Our winter vacation was something the whole family had been looking forward to for months – two whole weeks of skiing in Colorado! The kids, Elaine, Todd and Stevie as well as John and I were all having so much fun that we never really noticed the bites initially. On our last day at the resort, Todd showed me a whole row of red dots on his skin that he said itched horribly, but we were packing and getting ready to leave so I’m afraid I didn’t pay the attention I should have.

Of course we bought some souvenirs while we were there: some cute animals on skis and some hats with the resort name on them. Unfortunately, we never knew that we were bringing home some very unwanted and disgusting souvenirs without knowing it.

Everything settled down like always after we came home, the kids went back to school and John and I returned to work. However, after a couple of weeks, the mysterious bites started again. At first we had no idea what was causing all these bites on us, not only did they look ugly, but they itched like crazy. I also noticed some brownish spots on the sheets and pillows that I couldn’t explain.

We thought mosquitoes might be biting us, or maybe fleas. John came home one day with bug spray and we sprayed around the beds, thinking that we’d solved the problem. The next morning, I swear we had more bites than ever – whatever was biting us seemed to regard the spray as a garnish.

Finally, I took Stevie to the doctor; as he had developed a terrible rash on his arm. When the doctor told me he had bed bug bites, I was speechless. We’d never had anything like this in the house, and I keep a pretty tight ship. Our doctor asked if we’d been away from home and I told him about our vacation, and it was then that I remembered the bites we’d gotten at the resort. The doctor said we’d probably brought some stowaways home with us, and that they’d established themselves in safe nooks and crannies in the house

He gave me some cream for Stevie and anyone else who needed it and told me to get in touch with our local health department. I called as soon as I got home with Stevie and they had plenty of information for me. The first thing I found out was that typical ‘bug sprays’ will do nothing against bed bugs, and that they are now immune from most of the pesticides used against them. The folks at the department told me where to look for cast off bed bug skins and now I understood what those brown spots on the bedding were.

I followed the advice of the health department people and called some exterminators. I asked a lot of questions and finally settled on a pest control company that would come and heat up our home enough to kill off the bed bugs. It seems that high heat is the only thing that really kills these little vampires, and there aren’t any chemicals left behind, either. Since the house was treated, we haven’t been bitten again, but you can be sure that we’ll be very careful the next time we go on vacation.

 

Story Source: By Natty.