In Reply to: They were outside in June posted by Fiona on Sunday, 16. August 2009 at 14:32 Bali Time:
What I have read about them.
Go on you tube and see what a problem they are around the world.
They hate the sun and it does kill them but bed bugs once in a room infest in more places than just the bed!They get into all furniture.
the only way to kill them is to have the room fumigated but its not safe to use the room for 24 hours,the other method used a lot in America is ultra high temperature pumped into the infested rooms.
Some small hotels and guest houses cannot afford to have the rooms empty so just kill them on the beds and mattresses using the sun.
Most people are not allergic to them and in many cases the bites just look like small mozzie or midgie bites.
Looking back now i think we have had this problem before on some of the Islands in Thailand,never stayed as long in one place as in Bali so not so severe and always put it down to allergic reaction to mozzies or sand flies.
The welt's and bite marks can come up some days after the initial bitings:) So if you change rooms you cannot be sure where they came from unless you find them on the bed or under the mattress
They dont look the best! The dead ones look like fleas but the live ones look like small spiders,the abdomen is quite enlarged after they have fed!
Small dot like blood stains on pillows and sheets are a good tell tale sign of bugs. The sheets may have come from another room with bugs after washing and a lot of people self included mistake them for squashed mozzies.
The smell cannot be mistaken though, its a slight mildew/urine smell that you cannot get rid of with air freshener,again we mistook this for a drain problem or just mould smell.
Looks like the problem is spreading in Bali as i have read of a few cases in the Barong as well.