CC::

Hi I have gotten one bite about twice a week on a leg or on my side. I have looked for bedbugs but not found any. The bite itches sometimes, but not very much and there is no redness, it looks like a mosquito and usually goes away in 2 days. Could there be a bedbug in my room?

Tiffany::

My friend just found out she has bed bugs and has had them at least 2 months. She is on a very tight budget and although she is getting her tax return very soon, she refuses to pay for professional treatment. Her plan is to spray alcohol on the beds regularly, sprinkle DE around the house and in between the mattresses and box springs, wash and dry all her clothes and store them in plastic bins in her backyard until it’s time to move and wen her lease expires May 31st, she plans to leave most of her possessions behind. My question is, how likely it is that this will work? Thanks

Aleks::

I write because I am wondering what a bite looks like. I woke up one day with an itchy bump by my ankle. It was tiny and didn’t itch too much but as it’s winter there’s no way it could be a mosquito. It itched less than a mosquito bite actually.

Now it’s been a 2 days and my skin is back to normal except that there are 3 tiny lines where the itchy spot once was.

I have very sensitive skin so I wondered if I had cut myself shaving and irritated it somehow but thought I should write to be sure. I’ve attached a photo of the 3 vertical lines. They’re minuscule and right beside each other. I checked my mattress and bedding for signs of anything suspicious and found nothing but thought I’d write in anyway because the mere thought gives me the heebie jeebies and if there is any chance it’s bed bugs I will get a pro in here ASAP.

Many thanks,

Aleks

Erin::

So, last weekend (1/7/11) I slept at a friends house where they previously dealt with bed bugs sometime time last year (beginning of summer I think). While I was over, there was a bug crawling up my blanket and I freaked out. My friend came over and pulled it off of me, squishing it, and didn’t really comment on it after that.

She continued to bug me if we could go upstairs and when we finally did, she relented into telling me that that was a bed bug that had been on my blanket and that she had found a few on her and her chair and wanted to come upstairs to her room where she was sure there weren’t any bed bugs. Needless to say, as soon as I got home, I stripped down at the door and threw my pillowcase and clothes into the wash and then dried them. They’ve actually been in the laundry room even until now just because I’ve been so lazy to go and retrieve them.

Then, yesterday (1/15/11), I woke up with maybe 10 bites on my back, one on each arm, and a few on the backs of my legs. When I discovered these, I freaked out and quickly set to washing all of my laundry and even taking my clean clothes and putting them in the dryer for extra cycles. Then I washed my sheets (didn’t see any sort of bugs at all when I was messing around with my mattress then) and decided to vacuum my entire room. I lifted my mattress up (still seeing no bugs) and my box spring and vacuumed everything else I could think of. I also put on one of those expensive covers on my bed.

After taking a shower, I slept in a different bed last night and continued cleaning today, but I feel as though I’m still itchy and that there are more bites appearing on me ( a few more on my back, one on my sand, and a group of them on my knee).

I’m driving myself insane, I absolutely hate bugs. Is there anything else I can do??? :(

To steve and other readers,

bed bugs can bite through clothing they are nasty nasty little critters with two sharp little beaks. one beak injects the anesthetic and the other sucks your blood. they are literally little vampires. gah! i have had them for i don’t know even how long anymore. I moved to a small town just outside of Paris to a student residence and the house was infested. I looked everywhere for them and never found them. I continued to get bites for my entire 5 month stay. i did the vacuuming thing and treated all my clothing and that of my ex-boyfriend in hot water and the dryer. I now know that that was not enough without hiring a professional to exterminate them.

When I came back to Toronto, (we are third worst in the world right now for bed bugs), I was very careful, I changed at the airport in to fresh clothes my family brought me, garbage bagged all my stuff, and was dropped straight to a laundromat. I washed and dried all my clothes in hot water and air. I then quarantined a bag of dry clean only stuff. At first there didn’t seem to be any lingering signs of these nasty critters, but after three months I decided to bring one of the quarantined jackets i had in the car to the apartment i live in. I figured that having been in a super hot car all summer that should have been enough to kill whatever was on the jacket three months prior. Wrong. By the way these things can live for up to 18 months without food, and extreme cold will only kill them if they are kept constantly below 0 degrees Celsius for at least 2 weeks. So I brought one hitchhiker into the apartment. I then took a 3 day trip to New York city and sat on a 12 hour bus ride with a bus that was infested. I discovered this after getting off the bus and being covered head to toe in bites. I returned home with my suitcase and one week later lo and behold, woke up eaten head to toe. I called in an exterminator. They came to spray. They did practically nothing and charged 300 bucks. They were in and out in 20 minutes. They repeated this 7 days later. And guess what. I continued to get bitten.

