If my worst year ever culminates in me having bedbugs, I am going to eat my own arm.
September 3, 2011 10:21 PM Subscribe
A bedbug? In a bathtub? No, right? Right? Tell me things and calm me down.
Oh god.
I just moved to a new apartment (again). Everything is great. Except I just found a tiny bedbug-looking-but-maybe-not-a-bedbug-bug in the bathtub right before I took a shower. Please tell me about bugs that look kind of like bedbugs. Please tell me all about how bedbugs don't hang out in bathtubs. Or, if they do, might as well tell me that instead.
My first inclination was that this one was somewhat... leggier... than a bedbug, but then I looked at every bedbug picture that the internet offers and bedbugs are a little leggier than I thought they were before I studied them with such intense woe.
I also think it may have been a tad rounder than a bedbug. It didn't strike me as particularly round, but every bedbug description notes how bedbugs are flat, and this bug was not flat enough to where I would have described it as such.
My bug was brown. It may have had some striping that was quite bedbuggy. It is the color, the size, and the striping that are making me very worried. I cannot show you a picture because I smushed it.
[In my favor, my building is not on the bedbug registry, and has had no complaints registered to the city for bedbugs. Landlords in my city are now legally required to tell prospective tenants if there have been bedbug problems, and my landlord said there were none. I have also met other people in this building who say it is a great building and that they love it. People don't say that about bedbug buildings. Right?]
Oh god.
I just moved to a new apartment (again). Everything is great. Except I just found a tiny bedbug-looking-but-maybe-not-a-bedbug-bug in the bathtub right before I took a shower. Please tell me about bugs that look kind of like bedbugs. Please tell me all about how bedbugs don't hang out in bathtubs. Or, if they do, might as well tell me that instead.
My first inclination was that this one was somewhat... leggier... than a bedbug, but then I looked at every bedbug picture that the internet offers and bedbugs are a little leggier than I thought they were before I studied them with such intense woe.
I also think it may have been a tad rounder than a bedbug. It didn't strike me as particularly round, but every bedbug description notes how bedbugs are flat, and this bug was not flat enough to where I would have described it as such.
My bug was brown. It may have had some striping that was quite bedbuggy. It is the color, the size, and the striping that are making me very worried. I cannot show you a picture because I smushed it.
[In my favor, my building is not on the bedbug registry, and has had no complaints registered to the city for bedbugs. Landlords in my city are now legally required to tell prospective tenants if there have been bedbug problems, and my landlord said there were none. I have also met other people in this building who say it is a great building and that they love it. People don't say that about bedbug buildings. Right?]
Bedbugs are flat discs unless they ate recently, in which case they are puffier discs.
If you're worried, checking the seams and headboard on your bed for little dark spots could be a good idea (teensy black flecks = bedbug poop). You can also buy a passive monitor, which will show you if bedbugs are in your house by attracting them to the cardboard and then letting you see their poop-on-cardboard, or make an active DIY bedbug trap, which will let you see if you have bedbugs by capturing the bugs themselves.
That said, one unidentified bug in the bathtub shouldn't set off the alarm. Especially if your bed is clean and nobody's been getting weird bites. BED BUGS DO NOT PREFER THE BATHTUB. And NYC is full of cockroaches and carpet beetles too :P
posted by hungrytiger at 11:36 PM on September 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
If you're worried, checking the seams and headboard on your bed for little dark spots could be a good idea (teensy black flecks = bedbug poop). You can also buy a passive monitor, which will show you if bedbugs are in your house by attracting them to the cardboard and then letting you see their poop-on-cardboard, or make an active DIY bedbug trap, which will let you see if you have bedbugs by capturing the bugs themselves.
That said, one unidentified bug in the bathtub shouldn't set off the alarm. Especially if your bed is clean and nobody's been getting weird bites. BED BUGS DO NOT PREFER THE BATHTUB. And NYC is full of cockroaches and carpet beetles too :P
posted by hungrytiger at 11:36 PM on September 3, 2011 [1 favorite]
If it was in the shower, it could have been a single bug that climbed up the drain. Thousand leggers do this, as do many other species. If it's the only one you noticed, you're probably fine.
posted by DoubleLune at 11:54 PM on September 3, 2011
posted by DoubleLune at 11:54 PM on September 3, 2011
Meet the bedbug's doppleganger! Spider beetle. It's rounder, somewhat more visible legs...and commonly mistaken for a bedbug. We found a couple here in Crown Heights and Freaked Out About Possible Bedbugs for a day until cooler heads (ie: exterminator) prevailed. Hopefully it was that!
posted by Juicy Avenger at 12:03 AM on September 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Juicy Avenger at 12:03 AM on September 4, 2011 [2 favorites]
Without a photo I can't tell for sure, but speaking as someone who has battled bedbugs before (and successfully!) that doens't sound like one to me. They were never what I would describe as leggy.
