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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want to burn my house down

30 replies

JSweetpea1234 · 08/08/2021 16:42

I cannot believe this is real life. I think I may have bedbugs and I’m distraught about it

I have attached a picture of bites. Most of them are singular all around my body but mainly on my legs. None on arms/face
Does everyone agree they look like bug bites?? no pets so not fleas?

After a week of waking up itching it dawned on me on Friday after googling the bites and I havnt slept properly since. It’s giving me really bad anxiety and paranoia
I haven’t recently travelled I havnt a clue how this could just happen??

I’m waiting to cal the council in the morning so I can have someone come and do a pest investigation. Apparently it’s a very expensive job and very hard work to get rid of of it is them. Posting on here because there’s not a chance I can tell anybody in real life Atleast till it’s all over.

Can somebody please share their stories where they 100% thought bed bites but it turned out not to be????
4:30 and I’m on my second red large wine hoping it will act as a sedative

OP posts:

greenalltheway · 08/08/2021 16:48

Do you leave bedroom windows open? More likely to be mozzie bites surely?

Ive been ravaged by the little blighters recently.

Original poster

JSweetpea1234 · 08/08/2021 16:50

Also I have checked my mattress and headboard couldn’t find anything put bedding on a hot wash and slept on the sofa. When I woke up I was itching like I had more bites. Terrified they are in my sofa too. Nowhere to sit without the feeling of bugs everywhere. The anxiety is awful 😔

OP posts:

LakeShoreD · 08/08/2021 16:50

Can somebody please share their stories where they 100% thought bed bites but it turned out not to be????
My DH. He was nibbled by mosquitoes in Florida whilst loading the car up with luggage. Then got on the plane home and he was convinced he caught bed bugs on the plane. He has flair for medical dramatics. Have you even been anywhere you’d be likely to catch bed bugs like a hotel?

NCwhatsmynameagain · 08/08/2021 16:51

Not sure those are bedbug bites, they normally look quite red and angry, although it can vary… plus they normally would bite the parts of your body where you are exposed, so arms and face both likely. A straight line of bites also indicative.
It doesn’t just randomly happen, they have to be brought into the house by one of you, if you or your belongings have been in close enough contact with someone else or their belongings, for one or more to hop across.
You can try having a look? Little brown spots on your sheets (dried blood or bedbug poo) or pull off the sheets and examine the mattress, they hide in the folds/creases/seams. Good luck OP, I know it’s horrible thinking about it.

Original poster

JSweetpea1234 · 08/08/2021 16:51

Do we have mozzies in the uk? I do leave windows open but when I get by mozzies abroad I have a bad reaction and they swell really badly. These are more tiny itchy bites that are scattered

OP posts:

ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba · 08/08/2021 16:52

fiery death of house it is.

Timeforabiscuit · 08/08/2021 16:54

If they are in a row they could be fleas rather than bed bugs, itch like mad too.

If you have pets this could be a possibility, and the eggs can be dormant for a few years I think until the hot weather brings them out.

Northernsoullover · 08/08/2021 16:55

Are your bites in a row? You typically have a breakfast, lunch and dinner pattern with bedbug bites? Is there blood on your sheets? Mattress? Typically you will get spotting in your bed if its bedbugs. Check in the top corner and bottom corner seems of your mattress. Bedbugs are actually quite visible. Pull the seam so you can examine it. I do a little bit of pest control assessment for my job so know what to look for.

Original poster

JSweetpea1234 · 08/08/2021 16:55

I last stayed in a hotel 3 weeks ago. Would it take till now to realise? Surely if I had brought them back I would have noticed/itched instantly?
I am praying the pest man says it’s not bed bugs. I will take anything else. Including scabies.

OP posts:

Norugratsatall · 08/08/2021 17:03

Yes of course we get mosquitos in the UK! They love me and their bites come up as huge red itchy lumps. Yours look like gnat or midges bites. Unlikely to be bed bugs I think unless you can see evidence of them in your bed (spotting as other posters have said). Take an antihistamine- should help with the itching.

BelleVale · 08/08/2021 17:05

I had a similar experience and was convinced we had bed bugs but couldn't find the tell-tale signs, specks of blood on sheets etc. I also think it's much more likely to be mosquitoes. I sleep with the bedroom window open and often get bitten. They breed in standing water and there's bound to be lots around with all the rain we've had.

flumposie · 08/08/2021 17:07

I've thought I've had bed bugs in the past but found no evidence in the bed. I think more likely to something from the garden or mosquito ( found one in the bathroom last month)

MarleneDietrichsSmile · 08/08/2021 17:08

I got rid of bed bugs myself with the hoover and proper pesticide targeted at bed bugs

Easy enough

No need to panic

MrsMcGarry · 08/08/2021 17:13

I had similar marks and it turned out to be carpet beetles. Pest control spotted their larvae under my bed and got rid in a couple of hours

TheWernethWife · 08/08/2021 17:18

My new ndn, call him B (single man in his late 70s) casually told me that he had 14 dead cockroaches in his house but "couldn't ring the council as he was off playing bowls in the park". I rang the council and arranged and paid for someone from pest control to come down, he had to ring them and pay for a visit to his house.

