Bed bugs??!

[charl881]

I need help 😫

For about a week I’ve been waking up with little itchy bites. They’re usually small and white or red, almost like little pimples, but by the time I’ve scratched them they get angrier. Almost all on my back or stomach - areas which are mostly covered when I sleep although I guess my top might ride up.

Could this be bed bugs?

I’ve searched the mattress (which is quite new) for signs of them and can’t see anything.

They only happen overnight and the itching goes down pretty quick of a morning.

Really reluctant to call pest control if the bites are the only sign and could be something else, but I’m getting desperate.

It does look like them . My partner came out in spots like yours, they feed from anyone but some people react a lot more. I had no signs of bites at all. We had them early last year (either came home from hospital with me after baby or from when partner went to Czech Republic in the December before).. we didn’t find any on our mattress at first as they were in our head board. They love seams and zips! I bought a spray from Amazon as a just in case as we originally thought he had a reaction to something and once I sprayed i found dead ones. Took a professional pest stray, 12 loads of washing and lots and lots of hoovering over a good couple months (mainly just to get the newly hatched). After the pest stray it reduced massively though. By a handheld steamer and steam your bed as they can’t handle heat. Happy to give advice if you need it. Fingers crossed it’s not this for you but I promise will get rid of them as long as you keep at it. A quick point is not to move bedrooms/sleep somewhere as they will come looking after a day or so.

Oh poor you.. silica powder is a natural way to kill the bas**ds also called diatomaceous earth.. it’s a powder you can stick EVERYWHERE, down sofas.. even between floor boards on your bed.. safe for kids and pets.. strip bed abd stick everything including duvet into hot cycle in dryer.. apply Sillica powder.. into every crack crevice you can find.. on your bed floorboards you name it.. then your high powered hoover to suck it up.. repeat weekly until little sods sod off..

They’re actually saying now sillica gel is better.. we had the pest controller but we still had bites after that..

Thank you that’s so useful! I guess I need to start treating it as if it is them then go from there. @Whysotired that’s useful to know about a spare bed as I was tempted to do that tonight! I just can’t work out where we have got them from.

I promise it gets better as soon as you start to treat it. It just can take a while to get rid of them completely. Apparently you can pick them up anywhere. Hotels get a bad rep for them, however hotels get very few full infestations as they tend to walk in to the next persons luggage. If you have brought second hand furniture, clothing etc they can come in on these. Even family and friends can bring them in if they have been somewhere infested. They can hitch a ride on anything including shoes.

We had bed bugs. DH was the only one to react - but his bites didn’t stop itching in the morning.

Try and find them first before trying to treat. The places they hide could be in the bed frame itself or nearby. Ours were hiding on the back of picture frames hanging above the bed in DS’s room! (Dh would get bitten when settling ds in the middle of the night).

The other option to consider - do you get hot at night? It could be heat rash.

And we never worked out where they came from. My guess was it was our friends who came back from America - their kid used to play in DS room. Or old books - I used to buy secondhand books for DS.
They were nowhere else in the house (must have caught them early!)

you need proffesional pest control.

The ycan be controlled to some extent by the above methods, plus hours of hovering every day, boil washes, hot iron on all bed clothes, etc, but you can't eliminate them without professional pest control.

Also throw out ALL bedding and buy very cheap replacements, then when you have them under control, throw out that bedding too and replace with news permanent bedding

but try flea spray first, in case it is just fleas!

Are you out I'm the garden a lot? It could just be be berry bug bites which become itchy in the heat of the bed. If I get bitten then there is always a delay of hours before the bite appears/gets itchy.
I always thought bed bug bites were in a straight line?

I wonder if there’s anything else it could possibly be. Do you have any pets? I wonder if fleas are more likely. Bed bug bites very often come in a line of three bites. And they are insanely itchy. We had bed bugs in a hotel we stayed at in Italy. The bites were always in a line of three, and I can’t explain how itchy they were- way worse than any bite I’d had from other types of insect. They started itching as soon as I woke up and didn’t let up all day.

I hope you find the culprit- and a solution!

@waterlego yes we do have two dogs! These are itchy first thing but they soon stop itching. I’ve booked an appt with my GP today to see if they can shed any light before I call out pest control.

@Iggly yes I have been getting really hot these last few nights, I wonder if it’s linked!

Maybe you are sweating and it is reacting with something the mattress has been treated with.

Hope you get to the bottom of it

It's more likely to be fleas

Get a pest control company to inspect, and if necessary use them to solve the problem. Best to avoid travelling in the meantime and be careful of other ways of spreading them.

@Ridingthegravytrain I do keep waking up covered in sweat. Hoping the GP can provide some answers and if not I’ll be calling pest control for peace of mind if nothing else.

@purpleme12 I did think that but then I’ve had no bites at all on legs or ankles which is where fleas usually bite I thought? Going to check my dog with a flea comb tonight, he does spend time on our bed.

I would then try and reduce your bedding/nightwear to lower the temp and see what happens.

My daughter has just had bed bugs in one bedroom. The person most bitten had loads of bites and they looked nothing like the ones in your photos. They were more raised and in clusters.

You might be able to find evidence of bloody specks and smears on the bedding. They come out at night, so that's when to spot the live ones. My daughter's unwanted visitors were living in the wooden bed frame.

Where do you live? My dad is in Dorset, near a stream, and he has awful bugs/gnats in august. I've stayed with him in the summer before and thought he must have bed bugs as I was covered in itchy bites (even in my belly button!). But turns out it was the gnats.

It's more likely to be fleas. Ring pest control, for advice. I did and they were very helpful and came to my house

I’ve had bed bugs they have distinctive welts more flat and very red circles and in a line of bites on body or a limb. Your look
Like flea or spider or insect bites if that’s any less urghhhhh!

[quote charl881]@Ridingthegravytrain I do keep waking up covered in sweat. Hoping the GP can provide some answers and if not I’ll be calling pest control for peace of mind if nothing else.[/quote]
I don't always get flea bites on the legs and ankles
I wouldn't discount this because of this

@Iggly ironically I’ve started wearing more clothes at night to try and stop me from getting bitten, not that it’s worked 😂

@purpleme12 thank you that’s useful to know