...to be freaked out I could have bedbugs?

[userofthiswebsite]

I keep getting bitten on the face. This has been going on a long time now. Normally it will just be say a couple, sometimes on the cheek area or sometimes on the hairline. Though recently I got lots of bites all in one go, on one cheek and then a week later on the other cheek.
I've not noticed bites anywhere else on my body.
So I am a bit worried I have bed bugs. I have looked at the mattress (white/cream coloured all over) to look for bugs and not seen any. I've looked on the seams of the mattress and I've looked at the bed sheet (white) to see if there are any black-red smudges or dots and can't see anything. I also lifted up the mattress and couldn't see anything. I've not been away or travelled for a good few years and I live alone.
But I don't know where all these horrid bites are coming from. My only other suspicion is that we have a common bin room with 5 large Biffa bins where all the flats chuck their rubbish and I go down twice a week to take down the rubbish and wonder if I could be being bitten by anything 'hanging out' in there... I'm outside for an hour a day walking but just in the street so that's not an immediate suspicion.

I'm due to see a dermatologist shortly (for another matter) but will raise this at the same time but does anyone have any words of wisdom. When my colleague suggested bedbugs I've been feeling quite sick at the thought of it as I know they are a nightmare.

Go see your doc immediately. I was staying at part of a famous Scottish "spiritual" retreat in north Scotland and was bitten on the face, which blew up over the next couple of days. By the time I got to a doctor he said I was lucky not to have lost my sight and yes bedbugs. And I wasn't the only one - defumigation (against their green principles) had to be employed. And no compensation. Really scandalous

I hope you haven't got them….

I went through a stage a couple of months ago when I was being bitten on my face only. Went through everything you've described and there were no bed bugs. I do think I'd been bitten by either midges or mosquitoes as spend a lot of time outdoors in the garden even through the winter. I'm terrifically allergic to bites but nth hadn't taken precautions through the winter just assuming nothing's around but they are!

We’ve had experience of bbs in a variety of properties and they were never on the face like yours

However your first pic looks very similar to the bites

If they are biting your face they must be residing somewhere very convenient to your face rather than the rest of your body

I wouldn’t fuck I’d just call pest control for treatment

pallisers - oh believe me I've spent a LOT of hours reading up about them... hence the dread as they are a bugger to remove, it's not a simple spray job.

pleasebeafleabite - yep those photos are a bad batch - to be fair it's not normally that bad. Like I've got a new one on the chin and it it's just one on it's own.

namechange222
I don't have a garden but am outside for an hour each day as walk to and from work, 30 mins each day.

blueskypink
Nope literally such a long time since I've not slept anywhere but at home so not picked up something from someone's place or a hotel. So I don't know how I would have got them.
It's not super easy to say when I get bit because, due to my skin being all horrid as a result of all this, I always have a thick layer of makeup on. The one that's come up by my mouth today I felt developing as I washed my face last night, I could just feel that slight bump.

The derm gave me a course of antibiotics, some hydrocortisone cream and some Dermol lotion and told me to come back in 3 months.

To add, I asked the derm if she had seen cases of bedbugs even though she made it clear she didn't want to talk about it and she said it doesn't look like it, and that she didn't think they were bites. The nurse said I'd be being bitten on the limbs if it were.

I would bet anything that you are being bitten on your walk. Maybe try not walking for a couple of days to see if anything changes. Your bites ( they are bites!) look exactly like mine do. I'm out in the garden in the day and then notice the first bump feeling on my face that evening, Ive had a new patio at the top of my garden and have now noticed there are hordes of midges above it.
Could you try wearing a mosquito repellent when walking?

Sorry to hear this is happening to you OP. I was being bitten by something last summer and it genuinely messed with my head and certainly messed with my sleep. I never found out what it was but the bites did cease. As I was trying to find out what was biting me I called a pest control company (you get cheaper/set rates if you do it through the council in my area) who arranged for bed bug monitoring to be carried out. This involved a guy setting some traps and then coming back 7 days later to pick them up and see whether there was any evidence. He didn't find any evidence and I didn't see anything such as blood on my sheets or casings etc. I thought I'd mention it in case you wanted to look into it yourself.

Good luck in finding the answer OP.

About 12 years ago, I had bed bugs in my house. DP was bitten on the face and nose as well as elsewhere. I was bitten in different places. Was awful. I would wake up and find bugs on the bed and pillows and small marks of blood on the sheet and pillows .

I suggest you set the alarm for 2am, get up at that time and check your bed, pillows and sheet. If you have bed bugs, you are likely to find some then.

I hope you don't as it was hard work trying to get rid of them.

Good luck!

Hey op. I've had acne and bed bug bites. Your photo looks like acne to me. Why are you convinced it's bites and not spots?