I then made a very desperate call to PCO Orkin or whatever they are called, and they instructed me to pack up everything in my apartment. Clothes, books, purses, nik naks everything. things that were NOT clothes, i had to leave in untied bags and boxes and place them in the centre of the room. Clothes all had to be placed in the dryer for at least an hour at an intense heat. Dry clean only included. The dry heat doesn’t really ruin anything as long as your clothes aren’t wet when you throw them in. apparently the dryer cycle is enough to kill them. Then that stuff went straight into tightly sealed garbage bags which were placed in the basement storage.

When they came to treat it took them five hours the first time. They vacuumed, steam cleaned, and sprayed pesticides everywhere. In addition I was told I could move out for a little while if I wanted because the pesticides would take care of everything. They came back 15 days later, and carefully sprayed everywhere again. I then moved in 6 days later. This company also comes with a three month guarantee, for the upfront price ($750) they will continue to come and spray as much as needed to eradicate your problem within a three month period. PCO was last here Dec 15. things were good for a while but as of this morning, Jan 13, i woke up with bites, same as before.

possible things that could have happened:
a) even after caulking every freaking hole in my apartment and investing in expensive mattress covers, they managed to hide in the walls and find their way back out again.
b) my couch, which is impossible to get down into the stuffing, continues to support the infestation
c) after Christmas, new years, and just being on holiday, I have managed to bring the critters back from public transportation, the movies, and friends’ houses.

what is frightening, and part of the saddest thing about living in an overly infested city, is that all three of the above could both individually and collectively be the reason for me waking up this morning with bites.

also in a side note, when i lived in Paris with my ex, he never showed signs of a single bite. some people just don’t react. the reacting thing really sucks but at the same time you should consider yourself lucky, because these things multiply at a frightening rate, each bug can lay up to 5 eggs A DAY. at least you know the problem is there so you can fix it. also it is impossible to treat the infestation with at home remedies. you can most certainly help but it cannot be done entirely alone. ALSO IF YOU HAVE SMALL CHILDREN, BED BUGS BITES CAN CAUSE BABIES TO BECOME ANEMIC. So if they are getting bitten take them to your family doctor and make sure they are okay. you can double check this fact elsewhere but it is sadly true.

anyways the exterminator is coming by tomorrow to look at my apartment and see what he can find, but there have been minimal to no signs of these things and yet they continue to bite. we are going to keep spraying but i am feeling super helpless at this point…not to mention itchy beyond belief.

i wish they would just make a super vaccine that you could take that would
a) take away the itching and
b) kill the things that eat you…..:)
that would be oh so nice. but until then i think this problem is going to continue getting worse.

best of luck to everyone and know that you are not alone.

L

Sandra::

Will someone please tell me if these bites look like bed bugs? They do NOT itch. My husband and I looked everywhere on our bed and didn’t find any signs of bedbugs. My mattress is encased with an allergen cover. For the past 3 years every winter I get a cluster of bug bites somewhere on my body. It’s really weird. I have seen two dermatologists and the most they can do is biopsy it and confirm it’s a bug bite. I don’t know what to do or where to turn for answers. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Jim::

Thank you John G!

John G.::

Queeny and Abz, I think you are getting bit by bed bugs. Abz, it just looks like your reaction to there saliva is more sever then mosts.
Queeny, sounds to me like you got bit as well. They often bite the face and return to a pillow. They can hide on the underside of your pillow case. I have woken up to seeing a small bug crawling on my pillow case right after it bit my girlfriend next to me. I recently got bit in the face like you and I am starting to steam the bed again. You have to get them quick. Don’t let it become an infestation or it is game over!

Abz::

I was lying on bed yesterday, and all of a sudden I started itching like mad on my back. Felt a few bumps, and then noticed these on my back.

I have no idea how they happened, only realised that I spent the night sleeping on a couch in the living room cuz they itched like crazy. I cant see any insects crawling about, and im not allergic to anything. This is so frustrating.