When the guy came he asked B if the had brought any old furniture from his previous home, no was the answer. We knew he had brought old sideboards and book cases with him (his family confirmed this). Turned out to be wood boring beetles and both houses had to be fumigated. No apology, no money forthcoming and total non-interest from him.

I'm still fuming as we had to be out of the house for 5/6 hours and had to find a safe place for our cats to stay.

burritofan · 08/08/2021 17:18

We had bed bugs and it was HORRIFIC but eventually OK. Check for poo in the seams of mattress. Also the bastards are fairly large and obvious.

You want a company who’ll dismantle your bed and steam kill the fuckers. Then cover the frame with diatomaceous earth, and put a ring of it round the perimeter. Pull the bed away from the wall: bed bugs can’t fly but they will crawl up the wall and drop onto you; you want them crawling through the diatomaceous earth.

Don’t leave the room in the PJs you're in: if you need a 2am wee, strip. When you change sheets, strip bed in room, stuff it in bin bags and seal them. Strip. Carry the sealed bag to the washing machine then unseal it inside the machine; put the bag inside another bag and seal it before taking it out to the bin (clothes on, obviously). Boil wash, tumble dry.

Basically you don’t want to transport the bugs from bedroom to elsewhere, hence all the stripping and sealing. You DO want to still sleep there, because you’re the bait to get them to crawl through the diatomaceous earth.

Don’t be tempted to drag your furniture out and discard; you’ll just drag bed bugs through your house and need to treat rugs, carpets, sofas, curtains too.

Jaguar77 · 08/08/2021 17:21

You have scabies

MoonlightWanderer · 08/08/2021 17:22

On the opposite side of things, I know someone who had bedbugs and when they pulled apart the headboard on the bed it was swarming with them. Have you had a good look at the mattress? You should be able to find them, if they are there. I know how you feel though. I just itched for ages after I hear their story and I hadn’t been anywhere near their house.

Ijustknowitstimetogo · 08/08/2021 17:23

@JSweetpea1234

Do we have mozzies in the uk? I do leave windows open but when I get by mozzies abroad I have a bad reaction and they swell really badly. These are more tiny itchy bites that are scattered

Yes we do. As well a midges and gnats that are similar ‘non mosquito’ bitting little fly type things. They can hang about on ceilings and the corners of rooms. A lot of people are suffering badly from insect bites at the moment.

Assume you’ve ruled out fleas from a pet?

GooodMythicalMorning · 08/08/2021 17:27

they look like midge bites. They've been biting my ankles recently. If it were bedbugs you'd be covered more I think.

Original poster

JSweetpea1234 · 08/08/2021 17:28

This sounds terrifying!
I have definitely been wandering round all the rooms in my pjs I do it all the time 😱 how long did it take for you to be completely bug free??

OP posts:

burritofan · 08/08/2021 17:34

Can’t remember, it’s lost in the haze of general horror around this house. Couple of weeks? The company had to come back and finish the job; there’s a life cycle and you want to kill them all, and the eggs, but also do it all again to kill anything that hatched. Fun times!!!!

ChockysChild · 08/08/2021 17:35

We were convinced that we had bedbugs as we kept getting bite marks on our legs, and thought that they must have come from the hospital as it had a reputation for them and I had just had a stay in there. However, one day I was sitting on the sofa and noticed a flea on my leg - we then realised that they must be coming from a neighbours kitten that kept hanging around our patio doors, which were often open as it was summer, we chased it away from then on and the problem disappeared.

Amandasummers · 08/08/2021 17:36

I’m not going to say what you want me to. I had bed bugs once. I hadn’t travelled (they travel via soft furnishings and materials I believe….so could pick them up anywhere really!) the bites and the itching went on for a long time before discovering the culprits, there were no other signs. After getting really paranoid I had someone in to fumigate but they couldn’t see anything. I gave my sofa a really good clean and hoover. Presumably, this caused a disturbance. Then all of sudden saw them on the bedroom walls above the bed and then on the living room wall above the sofa. It was absolutely horrific. We had to move out, more than one fumigation. God I’m itching just writing this!!! I feel for you if that’s what you have op!!!

Nixandwotsit · 08/08/2021 17:48

Bed bug bites are usually in a line, sometimes they zig zag, and you'd almost certainly see some blood on your bedding. They look a bit more angry than that That doesn't look like bed bug bites to me. You can search along the seams of your mattress to look for evidence of them, but I think you've just been bitten by something less worrying.

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