Yes. Tiny, Evil -- And in My Bed

It took me a while to figure out what had gone so wrong in our bedroom.

I had had a bad chest infection and spent more time at home than usual trying to get better. Although that seemed to be clearing up, big red welts on my hands, arms and shoulders had begun to spread to my stomach and the side of my face.

My husband had developed some itchy rash, too, after several stops on the presidential campaign trail and a quick trip to Panama for work. But he was back on the road and his rash was clearing up.

For me, things got worse the more time I spent time in bed.

The doctor insisted my spreading welts, a couple of which spawned big bruises, had nothing to do with my waning chest infection. They were bites, he said, and my symptoms were an allergic reaction.

Bites? From being in bed? As in bedbugs in squalid Dickensian flophouses? Chez nous, in our lovingly tended suburban Arlington home? You gotta be kidding.

Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Just start throwing things away.

"Most people just flip out when they realize they have bedbugs," said Richard Cooper, co-author of "Bed Bug Handbook: The Complete Guide to Bed Bugs and Their Control," published in December. "They can't emotionally deal with keeping an infested mattress."

Yep. Got me there, sir. Within minutes of realizing why I was getting worse at home while my husband was getting better out of town, I single-handedly dragged our king-size mattress and box spring out onto the patio (risking serious damage to my middle-aged back), along with our duvet and all of our pillows. And I threw the entire pile away.

Turns out this reaction is not the recommended one, although it worked in my case. I probably caught my infestation early, the experts tell me, meaning it hadn't yet spread beyond the confines of my bed.

I caught it early because I was lucky enough to be one of the people who show an allergic reaction to the bites. Michael Potter, an entomologist at the University of Kentucky and a leading expert on bedbugs, said that between 20 and 50 percent of people don't, meaning the problem can go undetected for a long period of time.

"If an infestation goes undetected, the bedbugs are much more entrenched into the bed structure and even adjoining structures," Cooper said. "Then it gets very, very difficult to get rid of them."

My patio is also close to where my bed was, limiting the possibility that I spread any bugs around the carpets and upholstery while dragging my mattress out. (I was also lucky in that we were already thinking of replacing our 10-year-old mattress, although we hadn't budgeted for an entire change of bedding so soon after the Christmas holidays.) Once I'd thrown everything away, I took a couple of steps the experts do recommend: I steam-cleaned my bedroom carpet twice, went on a serious anti-clutter and cleaning purge, and called a local exterminating company to do a visual inspection of my bedroom.

"Commercial steamers are an excellent tool," Cooper said. "Heat is the single easiest way to destroy bedbugs."

Other remedies the experts recommend:

¿ Buy mattress and box spring encasements specifically designed for bedbugs. (These can be particularly useful for salvaging a newer mattress or protecting newly acquired bedding after an infestation.) The new encasements -- which aren't the sweaty, vinyl encasements of old -- trap any bugs or eggs inside, where they die.

¿ Hot-launder and spin dry any clothing or bedding that you suspect is infested. "The dryer is your best friend," said Jay Nixon of American Pest Management in Takoma Park. "Bedbugs never survive a heat cycle in a dryer."

¿ Remove any items or clutter from under or around the bed to eliminate additional hiding places. Go for a "scorched-earth policy," said Dini Miller, an associate professor of entomology at Virginia Tech University.

¿ Call a pest-control company that has experience with bedbugs. The exterminators may do only a visual inspection, as in my case, or they may suggest a series of steam or vacuum treatments. Single chemical treatments are not recommended for bedbugs, as they are largely ineffective,experts say.

I narrowed the source of my bedbugs to a couple of likely culprits: my husband's recent travels or the fact I had brought my favorite pillow with me to New York, where we stayed in a moderately priced hotel for a couple of nights.

Turns out, our attempt to save money in Manhattan wasn't what did us in, though.

"It can happen in any hotel," said Potter of the University of Kentucky. "They're not like roaches and flies that feed on filth. You can have a very, very fine hotel, with a guest who comes in with bedbugs in their stuff, and you're off to the races."

Experts describe bedbugs as excellent hitchhikers. They need a host to travel on, something like your suitcase.

A few tips to avoid bringing them back to your house:

¿ Don't bring an old mattress, box spring, sofa or similar secondhand items into your home.

¿ When on a trip, don't place your suitcase on the hotel bed or on the floor. When returning from a trip, don't put your suitcase on or near your bed. Unpack away from your bed and store your suitcase away from your bedroom. For a soft hold-all, a quick spin in the dryer is good.

¿ When traveling, pull back the bedding and inspect the mattress seams and around the headboard of the bed. If you see tiny black specks -- the dried, digested blood of a bedbugs' previous victim -- ask for another room, or change hotels.

¿ Don't bring your favorite pillow with you when you travel, unless you want to end up throwing it away. And mourning it forever more. ¿

Comments:deaned@washpost.com.