mysterious bites every morning i wake up...

August 11, 2009 7:37 AM

Mysterious bites found every morning I wake up.

Every morning I wake up I find bits all over my arms and hands....

Previously i had bed bugs but over the past 6/7 months nothing...

since last week whenever i wake up i get bits on my both arms...

they seem to be mosquito bites but i haven't seen any mosquitos..

i do not see any bed bugs..

i am baffled...

posted by minsid to health & fitness (23 comments total)

Previously I had bed bugs

Is it the same bed/bedding? Did you have the bed treated?

I would put my money on bedbugs.
posted by Pragmatica at 7:40 AM on August 11, 2009

Bed bugs can live for up to 18 months without feeding, so chances are they may be back. How did you treat last time?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:43 AM on August 11, 2009

I got something like this, but on my feet - turned out to be cat and dog fleas. They were on the floor, rather than in my bed - I sleep with my feet stuck out of the bed. So if you sleep with arms out they might be getting you that way.
posted by Coobeastie at 7:45 AM on August 11, 2009

same bedding...

however i do not see bedbugs though... before i used to see them all the time...
posted by minsid at 7:45 AM on August 11, 2009

i do sleep with my arms out
posted by minsid at 7:46 AM on August 11, 2009

Bed bugs aren't always easy to find. Sounds like they came back to me. I had them a year ago and never saw them until I was in the middle of treating for them. I'd assume you have them again and work from there.

People will say hire a professional ONLY and don't try to self-treat for them, but I had luck a year ago with spraying Sterifab all over the bedroom and bed frame, followed with food grade DE in the same places as well as along a few baseboards in adjacent rooms and the entryway to my apartment, and bagging the bed and pillows and washing and drying (dry for 2 hours) all the linens/blankets. For the DE you can make a mixture in a spray bottle of the DE with water to spray it into the cracks of the baseboards. Leaves a white dust (the DE) that can then be dusted off once the water evaporates (takes some time and then effort) and enough DE will stay in the cracks to do its job.
posted by lorrer at 7:49 AM on August 11, 2009 [2 favorites]

Oh I also sprayed Sterifab all over my bedroom furniture and in the baseboards before the DE.
posted by lorrer at 7:50 AM on August 11, 2009

Fleas? We had fleas for awhile. Very similar to bedbugs.
posted by GilloD at 7:50 AM on August 11, 2009

==Fleas? We had fleas for awhile. Very similar to bedbugs.==

so fleas are also not visible easily?
posted by minsid at 7:51 AM on August 11, 2009

however i do not see bedbugs though... before i used to see them all the time...

They're devilishly good at hiding, and if you treated a portion of your bed, they may have migrated to a part of the bed that is not treated. Check the seams of the mattress, and inside box springs. If it's a viable option, get rid of the bedding if you find them. If not, see how much it costs to have a professional do the job - they're damned hard to kill off.
posted by Pragmatica at 7:52 AM on August 11, 2009

maybe this happened... please advise....

i got rid of the bed bugs... however they are still downstairs...

my father got some powerful stuff last week and sprayed it downstairs...

could it be that they came up??
posted by minsid at 7:54 AM on August 11, 2009

Fleas are extremely tiny, the only time I've ever seen fleas was when I was giving my cat a bath and they all converged on his poor head.

One way to see if you have a flea problem: http://www.ehow.com/how_4489658_rid-fleas.html
posted by royalsong at 7:56 AM on August 11, 2009

Is it possible you actually are having an allergic reaction? For the longest time I thought I had some kind of insect biting me in the night, and it turned out to be hives. Try an antihistamine one night and see if it's better in the morning.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:58 AM on August 11, 2009

what is antihistamine?
posted by minsid at 8:06 AM on August 11, 2009

You really have to treat an entire residence for them to go away. If you're not doing that, then you haven't read up enough on bed bugs. They are HARD to get rid of and need serious time and effort. I suggest you start with http://bedbugger.com/ and go from there. From what you've described there's no doubt in my mind but that you have bed bugs again.

Please keep in mind that most people don't want to believe they have bed bugs. They search for other potential reasons they could be being bitten. Keep that in mind - to the extent you think something other than bed bugs are doing this, it could be the desire not to believe you have bed bugs at work. I saw myself do this and I've seen others do this - for some reason bed bugs, more than any other infestation, are really difficult to come to terms with. The sooner you accept that this is what's going on, the sooner you can take serious steps to get them out of your entire residence (not just one room / floor at a time!).
posted by lorrer at 8:06 AM on August 11, 2009

what is the best treatment for bed bugs..

which spray?
posted by minsid at 8:14 AM on August 11, 2009

Minisid, you have bedbugs again. They hide from sunlight and come out at night, and so are very difficult to find; additionally, when you start to feel their bite, they're already gone, as they inject an anesthetic-anticoagulant with one of their feeding tubes while sucking your blood out with the other. The "bite" is merely the anesthetic fading and you feeling the itch. Bedbugs will search out sources of food, and so, if "they are still downstairs" as you say, then, yes, they almost certainly came up. It's nearly impossible to treat them yourself, so there's no real answer for "which spray." Lorrer is right to recommend that you o go to Bedbugger for more information. And antihistamine is anti-allergy medicine; if what you are experiencing is allergic and not insect bites, then an antihistamine would help.
posted by WCityMike at 9:41 AM on August 11, 2009

I was under the impression that the typical minor redness, swelling and itching were a kind of allergic reaction and so would also be treated by an antihistamine.
posted by edd at 11:12 AM on August 11, 2009

i found bedbugs under my carpet and corner of my bed...
posted by minsid at 11:31 AM on August 11, 2009

Sorry to hear that, and there you go. Next stop is Bedbugger.
posted by WCityMike at 2:48 PM on August 11, 2009

Blow diatomaceous earth in every single nook and cranny. Chuck the mattress and the carpet.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:57 PM on August 11, 2009

Oh, and wash EVERYTHING--clothes, curtains, whatever--in hot water.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:59 PM on August 11, 2009

And, yes, bugs migrate. My neighbour, in other half of semi detached home, sprayed the lumber he bought from a junk yard after he used it. The cockroaches came right over to my place. We both ended up getting fumigated. Sorry the bedbugs are back!
posted by x46 at 6:30 PM on August 11, 2009