Bed Bug Girl::

Hi Sherry,

Correct, bed bugs don’t tend to bite in the day and prefer night. Have you gone through the bed bug checklist to make sure there are none hiding in places you might not have looked? Have you been bitten like this before? This is a LOT of bites for not having been bitten before. Have you stayed anywhere else in the last few days?

Thanks for the pictures!

As I am sitting in my apartment writing this, I feel like I am being bitten. I haven’t stayed in any hotels or anything. I checked all my furniture & bedding and found nothing. I got out of the shower yesterday with some bites on my chest. Then today went out for a while, came home, stripped down to shower and had bites on my shoulder, under my breast, back and side. Take a look at the pictures below!

After my shower I sat down on the couch and within less than 35 minutes, had bites on my neck. My understanding is that bed bugs don’t bite in the light. Any thoughts?

Bed Bug Girl::

Hi John – Hey, do me a favor will you and resend those pictures. I didn’t get them…

Send them to badbedbugs@gmail.com

Thanks!

Wondering::

Hello John G.,

Today they are performing the extermination. When my boyfriend and I pulled the carpet tape off the base boards we found tons and tons of worms. I believe these are the larvae of carpet beetles. We found no other kind of bugs on the tape.

Would carpet beetles leave black specks on my sheets? It seems that after we taped up the baseboards, moved the bed away from the wall, and placed tape around the bed there were no more black specs.

Also, when we took the cups off the legs of the bed frame we found no bugs nor did we find any on the tape on the bed frame. If it was bed bugs wouldn’t I have come across at least one by now?

Also, could my bites turn into scabs from itching if they were “bed bug bites” or scabies? I can’t stress enough how relieved I will be if its not bed bugs.

This is all very frustrating. Thank you so much for all of your advice.

Ps.

Something I have forgot to include is that after I expected bed bugs I started wearing T-shirts to bed instead of sleeveless shirts. I still continued to get marks on my back and on my arms. I haven’t gotten any bites on my legs ever. Wouldn’t bed bugs feed on exposed skin before they resorted to biting skin covered by clothing?

Thanks a million!

-Wondering

John G.::

Wondering, I would like to answer your questions.

The specks that you are finding on your bed cannot be from scabies because scabies are not visible to naked eye, unlike Bed Bugs. Obviously, their feces cannot be larger then their own body. It is likely from bed bugs.

Yes, I would say 30 bites on your body suggests that they are at home somewhere in your room. The 30 bites suggests to me you are being bitten while sleeping on your bed and not while sitting on your couch or chair, unless you sleep on those items, which I would not recommend you be doing at this time.

Just leave the electronics as they are unless you get instructions from the professional. As far as not finding a bug yet I would suggest you consider your box spring. I found they were camping out there at first and then migrated to my mattress later on. The first ones I found were inside the tufts and on the edge of the box spring screen located on the bottom. I found tiny clear eggs and a few bugs near them. The eggs are so small it is truly amazing. You will need a magnifying glass for sure. I had to use one.

Later I started finding some along the seems and on the underside of the mattress. The bugs are mostly active between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Try to catch one then. Inspect your seems very well.

mike p::

I don’t know what to do. I live in apartment and they say I have them. I do have little bites on legs I think. But now I cant go over to any of my friends houses scared I might bring them to them. This bed bug infestation really upsets me! How did they get here?

John G.::

Conan and Wondering, I applaud your efforts at this. I want to mention that I don’t think catching the bugs with the double sided tape is the intention or expect that to work. The idea, in my opinion is to create an effective barrier to prevent the bug from crawling in either direction.

If there are bugs in any part of your bed above the tape you will have to find this bug and kill it. The tape will give you peace of mind when sleeping and will prevent bugs from crawling up and biting you. It is very effective. So if you are not getting bit don’t just believe there are no bugs in your room. It’s because they can’t get to you unless something is touching the floor and bed at the same time, such as a blanket.

Conan::

update!

So last night I double sided taped a 2? strip on the floor surrounding my bed, all the way around my box spring and all the way around my mattress. My thoughts were that if they got caught on one of these traps I would be able to see where they are coming from. Now fortunately or unfortunately, I’m not sure yet, but I found 0 bed bugs on any of the tape. I can’t tell if I have any new bites as the rash or bites or whatever it is on my sides is too large to notice a change. I don’t however have any new bites on wrists or ankles which I have seen a few pictures of.

