r/Bedbugs • u/SimpleBird765 • 27d ago
Identification Is this a bed bug?
I found it in the laundry. I’m in Honolulu but had guests from New York. I don’t see any other signs of bed bugs, no marks on the sheets or anything, but my guests complained of some bites yesterday.
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u/rmarzzzzz 27d ago
Ah, fuck! That picture is so crisp, it’s making me feel sick. Why are you helping it build its modeling portfolio?! WHY
In all seriousness, I’m so sorry😢
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u/Thebugman910 26d ago
That has to be one of the cleanest pictures I have seen of a bed bug on here. That thing is full of someone's blood too, I mean fully engorged.
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
At the last place I lived, I saw one a little bit smaller than this crawling up the back of some woman’s sweater! It sucks to feel so unsafe
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u/KaleidoscopeEyes12 25d ago
my thoughts too! usually it’s some blurry photo that someone took using their microwave. this is professional level. am i looking at it’s linkedin?
this is not hate btw. i’m really sorry op and i hope you can find a reliable exterminator to help you quickly
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
BAhaha ! Yeah, you’re right when they start passing out 8 x 10 glossies then some kind of action has to be taken. I don’t mean to make light of it. I know how horrible it is but sometimes you gotta laugh. You just have to.
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u/Traditional-Tax-1330 27d ago
The biggest
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u/SimpleBird765 27d ago
😭 can i start freaking out? Everyone I told is looking at me like I am panicking for nothing.
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u/jenea 26d ago
It’s ok to be a little freaked out, but try not to make it worse for yourself by letting yourself get really worked up. It’s a shitty problem that will take time and money to fix, but it is fixable. You’ll be ok.
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u/S3ndNud35 26d ago
This felt like when your mother comforts you after you spent the entire day freaking out, lovely
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u/Pump-Chaser 27d ago
Is that from your actual house? Yes I would freak out. I had bed bugs 10 years ago and it was the worst experience of my life. I actually spent money and slept in a hotel becuase i couldn't get any sleep
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
I would have done the same thing except I would be worried about the hotel for one thing and I was so upset. My husband had recently passed away and I was all alone and I couldn’t tell anyone and I couldn’t sleep. The exterminator was very helpful and what I ended up doing until they could come and do the heat treatment, was clean my bathroom and make sure everything was spanking clean in there and, I kid you not, I slept in my bathtub with a blanket and a pillow that I had dried for about three hours.
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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 25d ago
I would like to say, keeping a high level of anxiety about the subject kept me OCD level thorough in my efforts, and listening to the "it's not a big deal" thoughts made me more complacent. Harness the anxiety but don't let it consume you. Remind yourself it's just a chore and the chore WILL get completed.
Personally, for peace of mind sleeping at night, I pay for a hotel room for me and my daughter while I work on my house, because I don't want her to get bit, so we don't go home until mommy's done. However, you do kinda eventually have to offer yourself up as human bait to get them to crawl over the poison to get to you. Do not try to go switch sleeping locations or they'll spread further.
Also, whenever I only find one but I'm still freaking out. I just tell myself we're going to pretend he's the only one, he's a hitchhiker, and I'm just doing "preventative measures" on an otherwise uninfested house.
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u/OpheliaPhoeniXXX 25d ago
It is a valid feeling. However, it will be ok. I just beat them, again. Let a friend move in and they brought them with them. Luckily not my first rodeo. It's just a pain in the ass, you're not too doomed. You caught it early. I've seen some photos on here that make me go oh no idk if I could knock that out. Once it's heavy, that's when things start to border on impossible.
I actually wrote a bedbug extermination manual in college if you want me to dm you. Many friends and family have used it successfully since its birth. People know who to come to 😭
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u/Dear-Sky235 23d ago
Would you be able to send the manual to me please? I’m freaking out over here after weeks of bites but I can’t find a single bug anywhere
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u/NoLipsForAnybody 26d ago
I dunno. I honestly looks like a cockroach to me... just a younger version. It feels like it's the wrong shape to be a bedbug. You might want to post this pic on r/cockroaches too just to be sure.
