covered in bites - is it bedbugs? at wits end

[bedbugs]

i am having a complete nightmare with bites and need help please.

currently bites all over body, coming at night and daytime, haven't found what exactly is biting me so must be small and hidden. night time bites are waking me up - havent had proper sleep for over a week.

this hasnt happened to us since last november, when we were bitten like crazy for a few weeks, sprayed everywhere, washed everthing etc etc, then nothing until now.

before that, we had been bitten in our rented house, for months and months and months, we hired rentokil twice, ended up throwing out all upstairs furniture when we moved house, and took all our clothes to dry cleaners.

so this saga running for afew years, and i am just devasted that whatever is biting us is back.

its destroying our marriage, and our sanity, and our peace of mind.

what on earth can we do????
we have hunted for bedbugs but cant find anything anywhere, but dont know of another creature that would hassle like this and could hibernate for long periods .

please help me

It may be bedbugs, you can see black dots which I think are their faeces.

The only think that will get rid of the is pest control, and as you have discovered that is not certain. We had them years ago and actually got rid of all of our bedroom furniture.

We just bought some white bedsheets to look for the black marks etc, god it is SO disgusting and upsetting, and worst is getting no sleep, I am going INSANE.

id you ever get a recurrence after furniture throwout? We just bought a gorgeous new bad afew months ago but anything for peace of mind and proper life again.

Could the bites be from fleas? They hibernate for long periods I think, and would be active in the daytime too.
There is a lot of publicity about bed bugs in the US at the mo, as they are on the increase due to more people staying in hotels.

www.medicinenet.com/bed_bugs/page2.htm

No we didn't, but we had the hole house fumigated and we moved soon after. The whole experience meant that I could never sleep there again.

We had Australian backpackers who had rented the house before us, I think that is where they came from.

Are you sure these aren't from cat/dog fleas? If you have a dog or cat which comes into your house occasionally, fleas may be the problem, If the fleas don't have a cat or dog to bite, they will bite you and they will remain in the carpet for ages waiting for someone to bite!!

Bed bugs are apparently now rife in new York and are the devil to get rid of even with pest control. I saw it on tv recently. Have you had pest control in yet?

No cats or dogs here unfortunately.

No pest control in yet, but am heading to doctor tomorrow and then will call out Pest control folks. Although Rentokil were no good in eliminating this earlier so am not holding my breath.

Feeling totally traumatised, vulnerable and overwhelmed with the enormity of it all really. ANd praying that they dont start biting my children.

Fleas often hide in cracks around the house. If the people who owned the place before you had pets, the fleas may still be there. Just a thought.

We're having a dreadful time at the moment with fleas DS2 is bitten really badly and DH keeps finding them on himself We've just spent the last two days blitzing the house, especially the boys' bedrooms.We've washed all their toys and all their clothes, and literally emptied their rooms to clean the carpets and beds with a steam cleaner. We've spent a fortune on sprays and powders which are meant to be professional ones - just hoping that we've got rid of them.

Really feel for you - someone told us that one flea can lay hundreds of eggs so once they start hatching that's when the problems start It seems to happen to us every summer - we thought it was worse when we'd been away and then disturbed them in the carpets once we got back, but we've only had a couple of days away this year.

fatzak i really feel for you

we are thinking to try using a steam cleaner too - it seems to be taking over our lives right now and somehow puts everything into perspective.

I do hope your hard work pays off and your family can get back to normal living.

Please update again on this thread, it is good to connect with your similar tale.

thankyou LeninGrad, I am so grateful for your support.

Bedbugs, what are the bites like to look at? Bedbug bites often have a visble puncture at the centre. (I only had one run-in with the feckers, at a dingy Parisian hotel. I've never forgotten it!) There's a site here which shows photos of bedbug bites. (Warning: it's really grisly!) Do yours look like that?

Bedbugs hide in the cracks down beds, between the frame and the mattress, or in the joints of furniture, or (often) in flaking plaster and behind peeling wallpaper. If you moved house, there's a good chance you would have got rid of them and perhaps it's fleas instead?

Fleas are the very devil. We have had a really persistent flea problem this year, which got a lot worse after our cat died. They can't sustain a population (ie, breed) on human blood, apparently, but the eggs lie dormant in carpets and soft furnishings and cracks in the floor for bloody ages. We went through three or four cannisters of strong spray and also some Skoosh, which is a silicone spray that immobilises and kills them. You have to vaccuum all the time. I thought we got them in the end.

And then a few weeks ago, we started getting the odd bite again. Must have missed one egg. It seems to have gone now, but there's been no animal in the house who could have reinfected us.

Poor you, I'm scratching just reading this!

super heat treatments may be the only way to get rid

Thankyou for the links to the other sites. OMG OMG OMG

Trying to stay calm and positive and taking action but feeling very shaky and emotional if really honest .

Spoke with a Pest Control man today and have taken some photos to send him, hopefully he can confirm whether it is the dreaded BB or not.

Saw Doctor who said yes insect bites, but couldnt confirm the exact type of critter who had covered my body.

Praying for some sleep tonight.

this was on the radio this morning, they were talking about the problem in NYC. i really feel for you, it sounded awful.

I really feel for you, it seems like a real nightmare to deal with, but there seem to be lots of online support groups that may help you.

Have you tried making the bed legs too slippery or taping them with carpet tape? It sounds like they normally manage to follow you even when you move house which is hideous.

I am feeling paranoid about staying in hotels after Reading those articles.

We are going to New York in three weeks and I am beginning to dread going.

I read you should get a pest controller who guarentees to clear bedbugs in one go and ask for phone numbers of 5 previous cstomers with bedbugs to check that they cleared in one session. Should weed out the ineffective operators.

Thankyou for your supportive posts. yes on radio 4 and on Jeremy Vine today so at least we are topical

A first visit from a Pest control guy today -I really like your idea FattyArbuckel about asking for 5 references for previous successful treatments.

It seems that we have got to find one of the bugs first before people are willing to proceed with treatment, so we have put two traps down, as well as taping bed legs with carpet tape.

every itch and scratch I am jumping into air, horrid totally horrid. And dreading going to bed at night.

It is all so intense, but at least I feel we are doing something with traps, tape, using all white bedsheets etc.

Thankyou for your supportive posts, so appreciated.

I would speak to the council as well because having investigated cockroach eradication today I discovered my council will get rid of bedbugs for a very small charge and some councils do it for free.