I started noticing what I thought were bites on my upper arm. Two days later, I had "bites" on my neck and upper back. The next day I had similar patterned "bites" on my other arm. It suddenly occurred to me that my husband had returned from a holiday with his mother only one week previous and that perhaps he had brought bed bugs home with him. Of course, the inevitable panic ensued.
I called one company and spoke to a receptionist who did not ask very many questions and said they could send someone out to check. Because I was panicking and because they advertise bed bug sniffing dogs, I asked her to send the dog, because I hadn't seen any evidence, other than the hives on my body and I knew we had to be in the early stages and hoped that if there were any bed bugs, the dog would surely sniff them out. The pest control company gave me very little information as to what I should do to prepare for the visit and I was feeling a little lost. Anyway, the dog came the next day and did not find anything. The handler showed me that he was able to detect bed bugs because she had a small vial of dead specimens that she used to keep reminding him what he was looking for and he would react when he smelled the vial, so that made me think he knew what he was doing. She did find evidence behind my headboard, however, of carpet beetles. I never knew that was what that tiny bug was. She told me to vaccum the headboard and the mattress and that was it. In the meantime, I had called Mohammed at Pest Solution Services, to be a second opinion in case bed bugs were found. After she found the carpet beetles I called Mohammed and told him that I didn't need his services because the case was closed. He was very courteous about it.
Well, the next morning my husband woke up with three bites on his stomach. I freaked out and called Mohammed again. He knew that I would!
He came a few hours later on a Saturday. He told us to just leave our bedding and our bedroom exactly the way we had gotten out of bed that morning. When he came, he donned a disposable "hazmat" suit and booties and wore a mask. That reassured me that he took our situation seriously. I remembered that the lady with the dog had not done so...
He examined the headboard, but of course I had already vacuumed it. He examined the mattress, but that too had been vacuumed. We lifted the mattress off and he examined the underside of the bedspring. He said it was "heavily infested" with carpet beetles. I have never been so ashamed of my housekeeping skills. Apparently, carpet beetles live off of organic matter found in dust bunnies, fabric, wool, etc. Now I knew why so many of my clothes had tiny holes. I thought they were moth holes.
Mohammed spent two hours giving us detailed instructions on how to treat the matter without chemicals. Just basic good housekeeping practices. Then he went out to his truck and got us some supplies such as mattress encasements for our mattress and the bed spring. We vacuumed and he helped us wipe down our bedframe and helped us put the encasements on. He was diligent about making sure everything fit properly. He made us feel as though he was doing this for his own home. He honestly cared.
He is a university graduate of Entomology and he was very thorough in explaining the life cycle and behaviour of carpet beetles. He explained that we hadn't actually been bitten by the beetles because they do not feed on humans, but rather we had reacted to the tiny, microscopic hairs on the beetles which I did not know was "a thing".
I cannot recommend this exceptional company enough. Oh, and Mohammed answers the phone himself, so you don't have to deal with an uncaring receptionist or phone service. He asked me so many questions on the phone, that I knew immediately he knew what he was doing. He is a true professional. If you are worried about any infestation in your home, call this company first!!!
