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Do I have bed bugs?? Help!! So itchy but mattress looks clea
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sweetpotato




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 04 2017, 10:48 am
OMG! wrote:
Thank you so much sweet potato! Just woke up scratchy and full of red spots. Will take a good flashlight now and look again in the morning! I'm so scared. And btw, I changed beds with dh. He's sleeping fitfully and I'm suffering! So could it be I'm the only one sensitive or with sweet blood? Could bed bugs be found in the pillow or covers? Ouch!!! They itch!!!


The bugs are very unlikely to live in the covers or the pillows, but they can travel there at night. Bed bugs choose a very safe, concealed spot to "harbor" where they won't be disturbed (in places like underneath the mattress, in cracks/crevices of the bed frame, under the bed, etc.) They won't harbor in the bedding itself, because it moves around a lot so it's not safe for them to stay there. They stay in their harborage spots during the day, and come out at night (and will crawl on bedding, pillows, etc.) It is possible you'll find some stray bugs in the bed itself though, even during the day, but you wouldn't find a whole bunch of them there.

But regardless of where they live, if they are getting to you and biting you, you will find the fecal spots. Google what they look like. They are small, blackish/dark brown dots. Sometimes they will smear if you touch them when very fresh (I.e. the next morning). They are digested blood, and won't look bright red like dried blood.

A bed bug will bite any human that is nearby. They don't go after certain people over others. They follow the CO2 that you exhale when you sleep. So if you have bed bugs, and your husband sleeps in your bed, he will also get bitten. But he might not react to the bites, so he may not see/feel any bites on his body. That's why the only real signs are: stains, bugs, casings.

As an example, we had bed bugs and I know we were all bitten. I never had a single bite mark. My husband had small red dots. My daughter hard dark, scabby purple marks. But every had the stains on their bedding--that was the real sign.

Good luck figuring out what is going on! It's normal to have itchy skin in the winter, due to dryness.
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amother
Rose


 

Post Wed, Jan 04 2017, 10:55 am
sweetpotato wrote:
There's some misinformation in this thread.

You can't diagnose the presence or absence of bed bugs by looking at bites alone. There is no single or typical way a bed bug bite looks on the skin-- it depends on how you react to it. Some people have no reaction whatsoever; others get purple spots, red pinpricks, huge pink welts, bloody scabs, etc.

They don't actually bite in clusters of 3. A doctor can't look at your bites and tell where they came from; neither can an exterminator.

The only way to tell if you have bed bugs is to find actual bugs, bug casings (shed skins), eggs or the fecal spots like leave behind after feeding.

Bed bugs are small but visible to the naked eye. Google photos of what they look like at their various life stages.

In the morning, take all the bedding off your bed and search very carefully for little black spots (they look like ink spots). Search all over your mattress including the seams and underside. Pillows/cases. Search your bed frame and any furniture near your bed, the baseboards and carpet.

At night, using a flashlight and magnifying glass, search for evidence of actual bugs in all the same places. They only come out at night so unless you have a huge infestation you're very unlikely to find bugs during the day.

Do NOT spray any chemicals you see at the hardware store. Not only are these ineffective (the majority of bed bugs are resistant to the active ingredient) but they are more likely to send the bugs into hiding deep in your walls, scatter them around your house, or even make some move into a neighboring unit if you're in an attached house or apt building. It will make your problem much worse if you do actually have bugs.

If you find positive evidence of bugs, or don't but think they could be there, call a good exterminator to inspect.


I don't like to argue, buty BTDT and
1) for us, the bites were defintely in groups of 3
2) our pediatrician didn't know what it was, but when we saw the PA later, she knew in a second based on the bites
3)we saw the real bugs once - tons of them. Once that mattress was discarded (don't do that - it was a mistake) we kept getting bites even though no evidence at all. The exterminator couldn't even find evidence at all but the dogs indicated they were still there. Eventually found out they were in the walls. We had to pump the walls with poison, which finally worked. It was 3 months of hell
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OMG!




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 04 2017, 11:19 am
I'm so confused! Who do I call? Exterminator? Or dermatologist first? The bumps are gone by now. But was clearly visible at night! Small white bump with tiny sting dot in the center. I was up all night scratching. Didn't find a single stain yet. And funny that the pimples are every night on same spot! Back of my wrist and bottom part of leg. It's not plain dry skin, that's for sure. Ok. Gonna make some phone calls now.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 04 2017, 11:28 am
amother wrote:
It can't hurt to spray around the mattress and under your bed in case you don't see them and they will disappear


It certainly can hurt to "spray"--spray what? very few pesticides are safe to spray on bedding.
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OMG!




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Jan 04 2017, 11:37 am
If there's any natural remedy I would give it a try. Mom said to put garlic. They don't like smell and won't come out of hiding. But that wind rid them. What about vinegar??
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sweetpotato




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 05 2017, 11:15 am
OMG! wrote:
If there's any natural remedy I would give it a try. Mom said to put garlic. They don't like smell and won't come out of hiding. But that wind rid them. What about vinegar??


OP, if you do have bed bugs, none of those things are going to work. You need to get recommendations for trustworthy, reliable exterminators and have someone come out to inspect to see what is going on.

Bed bugs are highly resistant to pesticides today. The only reliable methods of killing them are very high heat treatments, diatomaceous earth (when applied by a professional), Vikane (a fumigation treatment) and certain growth inhibiting chemicals. All of these need to be done by a professional to be safe and effective.

There aren't any natural remedies that will do anything.
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sweetpotato




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Jan 05 2017, 11:21 am
amother wrote:
I don't like to argue, buty BTDT and
1) for us, the bites were defintely in groups of 3
2) our pediatrician didn't know what it was, but when we saw the PA later, she knew in a second based on the bites
3)we saw the real bugs once - tons of them. Once that mattress was discarded (don't do that - it was a mistake) we kept getting bites even though no evidence at all. The exterminator couldn't even find evidence at all but the dogs indicated they were still there. Eventually found out they were in the walls. We had to pump the walls with poison, which finally worked. It was 3 months of hell


Amother-- we had a similar experience (found lots of live bugs, which were then killed after successful treatment, but kept seeing stains and occasional bugs because they were in the walls and coming from the neighboring house. Our hell went on for a whole year....).

Once yours were hiding in the walls and you were still getting bitten but finding no bugs, did you not find stains in your bedding? Either stains or live bugs are the only real confirmation of definite bed bugs. But you're right that it is possible not to find the bugs themselves because they return to their hiding places. But if you're getting bitten at night, you'll almost certainly find the stains somewhere on the bedding or nearby. The stains are very unique to bed bugs which is why they are better confirmation of infestation than relying on bites.

Regarding bites, I've interviewed entomologists and professional bed bug researchers, and they've all said that bed bug bites don't have a typical "look" because it depends on the individual reacts to them. In my own family, the bites looked very different from person to person. The PA did have good intuition though that if your whole family was getting mysterious bites, bed bugs might be the source.
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