Do we have bedbugs? I am desperate for advice!

[bedbugdesperation]

Dear Mumsnet,

For the last two months or so, myself and my DH have been struggling with insect bites that we seem to receive in bed. The bites look (and feel) very similar to mosquito bites, but we live in northern England and it is of course completely the wrong time of year for mosquitos.

I have researched this online and I am pretty sure we have bedbugs. (Largely because of what the bites look like and the fact that we receive them in bed!) However, my DH has also separately researched this, and he has shown me some things that make me think I might be wrong – for example, he has found info suggesting a bedbug insect is about the same shape as an apple pip, but a 5th of the size. That should still be easily visible to a careful look – and we have had many careful looks over the past few weeks – but we have never seen the culprits. They also leave rusty-coloured excretions (god this is so gross), and again, no sign of these. So ... could it be something else? In which case, what – and should our strategy for getting rid of them be different?

When this problem first reared its head, I bought an anti-bedbug mattress encaser, and put it on our mattress. I then took all our bedding (duvets and pillows as well as duvet covers, sheets etc) to a laundrette and washed them all together as hot as I could, and tumble-dried them hot too. This led to about a week with no new bites, but they have slowly built back up again. I suppose I will need to redo this chore, but what else should I be doing? I am desperate to fix this problem, which is both physically uncomfortable and increasingly emotionally distressing, as the feeling of a biting insect population living in our bed is very unsettling.

We have one cat who sleeps on our bed in the day time, but he is up to date on his flea meds. He had a flea problem a couple of years ago, and as a result of that experience I am confident that this is not a flea problem as the bites were totally different. He doesn't seem extra-itchy (unlike me and DH!) so I wonder if he is not being bitten.

Please help me decide what bugs are doing this to us and how to tackle them!

Ps: yes agree with others, do boil wash EVERYTHING but they live in and around the bed (furniture, skirting) so it won't eliminate them. You need fumigation and heat treatment - and even that hasn't completely worked for us yet, but we're trying to trust the pest control team who say they'll all be dead in 3 weeks

It's as though I could have written this myself. We had same issue for months and were convinced it was bedbugs as it was only happening at night time. We even contacted pest control who categorically confirmed it wasn't. Anyway, a couple of weeks later it got worse and the bites increased massively...then we discovered it was actually midges in the house! Your pic looks like the bites we have had and they're midges cos I've actually seen them around now. Get yourself the Raid spray and plenty of insect repellant and see if that makes any difference. Good luck!

What flea treatment do you use for your cat ? Is it on prescription ?

Ok that bed bug video is going to give me nightmares all night now!

@OhBeAFineGuyKissMe nightmares would be lovely - they're actually IN MY BED 😱

Put some double sided tape around the bottom of the mattress and bed. If it's bed bugs you'll catch some on the tape. You need to fumigate the room as they can live in carpet and clothes easily.

They look like flea bites to me, which would be the most logical explanation if your cat sleeps on your bed. Fleas can build up resistance to flea treatments over time so regular treating with the same treatment can eventually become ineffective. More fleas live in the environment than on the animal. I’d probably start by treating the bedroom with Indorex spray and washing all bedding at 60 degrees and hoovering the mattress and flea combing the cat or trying a different preventative and seeing if that makes a difference before jumping to a conclusion of bed bugs.

Food grade diatomaceous earth kills all sorts of bugs including bedbugs, carpet beetles, fleas etc. It can also irritate lungs so you have to be careful were you put it (e.g. don't sprinkle it on a mattress because it will be disturbed and then could irritate your airways). You can sprinkle it in cracks and crevices. Have a google, it's natural and cheaper than bringing in pest controllers.

I watched the video and now feel really itchy. I sympathise with anyone who has an infestation, I'm not sure I could stand it. I've lived in 2 houses that had flea infestations and it was horrific both times was really hard to get rid of. One of them was at Uni and you could watch the fleas jump into hot drinks from the carpet 🤢

Fleas unless your using proper vet meds cheap super market ones don't kill all fleas and eggs. And fleas can barely be seen until they appear when a warm body is in the bed. It's fairly self explanatory with saying cat sleeps on the bed also. Had this problem ourselves from a cat we rescued was supposed to be fleas up to date and within a week we were being bitten in bed. Took her to the vet and turned out he flea treatment was way out of date. They treated cat and gave us some Indorex for the bed. Within 2 days of spraying mattress, getting rid of duvet and pillows we weren't bitten anymore.

@bedbugdesperation
how are things going OP?
I hope you managed to solve the problem and get rid of whatever it was!!
We are going through a similar thing here 🙁