To ask for your help to find out what is biting us?

[hibbledibble]

Recently an insect has been making a meal of all us. Dh in particular has been bitten lots. I have no idea what is causing it, and want to find out so we can take preventative measures!

Information which may be relevant:
We have a dog but she doesn't have fleas. I have checked carefully.

I have looked in the beds and can't see any bed bugs.

We don't live particularly close to water that I know of, and live in a city. Windows are open at night.

I never see anything like a mosquito lurking.

The bites are very itchy and on exposed skin.

Any ideas?

With bed bugs you need to check at night time not during daylight as the bastards only come out at night. They breed like wildfire!

best dog is short furred, with light skin and fur so I am pretty confident she doesn't have fleas. Dh has also checked her.

Ann are you sure it is fleas that bit you? That sounds unusual.

Fleas can hang out in grass if you have cats or foxes that lounge around there.
Mozzie bites tend to be bigger and nastier than fleas. But with fleas you usually have more bites, which suggests fleas- However, mozzies do go for some people far more than others so it could be mozzies or midges. I've no experience of bed bugs, thank the Lord, as I get bitten by everything and I really react badly to bites.

bedbugger.com is the best resource on the web for reading up on them, good forum with professional pest controllers posting.

Get one of the credit card size detectors, the cups you put under the bed legs can cause them to scatter further round the room.

Have you thought about carpet beetles? They have larvae called woolly bears, they don't actually bite, but their microscopic hairs embed in the skin and cause a bite like reaction.

hibble you said this has only started in the past couple of weeks and you have a new lodger. How long have you had your lodger and where was he staying before?

Bedbugs can spread via luggage and then take a few weeks to establish, so could have returned with you from holiday or could have arrived with your lodger (if your lodger is not being bitten, then not likely to have brought them).

The bites can be quite distinctive in pattern, in groups or lines.

If you search, you'll find lots of pictures on the internet, to help you identify the bites, for example www.aad.org/dermatology-a-to-z/diseases-and-treatments/a---d/bedbugs/diagnosis-treatment

As someone has mentioned, you can easily buy traps (Amazon, maybe) to help you to spot them.

Anyone else itching?

Oooh, something to add, does your carpet have fleas? They hatch in warmer weather.

Has the lodger bought them with him? Bedbugs came in thru humongous crack in wall from house next door to my BFF. Along with cockroaches. (shudder). They are rampant in some parts of London due to resurgence of 2nd hand furniture and very mobile & travelling population.

Another vote for fleas - it's just the time of year for them to start, too.

Even if you regularly bathe and brush your dog, they can get transmitted from animal to animal and thence into houses. I've heard of vets tell of pets in high rise flats that had them.

Head lice? I always know if the kids have them because I'm in agony with bites.

We moved into a new build house 4 years ago and were eaten alive.
The house had been built and lying here for a while. Mosquitoes had been using the water in the house and it took weeks for us to get rid!

Yes hibble I've caught them halfway up my trouser leg on more than one occasion. I think they jump onto my feet and hitch a ride

In case there are any bite experts here is a photo.

What do you think?

To answer the questions: the lodger has been here for 2 months, and lived with his parents before, so I think it's unlikely they came from him. I will ask him of he's being bitten.

I don't think there is anything in the carpets, but I'm not sure.

Bumping

mosquitos do not need large bodies of standing water to breed it can be as small as a tiny pound or even a undried up puddle et so by the sounds of it could be mosquito bites

that looks like a scartched moquiote bite too sadly (sorry did not see picture until I had posted ) you might want to invest in inserct screens on your windows if you are leaving them open at night as the buggers will fly in then out again if they can

It was fleas!!

After being confident dog didn't have any I saw one jump off her.

Dog has been treated with anti flea shampoo and I'm just buying more products today.

Moral of the story is that fleas are a bugger to spot.

I'd go and ask your local pharmacist - they are great for such things. Or Google flea/bed bug bites/scabies/ringworm etc and compare the image with what you have.

Also do keep checking your kids bites - if any get a bullseye like ring around them or anyone comes down with a fever you need to see your doc (although it's unlikely to be ticks if you think you got them indoors, best to be safe!) if you think it's from inside, you're basically picking between bed bugs, fleas, scabies or maybe but not too likely ringworm.

If it's got a white then red ring around - tick
Looks like acne- scabies
Little red bites, widely spread out, dark red centre - fleas. Check the dog for flea dirt.
Little red very itchy bites with a white middle (not always) , generally in clusters- bed bugs or mites of some kind. Check your bed etc for tiny blood spots.
One big bite, sometimes has two tiny holes in - spider
Elevated hot lump, very itchy, fades to a bruise - Mozzies

Ah didn't see your update!

Good, fleas aren't too hard to get rid of. :)

Skipton I feel like we are fortunate its not bed bugs! Dog has been treated and now we are on the way to treating the infestation

Meant to reply yesterday but didn't get around to it....

We had bedbugs. And I first noticed some little blood drops on the bedsheet where our feet would be. I didnt really have bite marks on me so just thought it was a gnat or something. i flip my mattress every 6 months so it was a month or so later,

Bed bugs will come out at night. They are attracted to carbon dioxide you breathe out. So during the day they will mostly be hidden. If you check your mattress you need to check around the zip/folds on the edge. They will also hide in wooden bed frames, window and door frames and in any wooden furniture so it's not just beds.

We think ours might have come back from a trip a few months before to Indonesia. When we got back the suitcases went under the bed in our spare room in our flat. Having no outdoor space I used to dry our washing in our spare room and think as I was folding washing and then transferring it to our wardrobes etc some of the little buggers got moved from there to our room.

When I flipped the mattress I could see a couple of little apple pip sized bugs. When I called pest control the man called me to show me DOZENS! All in and around the mattress seams.

The bed time to check is during the night when you've been sleeping in the room.

They are buggers to get hold off and it's recommended you have 2-3 pest sprays at least. And you can't just move out to a friends while the treatment is done a) because you might take them with you and b) you need to sleep in the rooms affected to entice the shits out with your carbon dioxide so they come out and walk on the spray and die.

I really hope it's not bed bugs. They caused havoc and upheaval in our house for a month but we did get rid of them.

Should've read the update before I posted! What a relief!!

Thank goodness.

We had bedbugs - DP travelled to Africa a lot with work and we kept the suitcases under our bed. It was awful. We moved house and ditched the mattress, but were living in London in the heat of summer and I was sleeping in long pjs to stop them getting at me.