I’m wondering if this is normal behavior for bed bugs? Do they attack every night? or can you go a few nights without getting bitten?

Adam::

Hey,

On Tuesday night I was on the laying on my couch with my girlfriend who I live with. I noticed I was getting what I believed was a hive on my left forearm. The next morning when I woke up I had what I thought was a hive cluster on my left wrist.

Now I have woken up the last 3 mornings with what I thought were hives on both my wrists and forearms. I am starting to freak out about bedbugs because today there was a line of 4 red bumps that are look similar to the line bite pattern people describe with bedbugs. At the same time I feel I may not have them because I notice red bumps appearing all of the sudden at work in the middle of the day. Also, my girlfriend who I live and share a bed with is not getting bitten.

I have looked all over, torn my mattress apart, vacuumed the base boards and I don’t see any sign of them. What should I do.

daniel::

Does anyone know if Gentrol can be mixed with oil? I am wondering how residual something that is mixed with water can be.

daniel::

It should be stressed that when starting your pest control campaign, non-repellent spray should be used, such as Phantom. Pray and spray. Then dusting with Drione and DE after. And what about using a microwave for a minute or two for small amounts of clothing that has no metal? I used a hair dryer to dispel DE above a suspended ceiling.

Natural pest control products include orange oil, Cedar Oil, freshwater food-grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE)

Co::

OK – so I traveled with a group of friends and stayed in a rented apartment a week ago. About 7 days later after returning to our homes one of my friends and I noticed bites on our wrists similar to bedbug bites (3 in a row, etc.) We both checked our apartments and cleaned everything the best we could but could not find any bugs.

It’s only been a few days since we noticed the bites. No new bites to the same severity have shown up but some random single ones here and there have appeared. I’m used to having random bites every so often because of allergies and sensitive skin but now I’m paranoid that they might be new bed bug bites. I heard that some times bites don’t appear for days.

Since my friend and I noticed our bites at the same time could it be that we were bitten in the rental apartment but they didn’t show up until days later? The reason I think this is because while we stayed in the rented apartment there were no signs at all of bites. My theory is the place had a few bugs and we were bitten over the course of 3 days staying there. And then a week later the bites began to show up. Is this far fetched??? It just seems weird that they would just start showing up.

aamok::

I didn’t think spiders would bite this many times though, would they? My bites have changed everyday since I got them, I have included an updated picture I took yesterday (3 days after I discovered them). Help!!! I’ve cleaned and vacuumed my entire room, laundered all my sheets, pillows and blankets in hot water and dryer, and caulked the cracks along my floorboard/carpet. What else can/should I do?

——————
Bed Bug Girl says:
November 28, 2010

Hi Ada,

You are right, unless a spider gets trapped in your shirt, it’s not going to keep biting you. See my page on mite bites – these little guys can leave welts just like yours and target the upper body. They can’t be seen with the unaided eye and can be hard to detect.

Have you seen a doctor? If not, I would see one just to make sure this does not get worse, which it looks like is happening. If / when you do see a doctor, can you let us know what their findings were? Thanks!

———-
From Aamok on December 1, 2010

Hi Jim,

I did visit a doctor but he said he wouldn’t know unless I could confirm seeing bugs ;(. I haven’t had any since, but I have also been really diligent with everything, sleeping on really clean sheets (laundry bill is racking up though!) and not letting covers touch the ground etc. It’s only been a week though, and I read on the internet that they don’t feed that often right? well I am crossing my fingers that it’s anything but bedbugs! The bites change almost everyday, they are now just really dark spots on my arm, not bumpy anymore, but still itchy…

Ada

————–
From Jim on December 1, 2010

Thanks for the update Ada and I too, hope that they are not bed bugs!

—————-
From Aamok on December 2, 2010

Thanks! What do you know about mite bites? I never even knew they bit at all… Could it be fleas too? I’m still not sure if I should call a pest control company, I can’t really afford it right now.. Would putting DE down on my carpets solve the problem?

Thanks again!

—————-

From Jim on December 2, 2010

Hi Ada,

I put what I know about mites in an article on Mite Bites

Take a look at those pictures and see what you think. Mites can do a lot of damage as you’ll see in the article.

I don’t know what effect DE would have on mites, but there are posts here were people have said Tea Tree Oil works wonders! See the Bed Bug Treatment section for more suggestions.

