Let's see:

The feeling of something small biting you while in bed between 2 & 4am Itchy red spots all over your body in the morning Black spots in the creases of your bedding and beneath the pillows = BedBugs.

There - I've just saved everyone $25.

(There were supposed to have been plusses up there /\/\ between "am" & "Itchy" and "morning" & "Black"...)

what if you are detoxing bepsf it might get confusing :)

There is an epidemic in Toronto,, and the majority of artists lofts have them. Our neighbor moved out, and they went on the march and came to my place. It was a pure nightmare.

They dropped down from the ceiling. Believe me, they come out all hours of the day.

The giveaway that you are dealing with bedbugs is the bites. They often leave horrible, burning welts and are in groups of three: breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Good luck getting rid of them, too. Nothing works better than DDT, and it's banned.

This post is slightly misleading with regard to Cornell's service. It neglects to point out that Klass has retired as of this month (see the next-to-last paragraph of the article), and the future of Cornell's diagnostic services is unknown because of budget concerns. I wouldn't send anything to Cornell for identification in the near future.

flamingo8 yikes sorry to hear that.

This brings up a good question before you rent or buy to find out WTF is going on around you. I had a situation when I bought a very pristine condo in LA and the people in the next unit were doing some construction shortly after I moved in and had an infestation of cockroaches that came in from the walls and plumbing. My place was spotless and do not even keep a coffee cup in the sink so it was shocking.

I know someone that got mold spores in their place because the unit above them was full of mold.

Not sure how you can prevent these things but but I guess it pays to be aware.

"Good luck getting rid of them, too. Nothing works better than DDT, and it's banned."

AS I posted on anther thread - There is another way: Heat Treatment.

The professionals come in and heat your apartment and everything in it to 130 degrees - it cooks the bugs, larvae and eggs till they're dead.

No Chemicals.
No throwing furnishings or other belongings away.

http://www.thermapure.com/bedbugs.php

The reason they're coming back in large numbers is (partly) because the insecticides that we use in homes these days are aimed primarily at roaches and are, at the same time, made to be less environmentally bad than DDT. Problem is, we need something keeps the roaches AND the bedbugs away.

When we moved back from Toronto, it was like the end of the movie Poltergeist. Except it was the sofa that we threw out, instead of the TV. Actually, we wrapped it in plastic and put it in my in-laws' garage. But we were terrified they'd follow us.

We did everything, though. Leaving our belongings in subzero weather. Spray. Walnut wash. Tea tree oil. We had to caulk up the ceiling, because it was wood planking.

It wasn't as easy as heat treatment, which probably works for some people. But our whole building was infested, and once they have found you, they will not be deterred. Except by DDT, which is like bug napalm. I'm sorry, but it worked.

LoriSF--that was funny. Speaking from personal experience, hmmmm?

But I do agree with bepsf on this one. If you wake up with bug bites on your ankles then you've probably got bedbugs. And why bother sending in the little critters to have them fingerprinted... (if you are so lucky to spot one) Just wash those sheets!!

In NYC, M&M Pest Control does free insect ID:

http://www.mandmpestcontrol.com/freeinsect.php

They are bedbug specialists, and athough you may think a pest control company might make you want to believe you have bedbugs, according to their Google reviews they have dissuaded a few people who thought they had bedbugs but actually didn't.

There is a quiet epidemic of bedbugs returning in this country. Just do a web search. Current thoughts as to why are ease of international travel and the sneaky habits of the little creatures. You do not need a diagnostic service to determine if you have bedbugs; that is, if you could ever catch one. There is tons of info on the internet as to how to recognize them. They are extremely difficult to get rid of.

Extremely reclusive and cunning they only come out in the wee hours and head for a heat source. They first inject a numbing fluid into their host before feeding so you won't feel the bite and wake up.

Keep clothes off the floor and try to isolate which rooms are infested. Most flea killers work well but you need to be thorough. It's best to remove all fabric coverings and wash in hot water; wash, launder, or toss your pillows too. All pajamas or clothes on the floor or in a floor contact laundry basket too. While you have the infestation, don't carry fabric from the infected room to other rooms. Get the liquid spray and squirt all furniture legs then use a flea bomb. Close off the affected room, plug under the door with a towel so the insecticide doesn't seep out. Sleep on the couch for a couple of nights while the room is cooking and airing out.

I brought a few "visitors" back with me from a trip to the Amazon and was able to rid myself by doing a *lot* of research and the solution I mention and being thorough.

Living in NYC, everyone is rightly concerned about bedbugs. So much so, that my friend, who bought an old armoire at an upstate garage sale, was concerned when she found itchy red marks on her arms the days after she brought it home. Turns out she had hives - probably triggered from bedbug fear! I'm not at all saying she is being overly paranoid, just a funny (and luckily banal) twist on the whole thing...

Had the misfortune of staying at a bedbug infested hotel room while on business in Florida. At first I wasn't sure if my bite marks were caused by bed bugs or an allergy to the detergent they used for the sheets so I did some research online and came across this site. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/bedbugs/

The article recommended examining the sheets so I did that and lo and behold, I find a speciment that looked exactly like the bed bug picture on the site. I freaked out, caught the bug and marched straight to front desk.

They tend to bite along blood vessels, hence the series of bites that form a line. This can also be caused by you disturbing them while they feed (like when you move around when you sleep) so they stop, walk forward and bite again. They are especially active before dawn. Black spottings on your sheets is a good indication of bed bugs since these are their excrements.

I got them while traveling in Europe and they jumped in my suitcase on the way back home. They multiplied and ended up attacking my roommate so I had to spend $350 for the bug man to order special chemicals to kill 'em. We left the house for the weekend.. and they were gone.

And they were so horrible I had to get a cortisone shot, lived off Benadryl, and cream.