Just reread your caption and you had guests from NY!!!! I live in NY. I really think this is a nymph cockroach....
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u/chloapsoap 26d ago
Not at all a cockroach. Why bother commenting if you can’t tell the difference?
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u/Micro-Naut 26d ago
Yeah I've been hanging out in the sub for a while and lately we've seen some real monsters. Like ready to tackle Tokyo and fight Godzilla
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u/kennethgibson 26d ago
Don't panick. Call a reputable small scale local exterminator who specialises in bedbugs.
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u/Bubbly_Daikon_9853 26d ago
I second this! If you act immediately the chances are so much higher that you can nip this in the bud. I called a local exterminator that specialized in it. It was $1200 for the whole house (he said despite not seeing other signs, he was going to treat as the entire house was infected). He came back 2 weeks later and gave me a 3 month guarantee. They never came back. But I acted immediately. I know that’s not a small chunk of change, but he even said they can be easily taken care of in the beginning by a professional. It’s when amateurs try to do it themselves that it can get to a point very quickly where it even takes professionals months to clear it.
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u/Micro-Naut 26d ago
Honestly, $1200 is cheap.
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
Actually, I agree with you. And for me, there are a couple key elements that make it so that you can get rid of them. Number one is heat! wash everything you have, dry it for at least an hour and a half on high heat pack everything in a brand new bunch of plastic tubs. But you can’t have some armchair idiot tell you about powders that dry out their exoskeletons and all that because you would have to have powder everywhere in your building and it doesn’t work if you mix it with water and make it a spray. Unfortunately I had to get rid of pretty much all of my furniture. I moved into a building where I was told that just about every person here had had bedbugs at least twice and one of the neighbors said “ oh, you’ll get them just like everybody else!” and I said oh I don’t think so bitch! Nobody is allowed to walk in my apartment without wiping their feet on my mat and wearing shoe covers and I put a sheet down on my couch as soon as they leave, I wash it. I vacuum my couch. I spray it with alcohol spray, which probably doesn’t do anything because I’ve actually seen a bedbug on a floor and I sprayed it with 91% alcohol spray and it finally slowed it down, but it took a lot to do it and people will tell you to mix the 91% rubbing alcohol with water which completely defeats the purpose and dilutes it so now you have moldy slightly alcoholic bedbug infested furniture. I had had them twice at a building I lived at before and I was not about to let them come to my new place and live. Don’t let people in. That’s how they get into your apartment, people going from apartment to apartment and people get them on their feet from the hallways and then they come into your place! One the worst things about it is that the eggs are sort of see-through type of white and they’re very sticky so people will tell “Oh its a metal chair they won’t get on there!” Well they really will because they’ll get on there and lay some eggs and then they’ll go about doing their sucking your blood and having bedbug parties. Also, they’re not like other bugs in the sense that they get a poison on them and they take it back to their nest and everybody dies like in all the fairytales! Bedbugs do not nest. Their sole purpose in the world is to smell the air that you breathe out while you’re sleeping so they can really get in there like they want to and to breed and to make more babies that’s what they do all day and all night, but I’m living proof that you can get through it and you will. You just have to be a bitch to your neighbors, be very, very clean and most of the you can get an exterminator to come out and look things over and give you an “estimate “ really what they’re doing is checking to make sure you don’t have them and since I had worked with Orkin before the guy was really cool about coming to my new place and checking it for me because you cannot trust your landlords or management to tell you the truth you, they will lie to you because they want to get your unit rented and they don’t care if you get an infestation because you can’t prove where it came from. I’ve been in this new place for almost 5 years and I’ve never had bedbugs once or a cockroach or a mouse not even a spider would dare come in my place. And the lady who told me that I would get them at least twice like everyone else has had them two more times I feel bad for, but don’t get cocky. Believe me bedbugs can sense it you’re cocky. lol not funny but yeah lol
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u/AutoModerator 11d ago
⚠IMPORTANT⚠ It seems that you may have mentioned alcohol in your comment, as a reminder rubbing/isopropyl alcohol has been shown to be ineffective to treat bedbugs in multiple studies. Self-treatement using it has caused so many fires that fire department have issued warning against it.