Please, if you find out more information, let us all know!

Thanks,

Jim

aamok::

Hi,

I am freaking out!! So, I have been getting bites for a few months, but BIG bites, that swell up a lot, and I have only been getting them one at a time, although they last for at least a week, so I assumed they were not bed bug bites.

Also, I usually sleep without clothing on, and the bites have always been on my shoulders or elbows, once on my wrist. Last week, I got three bites in one night – one on my left shoulder, one on my right shoulder and one on my elbow.

I freaked out and went and bought some Dichotomous earth from a store close by, and sprinkled it along the baseboard areas close to my bed, as well as around the four feet of my bed.

So last night, I slept with a t shirt and pj’s on, and I wake up to find a group of welts on my right shoulder, around the one big bite I had gotten last week. These welts are significantly different from my previous bites, and I say I have about 10 of them in a cluster.

Do I have bed bugs?? Did sprinkling the DE have anything to do with them biting me? I’m not sure what to do now!! I have looked in my bedframe to no avail, and there are no blood spots on my white sheets or my white t-shirt.

Thanks!

John G.::

Ondine, have the bites stopped?

Stephen::

I would greatly appreciate if you could take a look at my bite pictures and let me know what you think., bed bugs?

My girlfriend and I have not stayed away from the house for over six months at any hotels… which i believe are the most likely cause of picking up bed bites but she believes that is what is biting me. I am the only one who appears to be getting bitten but i believe that is possible with bed bugs.

For the last week or so i am slowly being covered in more and more bites which are becoming increasingly itchy. We live in a tropical climate which would suggest they are just mosquito bites but they do not usually bother me and most of my bites are under my clothing so i feel it is unlikely to be mosquito’s.

I have searched for bed bugs and cant see any signs of them, no red spots on the mattress… I look forward to your reply and really hope you can tell me what this is

Thanks in advance for your help

Stephen

karen::

Yesterday i noticed bites around my feet and ankles they are grouped together and one even forms the linear pattern.

The bug bites don’t really itch but they are really red.

My boyfriend and i spent the past 4 nights together, twice in my bed, twice in his and he doesn’t have one mark on him! We checked our mattress for bed bugs and didn’t find anything.

Could these be bed bug bites and they just prefer my blood over his?

Ondine::

Dear Bed Bug Girl,

Thank you SO much for your website. It has been extremely helpful. My husband doesn’t understand why I’m so freaked out, but for the last 2 months, I’ve been getting these mysterious bites on my body. So thank you for being a source of tremendous help.

We cannot find any evidence of them anywhere and have had two professionals inspect. They didn’t find any evidence either. We went ahead with two fumigations, but I’ve attached a photo of a fresh new set of bites.

Do you think these are bed bug bites?

Thank you so much for your help!!

Bed Bug Girl::

Hi Chels,

No problem on the email and thanks for sharing! These don’t look like a typical bite from a bed bug, but if I understand you correctly, these pictures are of bites that are two weeks old so it’s hard to tell. That second picture (on the right) looks like that might have been a line of bite marks, no? If so, then that changes things.

See my hotel bedbugs in the top menu and if you like, you can request a search on the hotels you stayed at. If you mention more than one hotel, make sure to mention this comment as well as I don’t usually research more than one.

Thanks again for sharing!

Bed Bug Girl::

Hi Anon,

How do you usually react to bites? If you usually don’t swell up like this, then I’d say it’s Something else. The are close together but that typical line isn’t there and the areas that were bitten don’t usually swell up like this.

Bed Bug Girl::

Dear Paul and Roxy,
Bed Bug Girl says:
September 19, 2010 at 7:25 pm

I searched a number of online databases for information. Since January of 2009, and over 530 comments I found only one report of bed bugs for the Westin New York at Times Square. Address is 270 W 43rd St. It was by Saturday, on 7-7-09 “I wasn’t sure when we checked out if they were actually bedbug bites, but went home and looked up online. Photos and descriptions of the bites and itching match exactly what we see on our bodies”. You should always take safety precautions and inspect the room thoroughly where ever you stay.

