AIBU to burn the house down? What’s biting us?

[LightBe]

My boyfriend was travelling by train this summer and was bitten by something on his leg. (It might be relevant to know that a stranger’s dog was sitting on the floor, by my boyfriend’s feet, at the time).

His bite became infected and required multiple rounds of antibiotics.

Since then, we’ve been bitten a further seven times. The bites have always been on our calves apart from one on my lower belly. They leave awful scars.

All of the bites have required antibiotics.

The situation is starting to feel hopeless because we just don’t know what we’re fighting here and, as I have an autoimmune disease, it’s unhelpful to be taking all of these antibiotics.

I’ve attached some pictures of our bites (before the infection really takes hold and becomes gruesome). Can anyone please identify them?

Ooh that does look bad! Poor you. It looks bruised also

Tick bite? Don't they have the bullseye telltale marks/ring?

I was going to guess bed bugs. I'd get a professional bug remover. A lot of the sprays they use work against a broad range of insects.

A colleague recently confided to me that she had been infested with bed bugs. They were everywhere , you couldn't miss them.
She would wake up and see them on the headboard. Skirting boards, every room.
They seemed to breed like wildfire. I'm sure if it was bedbugs after all this time, you'd definitely know you had them.
Bless her, she has finally got rid of them now. (Never saw any bites like that on her though)

I'm sorry I can't be of any help identifying what they are but just wanted to let you know if you want to treat your mattress breadsoda is great for treating insects. Sprinkle it on and.leave for few hours then vaccum. It dries them out. And neem oil kills them by interfering with their nervous system. I would wipe some on wooden or metal parts of the bed. I hope you find out soon.

If the red circle is spreading it may still be infected so I'd go back to GP tomorrow.

Doesn't sound like bed bugs to me, I think you'd be being bitten a lot more, and more regularly.

Lyme disease?

I agree with other posters in that you’d probably know by now for sure if you had bed bugs. I’m not a medical professional but I’d make a pen mark on a section where that red ring is and take a photo tonight. If the red ring moves in relation to the drawn on mark, you’ve got something tangible to show your GP.

Second the draw a line round to see if that gets any bigger, that looks really sore OP

In terms of whatever's biting you, it might be worth getting some of those bug bomb things (from Amazon). I used them when we had fleas here (brought in by mice I think) and they were 100% effective. You can go back into your rooms relatively quickly afterwards.

That's a false widow bite in my opinion. I've been bitten twice and both times it came up just like that. I would suggest your boyfriend picked it up on the train and it's made it home in or around your bed/bedding.

False widows don't bite to be aggressive, they bite in fear so if it's in your bed and your sleeping leg approaches then it would give you a nip.

I would suggest stripping the bed carefully, and having a good look in the corners and slats for a messy bundle type spiders web.

Ticks can leave a red ring if they are carrying Lyme so get it checked. You could have ticks in your garden, but not all bites will react.
NOT a false widow. They very rarely bite, are big enough to notice walking around your house, and any false widow would have made its way into a ceiling space or cupboard, depending on the species. One bite, maybe. Many bites over months, no.
I have loads of false widows in my house and none of us has ever been bitten. They only bite if threatened, so being poked or crushed.

I second possible false widow bites.

And also your possible solution - maybe not burning the house but the bedding, mattress and bed 😬.

Hard to tell if that latest bite has the bullseye rash of a tick bite, or is just spreading infection, but you do need to see a doc.

I can't help on the identification but if the bites are happening at night I would destroy every single item of bedding you own from the mattess up and replace them. Not cheap I know but better than living with your current situation.

I would have thought you would have noticed a tick on your calf, but they can be very tiny.
I really dont believe you would have had so many false widow bites, over such a long period, as a false widow bite is a rare and random occurence.

Many years ago my friend had bites like this, her and her boyfriend were both bitten. At one point she was bitten on her cheek and her face was so swollen that one eye was closed for a week. They had no idea at all what could be biting them, but they did find a huge and terrifying black insect in their house, and after that had been destroyed they had no more bites. Their house was behind tesco, and they thought the insect had possibly come in from some tropical fruit, as it looked like no UK insect they could identify. This is probably not helpful !
Maybe contact an entomological society, there are lots of spider people on twitter who i frequently contact for spider id , they might be able to offer an opinion on the bites, or know of insect experts who could comment.
Spiders have two fangs, so spider bites will have two tiny holes, rather than one. If there is one hole centrally then it is something else.

If you had bedbugs or fleas surely you would be being bitten every night and not just once now and again

Thank you for your replies. I’m new to Mumsnet and feel genuinely grateful to everyone who’s taken the time to try and help.

I’ve contacted 111 and have to go to see an out-of-hours GP tonight. I have a low grade fever (this happens every time) and so they think that the bite is infected.

I’d love if one of the doctors could say “That looks like a ... bite”, but it hasn’t happened yet.

I’m quite phobic about spiders and feel reluctant to search for images of false widows online (). Can anyone tell me how large they are? Are they something that you would feel crawling up your leg?

This sounds so grim for you and your leg looks very sore. I hope you get some answers from the doctor this evening

CharlesChickens (your username makes me smile) - Could you please share the details of your spider Twitter contacts?

I’ll post a picture to them and ask if they can identify the bite.

This situation is starting to get me down - it’s not about the bites, as such, it’s more about the quantity of antibiotics I’m having to take and how they are already affecting my IgA levels (immunity) - so I’m happy to reach out to anyone who might be able to help.

Ouch OP! I hope you get answers and treatment. Don’t image search false widows, I just did and if you’re phobic it won’t help!! I’d be following advice and binning all the bedding though as something is living in your bed somewhere it seems, hopefully not a nest of falseys. Hope you get to the bottom of it. I’ve seen Blandford fly bites before and they do look like that, but the ones I saw literally stopped the person walking, they are huge and very painful. Best of luck OP.

Yes you absolutely would feel one crawling! The adult females , who are the only ones large enough to bite you, are a medium sized spider with a distinctive large glossy abdomen and shortish legs. Steotoda Nobilis tend to live fairly high up, in the corners of rooms or window frames. Steotoda Grossa live low down in the bottoms of cupboards and like to eat woodlice. They tend to stay in thier web, they do not wander about, they arent great at walking. There is another variety, Steotoda Bipunctata , the rabbit hutch spider, that is the smallest of the three species.

Start with @BritishSpiders , a font of knowlege ! But my feeling is not a spider. ( i could be wrong, obv, but spider bites are rare) .

Ticks normally stay attached once they've bitten and then they'll feed until they are swollen and lighter in colour and then they drop off, so you tend to see the tick, I have been bitten both by Blandford and Horseflies but I've never had the white head just a big swollen angry welt.

Looks like a staphylococcus infection.