Unsavoury question - bedbugs

[wordyone]

How do you tell if you have bedbugs, where do they hide because I have never seen any insects, and how do you get rid of them? And if I have them how did I get them? Or do I have some other insect bothering me?
I wake up most mornings with one or maybe two tiny red insect bites on my face of recent weeks. They disappear pretty quickly if I put some Savlon cream or concealer on them.
It makes me feel a bit dirty so I would like to know what is happening and what to do.
Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

[boxtops]

Bedbugs are quite big, I think you'd notice if you had them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug

Do you have pets, are you sure it's not fleas?

I must admit that in the midge season, I often manage to get bitten in bed but I have no idea how they get in - I had a mozzie bite on my arm only a couple of weeks ago.

[Buenchico]

This should help:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGYbkjKnoag&feature=related

[mrs_overall]

If you scroll right down this article there is a photo of a man with bites on his face - see if they compare to yours

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug

[mrs_overall]

snap boxy

[boxtops]

Ergh mrs O, that's quite a rash!

[mrs_overall]

it's true you can see them, but they live hidden away and only come out at night when you are asleep

[mrs_overall]

...and if you have them and don't want to use pesticides.....cockroaches like to eat them.
I hate cockroaches more than any other insect

[bellazella]

Mrs O, wasps for me

[Vicasso]

I had some contract work in London for a number of months a few years ago, returning home at the weekends. I always stopped in the same hotel and always requested the same room as, because I tended to work away, I found it easier to settle into and sleep for the first couple of nights in familiar surroundings. One morning, several weeks into the contract, I had a number of small, itchy insect bites. I also found something resembling a totally rust red ladybird (dead!) under my pillow in a small squish of blood (my own!). I pointed this out to the hotel and they changed my room whilst a pest controller was called in. The hotel said that a French couple had been in the room over the weekend and that the bug, or bugs, given that I had only squished the one, must have arrived in their luggage. I was told that bed bugs are nothing to do with cleanliness, and I believed this as the hotel was always spotless, but, like ants, just arrive and set up home in environments which suit their survival requirements.

[rowanwitch]

try lifting the mattress and checking the nooks and crannies of the bed frame especially if there are little ledges underneat, also the seam lines of the mattress

[atalanta]

If you sprinkle the sheets and pillow with Keatings Powder, and it stops the bites, they were bed bugs. If it doesn't, they weren't.
Keatings Powder is stocked by old-fashioned chemist's shops

[cathfromsaron]

unlikely to be bed bugs, so why not vacuum your matress both sides, disinfect the frame and buy new pillows and see?

[wordyone]

Thank you everyone for your answers. I don't seem to be able to rely to anyone individually, either that or I cannot find the way to do so.
BOXTOPS - no pets so it's not that. I did wonder about a mosquito bite. They could get in through a ventilation thingy in my window frame. The bites do not itch and the sites I've now looked at say bedbug bites itch and I know from past experience that mosquito bites itch so maybe it's neither of these.
BUENCHICO - looked at the video clip, useful and I will give it a try.
CATHSFROMARON - your suggestions also sound like good ideas so I will give that a try too.