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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

In wondering what the flip is biting me?!?

58 replies

Mumofaflump · 15/04/2011 09:05

For about 5 weeks now I have been getting chomped on a daily basis. Just me, not DF, not DS. I don't have pets, I've hoovered, boil washed the bed linen, washed all my clothes, have tumbled rather than hung them out...

Still, every day! This morning I have a line of 6 up the side of my calf...

What the actual fuck is it?!?

OP posts:

MigratingCoconuts · 15/04/2011 10:03

and yes, some people react to flea bites and others don't. Fleas may like you better or they might not be flaming up on the others.

B52s · 15/04/2011 10:29

Curve ball here - I got bit by a ladybird up my thigh and on my fanjo when one roamed into my jeans and couldn't get out. Red spots, itchy, went away after about a week.

Probably easier to get rid of (flick!) than fleas or bed bugs.

BaadRobot · 15/04/2011 10:39

We had fleas that came in from our next door neighbours cat. Nothing we bought from the pet shop would get rid of them - nothing! And we spent a fortune on powders, sprays, smoke bombs. None of it worked. Got a man in from the council - he came next day, sprayed the floor of the entire house for free with something really wet (no idea what it was), we went out for an hour, came home, fleas all gone.

I was the only one who got visible bites. I think you have a flea problem and need to call the council to send the spray-man out. The expensive crap you buy from the shop just does not work in my experience!

Onetoomanycornettos · 15/04/2011 11:04

It probably is fleas, but just to throw something else in the mix (after the ladybird), there are a couple of types of spiders that will nip you in the UK, I also had mysterious bites on my legs in a cluster, then the next night a couple more. My husband said they looked like spider bites (I am more allergic to flea bites and the inflammation greater). I laughed at him, til the next morning, I was changing the bedding and this horrid hairy spider (wolf type one, not a nice house spider) crawled out. It had clearly been biting for two or three days and living in the bedding.

Once I killed the spider (obviously not going to let it live after that), I was not bitten again.

Sorry if you are phobic of spiders, this story will not have helped!

biryani · 15/04/2011 11:08

Definitely fleas, IMHO. Apparently they like the smell of feet! It's something to do with your emissions apparently - some people just don't get them. Try googling to try to identify what sort of pattern is made by different pests, to rule out bedbugs, then treat yourself or get Rentokil in.

MigratingCoconuts · 15/04/2011 11:11

I once knew of someone who kept dogs and went away for a month...on returning home, within a few days he could see a mass of little jumping critters all over the carpets. The eggs respond to co2, warmth, vibrations, something like that anyway...and hatch out.

Feenie · 15/04/2011 11:12

lljkk · 15/04/2011 11:14

You can get rid of fleas without spray, lots of vacuuming alone can do it if they don't have their preferred host around. Otherwise vacuum well, then sprinkle heavy doses of ordinary table salt on all your floors (kills them in larval stage), leave for 48 hours & then lots of vacuuming every day for a while after that (using a good Vac cleaner).

I get lots of mystery bug bites, and am especially allergic (not lethally so, just in a very annoying swollen-and-itchy-for-a-week way) to flea bites. Nobody else in the family is half as bitten.

FabbyChic · 15/04/2011 11:16

Definately flea bites, you need your house sprayed, the council can do the carpets for you but it isn't free. You would need to vacate for a few hours afterwards.

weedle · 15/04/2011 11:19

Anyone else scratching like a good 'un after reading this thread? Yikes!

Vallhala · 15/04/2011 11:19

If it turns out to be dog/cat fleas I recommend Indorex spray - about £12 a can from Petmeds online and lasts up to a year. Spray all unwashable soft furnishings, crevices in wooden floors, carpets, along skirtings and under radiators. Air house well and of course keep DS out of room until properly aired.

(Am dog and cat owner so know the drill!)

lemmein · 15/04/2011 11:20

I had bed bugs years ago in a rented house and strated getting bites this time of the year. Went on for months before I knew what it was - I thought it was an allergy!

They leave little splatters on your mattress - looks almost like mould in the corners. They are clever little creatures really - you wouldn't believe how well they hide. I'd never spotted one until the day I discovered what the bites were - then went on the rampage and discovered loads hidden in the wooden slats of my bed (shudder!). If you have them it will be quite obvious when you start to look - they're the size of ladybirds (I thought they were invisible to the eye - they're not!) and when you squish one they explode with blood (MY friggin blood!). I got rid of ours myself by fumigating the room (they stayed in one room thankfully) but tbh it was hard work and if I ever had them again I would phone the professionals.