You say that you smushed it. That in particular makes me think that this wasn't a bedbug. In my experience it is quite tricky to smush a bedbug. They're so flat and so hard that usually simple pressure, like stomping on them, doesn't kill them. You'd need to either (ok, this is icky) press them between two hard surfaces, like maybe your fingernails, or you'd need to smush them by rolling them back and forth between your fingers. Yeah, I killed a lot of those little bastards.
If you're in a bedbuggy city, it wouldn't hurt your peace of mind to start taking some basic precautions now though, even if there aren't any bugs in your place. Bedbug mattress encasements are a good start, as well as keeping your floor clear of bedclothes and discarded clothing. I had good luck using diatomaceous earth to dust the legs of my bed and fill in cracks in my bedframe, floor, and elsewhere.
posted by raygan at 5:42 AM on September 4, 2011
You say that you smushed it. That in particular makes me think that this wasn't a bedbug. In my experience it is quite tricky to smush a bedbug. They're so flat and so hard that usually simple pressure, like stomping on them, doesn't kill them. You'd need to either (ok, this is icky) press them between two hard surfaces, like maybe your fingernails, or you'd need to smush them by rolling them back and forth between your fingers. Yeah, I killed a lot of those little bastards.
If you're in a bedbuggy city, it wouldn't hurt your peace of mind to start taking some basic precautions now though, even if there aren't any bugs in your place. Bedbug mattress encasements are a good start, as well as keeping your floor clear of bedclothes and discarded clothing. I had good luck using diatomaceous earth to dust the legs of my bed and fill in cracks in my bedframe, floor, and elsewhere.
posted by raygan at 5:42 AM on September 4, 2011
You say that you smushed it. That in particular makes me think that this wasn't a bedbug. In my experience it is quite tricky to smush a bedbug. They're so flat and so hard that usually simple pressure, like stomping on them, doesn't kill them. You'd need to either (ok, this is icky) press them between two hard surfaces, like maybe your fingernails, or you'd need to smush them by rolling them back and forth between your fingers. Yeah, I killed a lot of those little bastards.
Yes, this. Bedbugs are boss level insect-squishing , even harder than mature cockroaches.
posted by threeants at 7:35 AM on September 4, 2011
Yes, this. Bedbugs are boss level insect-squishing , even harder than mature cockroaches.
posted by threeants at 7:35 AM on September 4, 2011
Baby cockroach is the first thing that came to my mind. Last time I was in NYC one of those little bastards did indeed crawl right up out of the bathtub drain.
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:08 AM on September 4, 2011
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:08 AM on September 4, 2011
Response by poster: Uh oh. You guys. So, when I squished it--this is how it happened. I got a wad of toilet paper, squished, and picked up. And it was still wiggling and alive. So I had to squish more.
I looked up baby cockroaches and they looked a little less round and a little more antannae-ey. Spider beetle looked black? My bug was brown.
posted by millipede at 9:39 AM on September 4, 2011
I looked up baby cockroaches and they looked a little less round and a little more antannae-ey. Spider beetle looked black? My bug was brown.
posted by millipede at 9:39 AM on September 4, 2011
If you see other suspicious bugs, try to capture them alive. It'll help you identify them, AND, may the god of bugs forbid, but you would need an identifiable bagged/jarred bed bug if you were going to ask your landlord/pest control agent to treat your house. They don't like to do the expensive poison routine without hard proof.
Also, look at the carpet beetle. It's brown. And kind of like a leggy bed bug, no? Don't chew off your arm!
posted by hungrytiger at 11:51 AM on September 4, 2011
Also, look at the carpet beetle. It's brown. And kind of like a leggy bed bug, no? Don't chew off your arm!
posted by hungrytiger at 11:51 AM on September 4, 2011
One way to test for bedbugs is to wrap masking tape, sticky side out, around the legs of your bed. Check it every couple of days and if you have bed bugs, eventually one of the little devils will get caught on the glue.
That said, I really don't think you should worry about a single bug found in your bathtub. Bed bugs like wood and, well beds. They have no reason to hang out in the bathtub.
posted by dchrssyr at 12:39 PM on September 4, 2011
That said, I really don't think you should worry about a single bug found in your bathtub. Bed bugs like wood and, well beds. They have no reason to hang out in the bathtub.
posted by dchrssyr at 12:39 PM on September 4, 2011
most likely a baby roach. Is your bathtub made of things bed bugs can climb (fabric, wood, paper)? I really hope not :)
posted by atetrachordofthree at 10:00 AM on September 5, 2011
posted by atetrachordofthree at 10:00 AM on September 5, 2011
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posted by embrangled at 10:39 PM on September 3, 2011 [2 favorites]