I stayed in a holiday house with friends a few years ago. We all got bed bug bites. I had over 50 bites on my arms, legs, stomach and back. None of us got bitten on our faces at all. The bites are ridiculously itchy. It's another level above bad mosquito bites.

Honestly, this doesn't look or sound like bed bugs.

A female bed bug lays, on average, 7 eggs a day. So if you'd had them for 2-3 years your room would be crawling with them.

We had an infestation after a holiday. A very small infestation - my pest control guy had to take my entire bed apart before he finally found a bug. But even with such a small infestation, it was obvious we had them once I knew what to look for - black spots and blood spots on the sheets, and eggs and exoskeletons in the seams of the sheet. So you really would know if you had them.

Bites don't tend to have pus in them, unless you've scratched them and they've subsequently become infected.

As others have said, these are more likely to be common or garden spots than bites.

In addition, bed bugs, although on the up, are still very rare in the UK - they tend to come in on the clothes of people who've been traveling abroad, and they're quite noticeable.

Other things which might bite are also unlikely because of positioning of the bites. There are bugs, called triatomine bugs (Kissing bugs, Assassin bugs etc.) which might bite you on the face, but they only live in South America (and are huge - you'd notice them).

It's not the right time of the year for mossies, and the wrong time and geographical area for sand flies.

You'd feel it if it were horseflies, and they don't look like gnat bites (especially if you say it looks like they had 'fangs').

Ticks would bite around your ankles when you walked through grass, and generally be attached for a while.

I might be wrong but I don't think it's the right time of the year for spider bites - they usually come out in summer I think?

So, my guess would be normal zits - sorry!

Do you have ladybirds in your house? They might be a possibility.

I was worried about BB a while ago and rentokil sent out some traps to test for them. (Think it was about £30), didn't use them in the end as it was a ladybird problem.
Feel your pain

WobblyBanana I also thought it's not the right time of the year for mossies but while in my garden I can definitely see lots of gnats mostly in one particular area where I've recently had a lot of work carried out. That's where I'm sure I've also been bitten all over my face. My bites became filled with pus and took a couple fo weeks to go too ( all bites I get fill with pus as I seem to react terribly)

I am so shocked at how you were treated by the dermatologist. You can choose what you want to discuss with her?? WTF, she is a doctor!! Sorry OP, this bit just floored me!

I am not in the UK, but I have to say those do not look like bed bug bites to me. I am not sure if you get such a thing there, it is a bug spray, but it is not the normal type that you just spray. This one is called a Fogger, and you close up the area that needs spraying, release the button and it sprays for quite a while, you then leave the area closed up for the day, and it really does work well.

Just wondering if there is something that you have eaten, or used that is new, it could be some sort of allergy, and without knowing you have scratched it, and they have become a little infected. Another alternative, is to apply a bug repellent before you go out, go to bed, any where that you suspect the bites are taking place.

I would go to your gp for sure though, if they are infected they might scar. And you do need to get clarification on this.

Still bloody shocked about the derm dr though.

@namechange222 are you sure it's pus?

I work in microbiology (specialising in parasitology as it happens, including some medical entomology), pus is where the body sends lots of white blood cells to fight infections caused by eg. staphylococci or streptococci. It looks yellow, and doesn't tend to be associated with itchy bites unless those bacteria are introduced by scratching.

Bites are not infections. The redness is caused by a hypersensitive reaction by the immune system, and no pus is formed by that particular reaction, which is more like an allergy. Sometimes you can get blisters forming, but they're filled with serous (watery) fluid, not pus (unless, as I've said, there's a bacterial infection which is introduced after the event).

If there is pus, it's an infection, not a bite, and in any case if you google gnat bites they just don't look like the pics.

It might possibly be fleas, or lice, if there's no pus? Not wanting to freak you out OP, but headlice can bite around the hairline (not sure about the rest of the face though, unless your hair touches your face while you're asleep?). Do you have children who may have picked something up at school maybe?

If there are animals around (you don't say that there are though) they may be carrying fleas?

Stumbled across this thread while searching for bed bug info.....

It's really helpful.

I'm convinced I have bed bugs and have pulled apart my bedroom and vacuumed every crevice. I've washed my bedding every day on 60. And I've replaced my duvet and pillows.
I've washed my curtains.
Not found anything. But we keep getting bites in lines of three.

I'm absolutely at my wits end. The paranoia is awful!
But I've found nothing. At all.

I'm going to get a mosquito repellant plug in thing today. I wondered if this would help?

I've used the pet flea carpet spray and talc things too last week.

Has anyone any better suggestions.

Thanks!

I know this is a very old thread, but I was bitten to death by mosquitoes last week - face, upper arms, torso and legs. I woke up with about 15 bites. My bed is very close to the windows, which were all wide open at night. I never heard them!
I have now altered the way the bedroom is ventilated at night and keep those windows closed, and I have not been bitten again. In this tropical type heat, my first thought would always be mossies.