by these nasty insects.

I searched on the Internet for a solution to our problem and found several useful tips. We put all bed sheets and my husband's clothes in the washing machine and set a high temperature program. I read that bed bugs can't resist high temperature. We left the suitcase on a sunny spot in our backyard and hoped the sun will do its work.

During the time we did these procedures, my daughter was still sleeping. When she woke up I inspected her body and bed for signs of bed bugs. I was so relieved to see she was fine and her bed was clean. Apparently, the bed bugs didn't have enough time to crawl to her room.

We managed to deal with the infestation on our own, mainly because we caught it very soon. There was no need to call an exterminator. I am thankful for all helpful people who share their experience and knowledge online. We couldn't have managed this without the tips I found. This is the reason why I also decided to collect some information about bed bugs and their treatment and share it with anyone with such a problem.

You can find the presentation I prepared here: http://slid.es/emmabrown/a-short-guide-to-bed-bugs

Feel free to share it with your friends. Let's make our homes bed bug free!