Found bed bugs in a new apartment before moving in
Finding a suspected bed bug and nightly bites immediately after moving into a new apartment leaves residents completely overwhelmed, especially when there was no prior history of an infestation. This panic stops people from knowing how to handle the situation or feeling like they can safely live in their new home.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 43.2× more often in r/Pestcontrol than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Found bed bugs in a new apartment before moving in
- 1Searching online or asking AI for identificationDid this help you?
- 2Notifying the landlordDid this help you?
- 3Inspecting around the bedDid this help you?
- 4Having management contact pest control to inspect and treat the unit as a precautionDid this help you?
- 5Inspecting other vacant units and checking behind refrigerators for signs of pestsDid this help you?
- 6Washed beddings and pillowsDid this help you?
- 7Sprayed the mattress with eucalyptus oil sprayDid this help you?
- 8Staying another night while trying to avoid the bugs before moving out the next morningDid this help you?
- 9Relocating to an alternative comparable property at an additional out-of-pocket expenseDid this help you?
- 10Contacting customer support and the host for refunds or compensationDid this help you?
- 11Identifying the insect via community inputDid this help you?
- 12Inspecting the building environment for the sourceDid this help you?
- 13Having someone do a quick sprayDid this help you?
- 14Scheduling a more thorough inspectionDid this help you?
- 15Considering breaking the lease and moving outDid this help you?
- 16posting pictures online for identificationDid this help you?
- 17taking close-up photos to inspect featuresDid this help you?
- 18Call a professional in to do an inspection.Did this help you?
- 19Get some sticky bedbug traps, some traps that go under the feet of your bed and a cheap steam cleaner.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Booked a 5-night stay (5th-10th September) in an apt in Palermo for our group (we’re from the UK) via Agoda. Checked in at 3pm, everything seemed fine. At 7pm we found this message, sent by the host at 4pm - an hour after check-in”source ↗
“Agoda support demanded photo evidence of bedbugs despite the host's own written admission, then offered $100 site credit, which dropped to $100 if you send photos, then $50.”source ↗
“We did eventually get a full refund for the stay (they initially offered a refund minus the cleaning fee lol!) but had to pay an extra £330 to relocate (25 mins across a completely foreign city over two trips whilst holding heavy bags in 30° sun) to a comparable property with fewer beds.”source ↗
“This bug was crawling around the spine of my book. This is the best picture I could take it was extremely small.”source ↗
“Found this in my NYC apartment bathroom - is this a roach? If not, does anyone have an ID on it and whether I should be concerned??”source ↗
“Is this a bedbug?”source ↗
“I was doing the last walk through & noticed a live (seems to be German roach) in my tub. Immediately I freaked out.”source ↗
“I paid everything in full but haven’t moved in yet.”source ↗
“Too bad it got away before I could get it :/”source ↗
“I moved to a new room (in a shared apartment) 26 days ago.”source ↗
“Then two days ago they flared up and I noticed they were a lot of bites and I stared getting paranoid that I may have bed bugs.”source ↗
“Please help somehow cause I'm a student on the other side of the world and I don't know what to do...”source ↗
“Shit is this a definitive sign that I have roaches? I haven’t seen any yet but I just moved in so deathly scared that I’m in for them soon”source ↗
“I just moved to a new apartment in Brooklyn, NY and we have a roach problem.”source ↗
“I'm totally beside myself and unsure of what to do.”source ↗
“I'm about ready to break my lease and move out.”source ↗
“There are so many horror stories on here about needing to throw out electronics, furniture, etc. and I'm absolutely terrified. Please help!!”source ↗
“Idek where to search, what to do 😭 this is my first time living alone I want to cry”source ↗
“I just moved into a new apartment in nyc, it’s an older building but decently clean, there have never been any reports of bed bugs or at least that’s what I found from my hours of searching.”source ↗
“I was laying in bed tonight when I felt a tickle on my legs. I looked down and there was a bed bug ( at least I think, and chat gpt thinks) on my leg.”source ↗
“Not only that, but I have been getting a couple bites every night on my legs.”source ↗
“I’ve never had bed bugs in my entire life and I’m a full time student and work part time so I just don’t know what to do about this.”source ↗
“I’m genuinely freaking out and I feel like I can’t live here.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 4Still finding live bed bugs after professional treatment
- 2Found roach bait and droppings in new apartment
- 2Accidentally brought a roach home, is my house infested now?
- 9Why am I finding cockroaches in a clean house?
- 56How to identify tiny unknown bugs found inside the house
- 3Why won't the mice in my townhome go away?