Thanks,
Bed Bug Girl

Tyler, I need more photos to feel more confident about answering you. They do look like Bed Bug bites but maybe not the common Bed Bug. The ones we are most familiar with will be in sets of 3 dots or a single bite. They will occur on feet, arms, neck and face. I have seen photos of ones on the back but I have never been bitten on the back. Also, some people get bit but show no reaction. This may be your case but I would think you would have seen some bugs by now. Check the plastic tufts on the corners of your box spring. The small ones will look like fat ants.

Could you please check the Westin Hotel 2501 Worldgate Way Place, Detroit, Michigan and the Quality Inn and Suites North, 445 East Alexis Road, Toledo, Ohio. Thanks

Hi Dr. Jonathan Levy Those would not be bed bugs those are carpet beetles. You can look up what they do, but they are not something to worry about much. They won’t bite you but larvae hairs can irritate you and cause a reaction that looks like a bite.

Hi Dr. Jonathan Levy,

Those are not bed bugs. Those would be carpet beetles. The species is probably just a varied carpet beetle but you can always look up the different kinds of them. They pose no risk to yourself. They feed on clothing and other things of that sort. I have found these in my house and the only thing that could happen is if the larvae hairs touches you, your skin may have a reaction.

Tyler::

Hello!

I bought a used mattress over a month ago when I moved in to my new apartment. I inspected it thoroughly for bed bugs, because I live in Hollywood and it’s been on the news a lot lately here. I didn’t find any signs of them. I haven’t been bitten once, and have noticed no signs at all of bed bugs over the course of a month, until my sister came to visit me last weekend & took my bed. She was bitten by something both nights that she slept in my bed. I’ve attached a few pictures. The bites may have faded a bit. They’re abt 4 days old.

She thinks it’s bed bugs because of the clusters of bites… I cannot imagine what else it would be. I washed all of my clothes, cleaned all of my linens, and even put my pillows in the dryer with everything. I then carefully inspected my mattress and box spring again, but still no signs of bugs, shells, or feces. Again, I haven’t been bitten even once, sleeping on this bed every night for the last month. What do you think? & If it is bed bugs, should I throw out my mattress? Even if I did that, how do I make sure that everything else in my apt isn’t infested? & is my landlord obligated to pay for the exterminator, or does that come out of my pocket?

Thanks!
Tyler

Hi, I’m going through hell right now, my ankles are with bites like crazy. The other nite I woke up and when I went to the rest room my feet had a bunch of tiny bugs. I wanted to scream and cry. nasty little suckers. On the side of my stomach is a large rash and itches like crazy. My legs are full of bites and it hurts with itch. My mattress is one I never was happy with because it is used and full of yellow spots it looks warped. I plan to get a new mattress, but will i still have them here. Can they jump on my dog? Please help me, later I will send pictures.

So in June we went on our vacation with our family, and we brought home “friends”. It is now October and we have had five treatments, It looks like it is finally done but it took a lot. We had to Clean all of the clothes in our house and but them in plastic bags out in the garage. I cleaned all the toys with hot water and bleach. I vacuumed the floor and the shelves and the drawers. We have lived out of plastic bags the whole time.

These bedbugs were living in our walls. They were just in our room but then moved into our living room. We have sprayed our bed with alcohol (buy it in bulk). We did it almost every other day. The treatments were every two weeks. The first one was $185 and then $80 every other time. It was well worth it. I felt like I could not protect my children. I am constantly worried about bedbug and think every thing is a bite. I am not sure if I can ever not worry about it.

We have spent almost $1300 . We had to buy a new bed. But I have to say the company that sprayed my house has done a wonderful job and I would recommend them to anyone who wants to know about them.

Bites but no Bugs in sight::

Did you get any more answers “Did I bring them home?”
Because I have the same problem. I keep getting new bites daily, at least four more a day.
There are no signs of bed bugs anywhere and my husband isn’t getting bit, just me.
I read that bite reactions can take anywhere from a day to 14 days. Is that true?
Because we recently stayed at a hotel in San Diego a week ago.
If anyone has answers that would be awesome!
I am scared to go to bed!

Did I bring them home?::

I recently moved into a brand new apartment (total renovation) and bought nearly all new stuff. This weekend I was staying at a friend’s in London and woke up with a bunch of bites. I said that I thought that they were bed bug bites but he assured me that he had no bed bugs. I brushed it off as an irritation, came home ,unpacked some of my stuff and went to sleep.