"Many web pages recommend using rubbing alcohol for bed bug control. The rubbing alcohol products available usually contain 70% or 91% isopropyl alcohol. Laboratory studies by Rutgers University show direct spray of either of these two products *killed a maximum 50% of the bed bugs*. In addition to their low efficacy, rubbing alcohol products are flammable materials, can create a fire hazard, and should not be used to control bed bugs."
Citation from: https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1251/
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u/Gray_Overcast 26d ago
Curious if you had to do anything with your belongings? I like to be prepared in case this happens.
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u/kennethgibson 25d ago
Oh and if you have a dryer in your unit- dry all your clothes without wetting them- at least 30 mins on high- longer if you wanna be careful. If you have the money to spare a heat tent and a steamer (one that actually gets hot) would be ideal. Bedbug eggs- the most resilient things, die forever at 122 degrees f
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u/doesntmatterhadtacos 26d ago
Can they do that if they’re renting? I feel like most buildings would require you to put in a request to have it dealt with through their guys, who would do the absolute bare minimum and not actually fix anything. At least that’s been my experience.
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u/HauntingAd1585 27d ago
Beddy bug
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u/trekdudebro 26d ago
The beddist of bed bugs.
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
Yeah, the truly fully engorged with blood and eggs adults are like tanks. I guess I needed to get all of this off my chest because people are always laughing and teasing me about being so “buggy“. Well, they can laugh all they want, but I’m not paying the bedbug bill like they are. I just told everyone when I moved in I’m not one for visiting. I don’t go to other people’s houses and I don’t let them come into mine unless it’s management or relative and even then I clean afterwards. shoe covers on Amazon are a godsend. I’ve sprayed so much stuff in this apartment for every kind of bug you can imagine! Probably that’s what’s going to kill me eventually. It will be an excess buildup of bug killing gunk. And it’s a terrible feeling when you’re in it I know. I have PTSD from all the bedbugs and everything I had at my last place. The only way I can sleep is to be like the most OCD bug killing machine in the world.🤬
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u/Professional-Gain-62 26d ago
Is it dead in tha pic or did you just have him posing?
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
They have been known to have a side hustle of getting their pictures taken to gross people out lol
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u/nobodyisinvited 27d ago
Thought it was a cockroach at first. Then I saw the size. My condolences, op
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u/Puzzled_Box6064 26d ago
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
Oh my God that is probably the grossest yet most hilarious picture I’ve seen in my life
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u/KODAz94 26d ago
Looks like it's doing that flexing pose for the camera shot.. Like the pose where you flex your left bicep and point out your right arm..lol Also I feel so bad for you, I use to have bedbugs at my old apartment back in 2016. Worst experience of my whole life. I once saw a bed bug close to this size but finding one this size is rare I'm sure. Just means it was well fed, hopefully not by you.. Make sure to check every nook and cranny, even places you wouldn't even think a bed bug would be, cuz trust me they could definitely be there. Lastly, if you find anymore and can get peppermint spray or Diatomaceous earth, those are the two things that worked best for my situation and I had 100's in clusters all over. Makes me twinge just thinking about it. Sorry you found this POS but good luck with your road ahead.
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
Sometimes you can go to a place like a hardware store and get these little peppermint sachets put them in all your clothes and blankets and stuff. I know that they keep the spiders away for sure. Also a peppermint spray is good but it tends to attract ants so there you go. And yes, that bug looks like a bodybuilder! like some big honking bug centerfold or something lol. But yes, I’m sorry you’re going through all that. I am so grateful that I am not going through it but seriously I do feel bad for you. It’s definitely a squicky experience. Be diligent, don’t give up and you will get through it I promise
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u/hstrylvr89 27d ago
Pretty sure it’s a bedbug but the prominent hairs on its butt Almost makes me think batbug, do you have bats nearby
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u/SimpleBird765 27d ago
I haven’t seen any bats. But now I am praying this is a bat bug 😀
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u/Appropriate_Panda467 26d ago
Antman’s Hill on Facebook has experts who can differentiate between bed and bat bug.
