My story is the same as most everyone here, but just a little different. Sitting on my fiberglass sailboat one day in August, I went into the forward sleeping area that is my bed for a change of clothes. I keep my clothes in a plastic bin and when I moved the bin near me I saw something small crawling very fast across the comforter-I placed my finger over it and hit it, blood squirted everywhere from the bug, which I couldn't identify at the time, but a huge bell went off in my head.
Nine months before this, I broke up with my boyfriend when his wife showed up one day. I had no idea he was married and threw him out that day. A few days later, his wife is yelling at me that he gave her bed bugs and that I had to have them too. I thought-I don't have bed bugs-no way, I am a very clean person, she is trying to make me mad or whatever, AND the strange bites on my stomach were probably fleas from the dogs. I ignored her and the bites. I IGNORED THE BITES ALL OVER MY BODY for the next few months. I thought I had a yeast infection, or jock itch, or fleas or dry skin.
After discovering the bug and seeing the blood, all I can hear is that woman saying I have bed bugs. I am doing the research on the internet and my bed touches the walls on both sides AND on both sides I see this red film all along the edge. OMG, OMG, I pull the pillow cover off of the pillow and both sides are almost red. OMG, OMG, OMG, I have bed bugs on a 30' foot boat AND have had them for 9 months! I bag everything that is cloth and take it to the car. I vacuum, clean, laundry, I have always used Diamaceous Earth for the fleas and sprinkle it everywhere. This took days.
A week or so goes by and I see more bugs and I went and bought a steamer and steamed the entire boat. Being a fiberglass boat, I think the bugs can get into the fiberglass to hide. I also vacuum, clean and wash everything again.
Another week passes and I see more bugs and I buy the neem oil and vacuum, clean, steam, powder and launder everything again. This process is exhausting and expensive. After every treatment, I start inspecting daily to see if I can find any live bugs, when I do it is heartbreaking. I have scraped every corner, covered the mattress in plastic, powder on the outside of plastic, mattress cover over plastic, neem oil on cover. I can barely breathe because I have sprinkled so much powder everywhere and the neem oil smell is overwelming. It smells like a men's urinal. I have had the dogs treated, and retreated for fleas/bugs each time I find another bug.
I have been doing this for almost 3 months. I can not afford professional pest control. The treatment I did at the beginning of October went well-it was the whole works, I was done with this problem and ready to move on with my life. I inspected every day and after 10 days I had a friend come visit. I had warned her about the bugs when I first discovered them, thinking I had possibly given them to her, and she told me that she had them for years in New York and wasn't worried about them. She said she just gave up and when she moved back to California, she didn't have them anymore. I told my friend I thought I had them beat, told her everything I had done and she wasn't worried.
While she was here she kept reporting that she didn't have any bites and I didn't find anything. She was here for 4 days and 3 days after she left, in my sitting area of the boat, (I have never found anything in this area, but have treated it anyway with powder) I see a bed bug crawling across the top of the dog house. Inside the dog house is powder and the dogs-what is this bug doing here? I freak out and do the entire process again. A week goes by and I can not even find a dead bug, let alone a living one. Then in the sitting area, a blanket has replaced the dog bed, (dog bed in a bag), and my dog is under the blanket and he peaks his head out and I noticed a little black thing on the blanket-ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I smoosh it and blood everywhere. So, during my nervous breakdown I think, my friends bags sat in the sitting area the whole time she was here, did she leave behind some bugs? I have put the powder all around that area, mostly for fleas, and sprayed the curtains and area around it. I keep thinking, why do I only find 1 bug. I really search when I am looking for them and the last two times, with the single bug found each time, was during the day, while activity is going on all around the area. I am wondering are these bugs on their last legs and the reason I found them? Or, my biggest fear, is that I have never found evidence of a 9 month infestation on my boat and that they are living between the fiberglass everywhere? I don't react to the bites anymore, so that doesn't help me. I have looked in every corner/area I can to find the main source and really haven't seen it.
I am so tired of this process and about ready to sell the boat. My question is do you think seeing only 1 bug, (yes twice, but 2 weeks apart) each time, is that I am almost done with my problem or that I haven't found the "nest"? I do search, sometimes 3 times a day, with a flash light, and magnifying glass and still nothing. No eggs, no blood drops, no fecal matter, nothing. Any response to my post would be helpful. I've read almost every page on this site and have learned a lot, but would like your professional opinion.