Hi all, I am writing because I am paranoid and I don’t know what to do.
I was at my parents house yesterday and after spending the night, I showered and put on clothes that I had brought from home and sat on their sofa for a moment before leaving the house. While sitting there, I noticed a very very small whitish bug crawling on my leg. I instinctively crushed it and it turned completely red (but did not spill blood) Then instead of keeping it (my mistake) I crushed it over the toilet and there was a burst of what looked like blood.
Now I haven’t had any symptoms of bed bugs and I am usually relatively vigilant because it is a big fear of mine. I have no bites, haven’t traveled in over 2 weeks, keep my bed at my apartment in an encasing with interceptors, have never seen any. I checked the mattress I had slept on at my parents house with no signs of infestation. I checked the sofa I was siting on, again no signs (but I could have checked harder).
My parents just started letting my sister’s cat (who usually lives in the basement) upstairs, and my niece comes over often after playing deep in the woods, and additionally they have an old house with mouse problems and lots of nature trying to invade through the old unsealed windows. So generally I never think anything of bugs there. I had to get to an appointment though so I didn’t change right away and got in my car, went to the appointment, then came back and did some recon.
Because this reminded me of what I think could be a bed bug nymph, due to the blood, when I got back I stripped, washed my clothes on hot, dried them on hot, and dried all of my belongings I had brought with me on hot before leaving their house. And i didn’t touch anything on my way out.
My biggest fear is that I had brought the nymph with me from my apartment after doing laundry (drying on hot, but maybe it touched an infested space) in our shared laundry room, or that my backpack where I stored my clothes was harboring a bed bug somehow picked up on recent travels (I do typically keep it in the bathroom and bag up my hotel room clothes to launder on hit upon my return). My second biggest fear is that my parents have an infestation and it’s just very hard to detect.
Should I be freaking out like I am? I still have my stuff that I had at their house bagged up and I’m planning on laundering everything on hot tonight. I am fearful for my car, though, as I sat in it after noticing that bug and not changing my clothes.
Should I schedule an inspection at their house? At my apartment? In my car? Or am I freaking out over a rogue mite as there are no other signs, sightings, or symptoms and this thing got on me in broad daylight on a couch.
I just want to know what practical next steps are. Thanks!