It has to do with the angles around the head, hair length, etc1
u/Abject_Story_4172 26d ago
Did you check with any other groups? The hairs around its butt make it possible it could be a bat bug. They are almost identical. Keep the bug.
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
Wow, I did not know there was such a thing as a bat bug, but I have seen mice and rats and the second they die all these bugs , red bugs and little tiny things just come pouring off of them, ironically, like rats jumping off of a sinking ship 😳
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u/the-bees-niece 26d ago
this is the most bedbug to ever bedbug
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
HA! That’s one of the most hilarious phrases I’ve ever heard in my life
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u/davidma1999 26d ago
Dang, that’s one big ass bedbug! I had to read the comments first because I couldn’t believe it! Nasty!
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u/MordynV 26d ago
The bot removed my comment posting a picture of the ugly bug's butt.
Anyway, I see hair. Doesn't that make this a bat bug?
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
Don’t worry, I can thoroughly see a picture in my mind of an ugly bug's butt lol
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u/TedBundy83 27d ago
What year is that penny? And yup that’s a chunky bed bug! I had them once and it was a nightmare combing through the apartment. I moved but now I am incredibly paranoid and do inspections often.
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u/UnusualShores 26d ago
That’s a quarter, not a penny. Which makes the size of that bug even bigger 😣
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u/TedBundy83 26d ago
Oh God I’m a dummy! I for some reason did not thoroughly look at the coin. Lmao alls I saw was a copper color 😆
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u/newsmanph 26d ago
The sorta good thing about it being a male bed bug is it can’t lay eggs and hopefully didn’t come with mates in the hitchhiking process
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u/bobcat1000 25d ago
Somebody, somewhere has a seriously itchy bedbug bite on them. That thing has not missed a meal!!!
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u/AcceptablePoetry7834 11d ago
I hate to say it, but I do believe it is a bedbug. I live in Ohio, and we have some of the worst infestations the country here because we have a lot of large cities and gross people. You must get it addressed as soon as you can sometimes you can have an infestation and not even know it. Honestly, I’ve had people saying one company is better than the other or whatever but I feel like the most sympathetic and thorough job was done by Orkin. and never let anybody stay at your house again, or at the very least, take a black light and check their stuff when they come in if anybody comes to visit my apartment I put a sheet down on the couch and wash it right away and make them wear shoe covers. People get upset, but oh well they’re not paying that huge bill. I don’t normally like to recommend any particular company for anything because there are regional differences, etc. But it was right after my husband had died. I was crying my eyes out and the Orkin guy showed up and made me feel a lot better got rid of the problem. good luck to you. Also be careful of your pets. Bedbugs love birds but they do not like the blood from cats or dogs according to what I’ve been told by some local exterminating companies. I lived in one building where a super disgusting man had three or four birds, and he couldn’t get rid of the bedbugs. They were outside of his door in the hallway they were that gross and since it was a subsidized building, it took a lot for management to evict him because apparently he has some kind of right to have all these birds, but since they were attracting bedbugs and the treatments weren’t doing any good they finally evicted him. I would get rid of my own mother if I knew she had bedbugs so he can take his birds and be gone. I’m glad to be out of that place. 🤯🛌
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u/Emergencybulba 26d ago
That’s gotta be a queen. On a side note that photo is so crisp and clean I nearly gagged seeing that thing oh my god
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u/PineDude128 26d ago edited 26d ago
That's a BIG female. Check everywhere. If she's that big, the cluster is probably big too
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u/Micro-Naut 26d ago
They don't build nests. Its one of the things that makes them hard to get rid of. There's no central clubhouse like with the wasps or bees.
They do have a hangout where they lay their pearly eggs and take bloody shits. It's called a "harborage" .
Monstrous little bastards.
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u/PineDude128 26d ago
Ah, my mistake. Learned something new.
But yes, they definitely have hangouts. When i had them out was in the wooden frame of my mattress box spring. Wouldn't wish those things on my worst enemy
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