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?

It's not a tick bite, there would be a white ring around the bite and then a red ring.
Boil wash bedding, have a good spray with indoorex ( from pet shop) and dust carpets, bed frame and mattress with diatomaceous earth ( get food grade not the pool cleaning stuff).
Leave down for a few days then hoover up.
It's messy, but highly effective and cheap.

Thank you for the new replies.

I didn’t sleep until after 3am last night. I must be a sadist because I googled false widow spiders (to ‘know thy enemy’) and, well... let’s just say it was a big, huge, MASSIVE mistake!

The bites or MRSA do respond well to antibiotics.

We’ve always been prescribed Amoxicillin and it clears the white head part within a few days. My boyfriend’s original bite took weeks longer.

I’m going to boil wash everything again today, inspect the bed (with a glass of wine for courage and Crucifix for exorcism), and hope something makes itself visible...

Good luck op!

It would be very strange for a false widow to repeatedly bite over many months. It obviously will not be in your bed as you will have changed the bedding many times over that period.

If it was under the frame then it would stay there, they dont move around much. I think you need to see another GP and explain that you and your boyfriend are getting these lesions repeatedly and that it has been going on for months.

CharlesChickens - would the fact that we’re renovating our house affect the behaviour of false widows?

It’s been a major renovation - all internal walls and ceilings pulled down (including the loft), ground floor excavated, etc. We really did strip the house to its bare bones.

It’s a Victorian clay-lump/bat cottage and we’ve certainly seen a number of spiders (big, small and everything in-between) crawling about the place.

I sometimes wonder whether the dog on the train is a red herring - that, whatever was hiding in my boyfriend’s trousers, was already there and had come from the house.

I wash our bed linen 1-2 times every week and always have. Frustratingly, I haven’t spotted anything on them.

I’ve just looked through our photos and the first bite was in early May. In the eight months since then, I’ve had five bites.

CharlesChickens - Actually, thinking more about this...

It’d probably help for you to know that, whilst the worst of the renovation is over and we were able to move back into the house in May, it’s still not fully ‘sealed’ and finished.

By that, I mean that although we have walls back up and plastered, we still don’t have final floor finishes, skirting boards, etc.

I dont think you can identify the biter from the bite. You need to start investigating for all the biters, fleas ticks and bedbugs which may e the most likely. google investigating and treating, hotels are quite good at this. The demons are good at hiding in the day. Treat any cats and carpets for fleas

Hmm...well that certainly might have disturbed some creatures that would otherwise have been quietly getting on with their lives. Like i said, i have LOADS of false widows, they like my conservatory and kitchen cupboards, but i have found the odd one elsewhere, in a shoebox, in an upstairs cupboard. I have never seen one walking about the house as they tend to stay put, their legs arent great for walking about. Only if one has been dislodged have i seen it walking.
Have you seen any spiders that look like false widows ?
If you see any spider, take a pic with your Phone and tweet it to British Spiders who will identify it.
I will ask DH if he has any ideas. Have you seen anyother creatures at all as you’ve been pulling things out ?

I think the train is definitely a red herring.

Call a pest control company, I don't see this getting better without a professional involved.

Woodlouse spiders can bite, as they have strong fangs designed to pierce the woodlouse carapace. They are a gingery colour.
Cellar spiders can also bite, although they look incredibly fragile with long, very thin legs and a little body. Again, i have loads of them and have never been bitten.
House spiders are not usually able to pierce skin, even though they can be very large, so almost certainly not those.

I can say it is definitely not fleas. Nothing like a flea bite.

I would take to twitter, contact british spiders and ask for suggestions for entomological orgs to also ask. Explain the renovation element as i do think that is key.
Have you had windows open during the renovation ?

I would think MRSA. I get boils at times that look just like the top pictures. I'd say I get five or so a year, usually in the same place. Very tender, then the whitehead pops or reduces and it eventually heals. I wonder if the first one got infected?

@LightBe
If a red circle forms round the outside, it's ringworm, a fungal infection. You have not been bitten by anything. You can catch it from another person or in contact with their clothes, towels etc.

I would be tempted to show those pictures to the school of tropical medicine in Liverpool.

I would also strip bedding etc. and use a bomb in the room. Of course it could be that you are getting bitten in the evening before bed and the critter is elsewhere in the house.

Check underneath the piping of the mattress too, that’s where I found the spider. Do you have a steamer? I steamed the mattress to kill any eggs.

I've been bitten by spiders a handful of times this year, and in all cases there were clearly 2 holes not 1 in the wound, with radial swelling and some pain but no pus. The first 2 were lace webs, the 3rd (and worst) was a tube web (we have an infestation in the garage eves) and the latest was a bog-standard large house spider, later found dead under the sheets (I joke it died of alcohol poisoning as it was the night of a World Cup England match!!). Despite this, I still like spiders!

@belinda789 this is nothing like ringworm. Have you seen the original pics

For what it's worth I had bedbugs and although I know bites react differently for everyone mine were nothing like this. They came in little clusters and were quite consistent. We also have false widows and I've never been bitten, my neighbour has and it was a one off, I think they bite and move on. It would be unusual to get reoccurring bites I think. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon OP.

Oh yes tube webs can bite. Rare for house spiders to have strong enough fangs, but if you get a massive one and it is being squashed i suppose it might have a go !

I was surprised at the house one, but it was the underside of my wrist. I think it was a house spider (unusually big) but DH threw it away in horror before I got a proper look.

The fact that you have a reduced immune system might be relevant - maybe you’re reacting in a way that most people wouldn’t, which could be why it’s so difficult to identify. You have my sympathies, though - it looks awful!

I’ve been bitten by a tick and got Lyme disease. I didn’t found the tick but the bite looked very much like the last pic you posted. It wasn’t raised but the red circle grew larger and larger, then started to disappear after a month. I’d never heard of Lyme disease so it got worse and worse and I ended up in hospital one year later with what looked like meningitis.

Do you do a lot of walking in the woods or countryside? Some running or a lot of gardening?