Pest Control - Red itchy bumps on hands, neck, legs after sleeping at night

Author

Red itchy bumps on hands, neck, legs after sleeping at night

nppublic@gmail.com

2005-10-06, 4:21 am

This has been driving us nuts and I found a number of similar posts in
this forum - but no conclusive answers. Hope some of you can help us.

Symptoms:
1) We sleep in the night in our bedroom - the next day morning we get
reddish bumps in our legs or neck or hands.
2) It doesn't happen when we sleep in another room, right next to this
one. Or in a room downstairs
3) We moved the same mattress to the other rooms - and slept there for
2 days - no bites. Relocated the mattress to the main bedroom, we got
the bites.

What may cause the bite:
1) We initially thought it was bed bugs - like everyone else in this
forum. Called the exterminators, one of them it was, but the other one
said it wasn't. Both of them couldn't spot any signs of bed bugs - no
bed bug molts or eggs or blood stains in the sheets. There was a black
stain on the mattress, and I read that bed bug excretion does cause
dark stains - but since no other evidence turned up, we don't know what
to make out of it
2) We did a thorough examination of the carpet sidings and saw carpet
beetle larva - 5 or 6 of them. And their molts. Again, both the
exterminators said carpet beetles may not cause the bites.
3) We put cellophone tape on all the 4 sides of the bed -thinking that
if a bug crawls it will get stuck. But nothing got stuck and we got
bitten again.

How does the bite look:
1) Initially it is not red, the size of a small shirt button, but
squre. Picture at:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nppub...1&.dnm=8696.jpg

2) Then the next day, it grows into a red itchy bump. Picture at:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nppub...579.jpg&.src=ph

What all have we tried so far:
1) Shifted sleeping areas. This seems to stop the bites.
2) Put cellophone tape on mattress. This is not effective
3) Did thorough visual examination with flash light and magnification
lens. This turned up carpet beetles, but nothing else.
4) We applied insect repellants before sleeping and wore long shirts
and pants. This seem to have some effect.

Frankly, we are running out of ideas...Has someone faced similar
problems ? Any ideas what may be causing the bites ?? We would really
appreciate any insights.

Thanx and regards
NpPublic

bugs@bugs.com

2005-10-06, 7:21 pm

On 6-Oct-2005, nppublic@gmail.com wrote:

> This has been driving us nuts and I found a number of similar posts in
> this forum - but no conclusive answers. Hope some of you can help us.
>
> Symptoms:
> 1) We sleep in the night in our bedroom - the next day morning we get
> reddish bumps in our legs or neck or hands.
> 2) It doesn't happen when we sleep in another room, right next to this
> one. Or in a room downstairs

Bedbugs don't always feed every single night, they may go several nights
without feeding after a bloodmeal so that may be the reason why you are
getting bitten the one night and not the others. I would leave the mattress
in the same room and not move it around. There are several reasons for this
as well, first and foremost is you will be spreading the BB from room to
room and they don't need any help in that, they will do it themselves. By
moving the mattress you could be moving it to a room that is not yet
infested and that could explain why you are not getting bitten in the other
rooms.

> 3) We moved the same mattress to the other rooms - and slept there for
> 2 days - no bites. Relocated the mattress to the main bedroom, we got
> the bites.

From your description you don't have a boxspring under your mattress and the
mattress is on the floor so I would say the BB are living in the cracks and
crevices and not in the mattress.
>
> What may cause the bite:
> 1) We initially thought it was bed bugs - like everyone else in this
> forum. Called the exterminators, one of them it was, but the other one
> said it wasn't. Both of them couldn't spot any signs of bed bugs - no
> bed bug molts or eggs or blood stains in the sheets. There was a black
> stain on the mattress,

How big was this stain? BB do make dark colored stains when the excrete the
bloodmeal.

and I read that bed bug excretion does cause
> dark stains - but since no other evidence turned up, we don't know what
> to make out of it
> 2) We did a thorough examination of the carpet sidings and saw carpet
> beetle larva - 5 or 6 of them. And their molts. Again, both the
> exterminators said carpet beetles may not cause the bites.
> 3) We put cellophone tape on all the 4 sides of the bed -thinking that
> if a bug crawls it will get stuck. But nothing got stuck and we got
> bitten again.
>
> How does the bite look:
> 1) Initially it is not red, the size of a small shirt button, but
> squre. Picture at:
> http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nppub...1&.dnm=8696.jpg
>
The first picture you provided is a Bedbug bite picture in the early stages.

> 2) Then the next day, it grows into a red itchy bump. Picture at:
> http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nppub...579.jpg&.src=ph
>

The second picture is harder to see much detail but it looks a lot like BB
several days later.

>
> What all have we tried so far:
> 1) Shifted sleeping areas. This seems to stop the bites.
> 2) Put cellophone tape on mattress. This is not effective
> 3) Did thorough visual examination with flash light and magnification
> lens. This turned up carpet beetles, but nothing else.
> 4) We applied insect repellants before sleeping and wore long shirts
> and pants. This seem to have some effect.
>
> Frankly, we are running out of ideas...Has someone faced similar
> problems ? Any ideas what may be causing the bites ?? We would really
> appreciate any insights.

--
I wish you all the best
Tim Wise

www.onepest.com
www.askourpros.com

PCOpug

2005-10-07, 12:21 am

Mosquito or No-see-ums .

Possibility of totally unrelated to matress . Greater possibility of some
type of infiltration , ie. window .

Infestation coming on downdraft roof gutter area microclimate (dry weather,
low wind ) leaves, moisture . Small blood feeder thru screen . Also noted
mosquito action in cool moist basement area infiltrate via cold air return .

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