Here's my story:
Sometime around April 8th, I discovered a few bites on my right arm. I didn't think about the possibility of bedbugs at the time, but thinking back, I remember there were three in a row. After that, nothing.
On April 15th, I find a bedbug crawling on my boyfriend's sweatshirt - he had been lounging on the couch in the living room. I didn't think it was a bedbug at first and we just killed it but he made an offhand remark about bedbugs and suddenly I remember the bites from April 8th and I started looking online for pictures. We fetched the bug out of the trash and it was a match. Panic (from me only, not my calm, level-headed bf) ensued.
The next day I called a bedbug dog inspection team to come and sniff the apt and dog alerted in the bottom corner of my bed and the dresser in the bedroom. The living room was cleared. I then started to call a bunch of PCO's and got a whole range of quotes (from 600 dollars to 2500 dollars, depending on treatment). I was getting really confused about what to do because they all said the other treatments were ineffective - I really didn't want to have to deal with that - I just wanted a solution!
Before I decided on anything, the apartment building had their exterminator come and look - he look at the bed area and didn't find anything but didn't examine anything else - just was double-checking the area the dog alerted to. Said I should get treated because I did find the one bedbug, which he ID'd.
Throughout this process I started laundering and drying all my clothes and bagging them, vacuuming, etc. We dismantled the furniture in the bedroom and examined all the screwholes and crevices and found no signs of bedbugs - no shells, eggs, fecal matter, dead bugs, live bugs - nothing. We encased the mattress and pillows in Protect-a-Bed covers and put the Climb-Ups under the bed posts, and moved the bed away from the wall and all surrounding nightstands. I even got a PackTite and have been heating my books, bags, clothes, the wood slats from the bed..... The weird thing is, though, throughout this time, I hadn't been getting any more bites, and I have pretty strong reaction to bug bites.
I decided to hold off on getting a PCO to come in and treat because I thought maybe it was a loner bug - it was definitely an adult, so I thought it would have had to feed multiple times if it had entered my apartment as a nymph or egg, but I had only had those bites once and my bf didn't have any (he may not react though). 19 days later I thought we were clear - no signs of bugs, no bites, but then last night, we found another bedbug crawling out from the sofa. We examined the crevices and cracks around the sofa and found no signs of bugs again, but I'm really concerned. After reading these forums I realize that dogs are not completely accurate and I should have looked for a team that did a physical inspection with the alerts, but I'd really hope that if there was an infestation in the couch the dog would have detected something!
I just am not sure what step I should take next.... We're not getting bitten but we've found two live bugs now, and no other signs of bugs - cases, poop, eggs, etc. Should I just have the exterminator come in now? Should I wait for other signs? Should we just try to do some other treatment ourselves first? any help or advice would be appreciated - this has been an expensive emotional roller coaster!