MigratingCoconuts · 15/04/2011 12:20

its beginning to remind me of the cockroach infection we found at my mate's house in Australia, we discovered when I stayed one summer....luckily, they didn't bite but it was very disconcerting to lift a plate in the kitchen and find 3 or 4 run out

Original poster

Mumofaflump · 15/04/2011 12:48

Oh, I hope it's not spiders... I hate spiders. Maybe it's revenge for all the ones I've killed...

Right. DS is going to my mums for the day. Let the house nuke begin...

Will keep you all posted as to what happens.

Just as an aside, I've coated my legs in Aloe Vera gel and the itching has completely vanished!

OP posts:

glastocat · 15/04/2011 13:13

I was bitten by something once when staying over at a man's friend's house. IT initially came up in a hard itchy lump, but then weirdly it started to spread out into a hard ring of puss which dor bigger and bigger until it disappeared. I'd love to know what the hell it was, and no, I never stayed over slept with him again

glastocat · 15/04/2011 13:14

got

queenrollo · 15/04/2011 13:26

if you go into longish grass at this time year you can pick up harvest mites too. i got bitten to buggery by them one year, but they left DP completely alone.

MigratingCoconuts · 15/04/2011 13:30

I've picked up tics that way before too...the little critters don't let go...

BabyCub · 15/04/2011 14:10

i started having exactly the same bites, at pretty much the start of my pregnancy.

started off as small red bumps,which grew into (insanely) itchy white lumps & would then stick around for anything up to a week, and would constantly itch. they looked like hives. i was getting them everywhere - legs, arms, necks, back. and i was coming up in them all over the house & even at work. because of this, and the fact they weren't in lines, i completely ruled out bed bugs, they definitely weren't flea bites (as i know what they look / feel like).

the other half had not a single bite, so i went to the dr and they said it was an allergy i had developed since being pregnant. kept a food diary, but there was no pattern at all.

the 'hives' were getting worse, and i have had them constantly for five months. obviously cant take any antihistamines, so was relying on calamine lotion & tiger balm to take the itch away. i am covered in scars where i have scratched them (often in my sleep!) & they have bled more.

then, last week, DH found some blood splatters on his side of the bed, although still no obvious bites on him. he pulled the bed apart, literally unscrewed it... and lo & behold, hiding in all manner of tiny crevices were BED BUGS (heave). not loads fortunately, maybe 20 max. but enough. he systematically squeezed everyone, we hoovered the mattress, steam cleaned the carpets & washed all the bedding & curtains at 90 degrees.

since then? not one single bite (HURRAH!). it turns out bed bugs dont always bite in lines. some people are more allergic to the bites (hence why i was having a reaction & DH wasn't) & sometimes pregnancy can make you even more sensitive reaction-wise. and sometimes, the reaction doesnt develop until a log time after the bite - which could explain why you are coming up with them even when you are not in bed.

ever since that fateful day, we have checked the bed frame & mattress daily, and no sign of anymore as yet.... if we find anymore, we will get the exterminators in.

still makes me cringe thinking of all those horrible little critters feasting upon me for the last 5 months!

Original poster

Mumofaflump · 15/04/2011 14:27

I've just yanked all the bedding off... Can't see any blood stains but am going to Hoover the mattress. May try to take the bed frame apart a bit as well...

I really hate insects so this is really freaking me out now!

OP posts:

RevoltingPeasant · 15/04/2011 14:31

OP if you get bitten again tonight then do get an exterminator in. When we had bugs it cost c. £80 for one treatment which got rid of them entirely.

Money well spent IMO!

BabyCub · 15/04/2011 16:11

have a look for little black spots (bed bug poo) on the bed slats, corners of the bed frame and seams of your mattress - we found loooooads. you wont miss the bugs themselves, i was to see how big they actually were!

eugh, shudder.

ps i agree with RevoltingPeasant - get the bug squad in if it continues. i won't hesitate if i get any more bites.

Dukandoit · 15/04/2011 16:23

Very similar thing is happening to me. I think it is some type of mite that I have an allergic reacion to. If I go into our conservatory even for a short time I seem to get bitten. Bites come up slowly over a couple of days to a good centimeter and look red and angry and take a good week to disappear. They are often in clusters and near ankles or knees. On my wrist and arm most recently. No one else gets bitten. They can sit and read in there where I just have to walk through. Seem to get up my trouser legs, so it is better if I tuck them into my socks. I'm sure it isn't fleas. I have taken all the plants out now in case it is something on them. You have my deepest sympathy as it is completely maddening!!!!

BabyCub · 15/04/2011 16:29

i concur, sympathy galore from me too.... i feel like i've been losing my mind for the past few months!!

Onetoomanycornettos · 15/04/2011 16:49

OMG, I thought my spider story was bad til BabyCub told me about the bed bugs being that big. I am now going home to check!

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