When I woke up, I noticed a few reddish/brown stains on my sheets (this had never happened before). I decided to research further and became convinced that I ahd bed bugs. I made an appointment with the extrerminators for the very next day. When I showed them the bites they said that people only have so many bites after a 5 month long infestation (I’ve been in my apartment 5 weeks and had my bed for 3 weeks). They found no evidence of bed bugs but sprayed my entire house anyway (even then no bugs came out).

The strange thing is that I keep having more bites. It feels like I have new ones every day. I got a perscription cream for the itching and have been sleeping fully clothed but my shoulder, torso back and legs still have bites. I feel convinced that these are bed bugs but why didn’t the exterminators find any evidence? And if there are too few to find why am I ebing bit on a daily basis?

I would really appreciate any advice before I go absolutely mad!

By the way, I live in the Netherlands where I think the bed bug problem hasn’t gotten as bad yet, can they simply be behind on methods of treatment??

Thank you!!!

hi::

A couple months ago my siblings starting getting these weird bites and it got really bad-they were like a million little tiny bites that covered almost their whole body. some were worse than others. so mom took them to the dermatologist and they didnt know what it was.

We all were treated for scabies and body lice but it didn’t seem to work. dad took all the bedding and washed it, and put plastic zip cover on the mattresses. i slept with my little sister that got a lot of the bites and would only get one or two. mom didn’t know what it could be because not everyone in the house was receiving these bites(that were so very itchy). for a couple of months it seemed to have gone away-until now.

I’ve been being attacked just as they had before. one day at school i was itching severely and my friend asked me what i was doing and i informed her how i itch horribly at night and all the time. right away she looked at me seriously and told me that i need a new matress. i asked her why. and she told me i have bedbugs. i laughed at her and was like are you kidding me that is just a saying. then she asked me if when i wake up i have little bums from itching and i told her yes and showed her my clustered bites. she then told me the second time i have bedbugs and i believed her.

Now that I’ve looked at your cite i am absolutely positive i have bed bugs. but what do i do? how do i let my parents know? they are foster parents and would hate to hear that. i would take care of it myself but that would be theoretically impossible. i don’t know what to do…and I’m sick of being eaten alive! i already have a lot of trouble sleeping now with these things i don’t get any sleep and I’m a high school student with a lot of stress. should i just show them this website? i don’t know what to do!

Laurie N::

As my 13-year-old daughter lay down in her bed tonight, she felt a painful bite on her thigh and another on her bum. She popped up and in the bed maimed the insect you see in the pictures above.

The insect is a quarter-inch long. It really does look like a bed bug, sort of. But no one in the house has any bites on them except for two bites like the one you see in the photo. And the bite was painful. It looks like a wasp sting: a raised bump with a red dot in the middle.

It’s not a spider bite, I don’t think.

The only thing that makes sense is that we have bedbugs that don’t affect anyone, and that our daughter rolled on an invisible wasp.

Sherlock Holmes might accept that but I don’t. Do have any help to offer?

Bed Bug Girl::

Hi Liz,

That second picture of bites on his neck looks just like what happens when bitten by a bed bug. You can never be sure of what bit someone by looking at the bite, but the pattern is there. Have you looked at my bed bug checklist page? It it is bed bugs, they can do a great job at hiding! Also, they can feed on one person even though there may be more than one in bed.

You can visit BadSpiderBites.com and compare pictures, but this does not look like bites from a spider.

Will you do me a favor and let all of us know what you find out? And thanks for sharing!

Hello,

I’m hoping you can help me with a somewhat odd situation. Over the last month or two, my son has occasionally been waking up with bumps on his legs. We were initially attributing them to mosquitoes since it coincided with times he had been outside. Over the last few weeks, he has been continuing to wake up with bumps and it’s clearly not related to times he’s been outside.

We’ve searched his room and found no signs of bed bugs or any other bugs. Wednesday night he woke repeatedly during the night and when he woke for the day he had 8-9 of these bites/bumps on the back of his neck as well as 1-2 new ones on his legs. He did not have any new ones this morning. The marks seem to be limited to exposed skin (never on his chest, back or upper legs) and are typically just on his legs or sometimes on his neck. There’s only been one occurrence of one or two bumps on each arm. There have been times that I have laid down in his bed with him during the night to try and soothe him back to sleep but I haven’t noticed any bites on myself after this.

The pictures above were taken yesterday that show several of the marks on his neck as well as new and currently healing marks on one of his legs. He doesn’t seem to notice them or complain about them but he’s not quite two years old yet. We’re mystified what could be doing this to him and would appreciate any insight you could provide.

Jessica::

HELP! About 2 months ago I was living in an apartment with 3 other girls and we got bed bugs. The xterminator said we caught it very early and I only saw 1 myself. We went through the 3 treatments and washed EVERYTHING we owned. Most of my things didn’t even go back into the apartment afterwards, I took it to my boyfriends place. About a week after the 3rd treatment I moved into my boyfriends apartment while we looked for a new place and I bought a matress cover for my bed and put it and some other furniture in storage.

Now its about 2 months later and we found a place and moved in 4 days ago. 3 days ago we got my stuff out of storage including my mattress and box spring. each morning for the last 2 days I have woken up with a bite. I’m TERRIFIED that they are bed bug bites and don’t know if I should go home and throw away my bed.

AM I BEING CRAZY? Do I need to go through all of this again?????

Cathy T::

For the last couple of months, I have been getting odd bites, that sort of look like they have a “pimple head” on them. They are really itchy and seem to take ages for both the itch and the spot to heal. In fact, they have left some scarring.
A couple of weeks ago, I actually felt the “sting” and noted a small bug and what looked like an encased bit of my blood attached to it. I had to pluck it off my skin and was able to see that it did not look like a flea. Last week I got what felt like a quick sting under the wire of my bra and then. being in a place it was going to be constantly rubbed, finished up with a small infection. Yesterday I was bitten again, and now have the “pimple head” again.

Now I feel like my skin is crawling, which is probably all in my head! The two I caught were in my office at work, both times sitting on my chair. The one inside my bra happened while in my car (albeit on the way home from work).

After looking up various bugs on the internet, I am sure they are bed bugs. Is it possible to have them outside of the bedroom?

TO: ALISON AUGUST 28, 2010 — I live in california its hard to see from the photo, but do each of those bites have someting like “triangle” types bites? As if one fang on the bottom, and two fangs on the top, creating a triangle pattern of a bite? If so I had the same thing. I live in LSouth Lake Tahoe, CA. They became infected quickly, but I got antibiotics for the bites and they went away, somewhat. I still have scaring from the fang bite itself. Never found out what it was!!! I was bit in april 2010.

I have a question about these bed bugs. My wife keeps waking up with these little red bumps which are itchy and some are alone and some in small clusters of between 2-4. We sleep in the same bed yet she seems to be the only one bitten and what is more difficult is we have a black mattress so I guess my question is what else besides the obvious mosquito and possible bed bugs could it be and would bedbugs be easily visible on a black mattress? Thanks for all the help!

I was just wondering i have or had the bedbugs but any ways when we did my wife and 2 year old daughter slept in the same bed and they never got bitten is there a reason for that I’m just dumb founded why they never get bitten and only i do? please help me figure out why

I got alot of good advice from you guys. I going on the search tomorrow to find the stuff

to kill these awlful bugs and treat the bites. FYI these bugs climb the walls walk on furniture
all times of day and night.I am always looking everywhere feel like I am being eaten alive
and my daughter to. However my son has not got one bite. All this because I was nice and
let a friend stay here that brought them with her from a nasty hotel. Value Lodge in FL.

nicki::

my baby girl is 2 and i was wondering what was these misquote marks popping up on her she is always scratching and i am sick and tired of these bed bugs where are they coming from

PAMELA::

hello i just found out like five hours i got them i was or am covered in bites,,, have beeen for a month,,, doctor told me was ecema… so me and my sister checked my mattress,, and sure enogh i hate these things never had them before HELP ME PLEASE… got an exterimator coming tommrow…..

Alina::

So after reading most of these comments and comparing them to the bites i have on my body(legs mostly) I am convinced they are bug bites!! AAAAHHH! I am not happy at all like everyone on here.

I am relieved though that i have finally found out what they are and all that good stuff.

So my problem is that iI could not resist itching them and got horrible scars on my legs. It’s so embarrassing. Good thing the winter is coming because i know I won’t be wearing shorts anytime soon.

But besides that point of my appearance and self confidence being destroyed, I would really appreciate if anyone could help me out on how to get rid of the scars that have affected me.

I have read about Vitamin E for skin and body oil that contains the vitamin and cocoa butter but idk if this will actually help to get rid of them.

Please help! Thank you!