Ongoing Unknown Insect Bites

1360 Views 12 Replies 5 Participants Last post by onetimeaccount, May 5, 2020

onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · May 4, 2020

You guys have got to help me out on this one. I've been getting these insect bites since around Christmas time this December. They're incredibly itchy and puffy, but not painful. I get a few of them every 2-3 days, only when I'm asleep, and almost always on parts of my body that are not under the covers while I sleep (hands, arms, shoulders, sometimes legs, once on my FACE). The bites typically stop being very swollen and itchy after 2 days, and have mostly vanished by 5.

As I said, this has been going on for under 5 months. The people who live on the same floor in the house have not once gotten the same bites, so it's definitely not an infestation, but I have NO clue what this could be. I have not once spotted an insect that could be the culprit. I have once found a few carpet beetle larvae after inspecting my room very thoroughly, it was less than 5 and they were all carcasses. Due to the consistency of these bites, however, I doubt they could be the culprits.

There is a window in my room that is well sealed, I do not believe that there are any obvious places that standing water may be around the house (please inform me if you think that I'm mistaken). I haven't gone outside in at least 3 weeks due to the quarantine and have still been getting these consistently.

I'm really curious to see what you guys think about this one. Hopefully one of you people can save my sanity.

Pictures of the bites are attached.

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Nik333

· #2 · May 4, 2020 (Edited)

onetimeaccount said:
You guys have got to help me out on this one. I've been getting these insect bites since around Christmas time this December. They're incredibly itchy and puffy, but not painful. I get a few of them every 2-3 days, only when I'm asleep, and almost always on parts of my body that are not under the covers while I sleep (hands, arms, shoulders, sometimes legs, once on my FACE). The bites typically stop being very swollen and itchy after 2 days, and have mostly vanished by 5.

As I said, this has been going on for under 5 months. The people who live on the same floor in the house have not once gotten the same bites, so it's definitely not an infestation, but I have NO clue what this could be. I have not once spotted an insect that could be the culprit. I have once found a few carpet beetle larvae after inspecting my room very thoroughly, it was less than 5 and they were all carcasses. Due to the consistency of these bites, however, I doubt they could be the culprits.

There is a window in my room that is well sealed, I do not believe that there are any obvious places that standing water may be around the house (please inform me if you think that I'm mistaken). I haven't gone outside in at least 3 weeks due to the quarantine and have still been getting these consistently.

I'm really curious to see what you guys think about this one. Hopefully one of you people can save my sanity.

Pictures of the bites are attached.

You need to see a doctor. Preferably a dermatologist. They're less expensive than an allergist & they can decide if you need an allergist. You can make direct appointments with them without a referral. I'm not a doc but it looks like an allergy worth taking seriously. You don't want to wait until your throat closes up.

Have you seen any spiders? Fleas? Bed bugs have a Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner pattern of bites. I would buy a roach motel type of glue trap and see what gets trapped. But, don't waste time. If you're allergic, your reaction could be swelling & itching. But, this is a DIY chatroom & you need a Doctor not a handyman or Contractor.

Where do you live?

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chandler48

· #3 · May 4, 2020

When you change the sheets on your bed, pull up the piping around the perimeter and look under it. Bedbugs live there and come out at night to feast on human flesh. They are extremely small. You can spray that area of your mattress with a bed bug aerosol to help get rid of them. Sometimes it takes professional help, especially in a multiple level living space.

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DoomsDave

· #4 · May 4, 2020

@onetimeaccount, I agree with @Nik333 that you should get checked for an allergy.

But, as @chandler48 notes, you might also have bedbugs. It's possible to be allergic to the bed bug bites. I concur with Chandler, and add that you often don't see the budbugs themselves, but you can see their excrement, which looks like teensy little drops of tar (vampire bats poop the same way). A trap won't hurt, either.

Do, please let us know what you find out, and we hope you're okay whatever your problem turns out to be.

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onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 5, 2020

Nik333 said:
You need to see a doctor. Preferably a dermatologist. They're less expensive than an allergist & they can decide if you need an allergist. You can make direct appointments with them without a referral. I'm not a doc but it looks like an allergy worth taking seriously. You don't want to wait until your throat closes up.

Have you seen any spiders? Fleas? Bed bugs have a Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner pattern of bites. I would buy a roach motel type of glue trap and see what gets trapped. But, don't waste time. If you're allergic, your reaction could be swelling & itching. But, this is a DIY chatroom & you need a Doctor not a handyman or Contractor.

Where do you live?

I definitely don't need medical attention, this is more of an annoyance to me than anything else. I just want to figure out what these little nuisances are and nuke them out of my room.

I'd like to mention that the swelling on these bites is definitely beyond anything that normally happens, it appears to be a bite + a local allergic reaction to whatever bit me. I initially thought it was like, a single female mosquito that got in somehow, but this has been longer than the lifespan of a mosquito. Plus, I do not usually get these types of reactions to mosquito bites.

Bedbugs or fleas seem to match the bite very well, minus the swelling. I currently am sleeping in a loft bed, my desk in beneath it. I've never seen anything moving. I've even taken the mattress off entirely and thoroughly inspected it and the area around it and have found nothing. Bed bugs are probably my best guess right now, though.

I live in Maryland.

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onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 5, 2020

chandler48 said:
When you change the sheets on your bed, pull up the piping around the perimeter and look under it. Bedbugs live there and come out at night to feast on human flesh. They are extremely small. You can spray that area of your mattress with a bed bug aerosol to help get rid of them. Sometimes it takes professional help, especially in a multiple level living space.

As I have said in the post, this is an issue that has seemed to only be happening to me in my room. I'll definitely look into a spray, though.

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onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · #7 · May 5, 2020

DoomsDave said:
@onetimeaccount, I agree with @Nik333 that you should get checked for an allergy.

But, as @chandler48 notes, you might also have bedbugs. It's possible to be allergic to the bed bug bites. I concur with Chandler, and add that you often don't see the budbugs themselves, but you can see their excrement, which looks like teensy little drops of tar (vampire bats poop the same way). A trap won't hurt, either.

Do, please let us know what you find out, and we hope you're okay whatever your problem turns out to be.

I'm definitely doing okay, and I do believe that it is an allergy, but I am very sure that it is something biting me and causing the reaction.

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onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 5, 2020

So I've stripped my mattress down again and checked everything around it -- it's absolutely spotless. No trails, nothing. Fleas are probably out of the question too because I don't have animals that go outside.

I have sprayed all the cracks of my bed frame and all around it with an insecticide that won't kill me in my sleep.

Again, I'd like to say that the only thing I have ever found are carpet beetles and carpet beetle larvae, the latter of which can apparently produce rash in some people that looks like a bite. If I happen to find another one of those larvae boys, I'm probably going to grab it and test if I happen to be one of the people who get a rash from them.

Me just being allergic to carpet beetle larvae is probably the best case scenario right now. Worst case, uh, ninja murder hornets.

Anyways, I'll see if I get new bites, I'm going to just treat this like an infestation of any type and thoroughly clean and inspect my room for a few weeks. I have ordered a steam cleaner as well, apparently that works well for fabrics and such. If anyone else has good recommendations or tips, I'm listening. Cheers.

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Nik333

· #9 · May 5, 2020

Those are large swellings. Not normal for simple bug bites..

Not to scare you unnecessarily, but, illnesses can also cause swellings.

Please see someone. Good luck.

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Nik333

· #10 · May 5, 2020

Recently. a convenience store clerk was telling me that her mouth swells at night. I told her the same thing, that it was abnormal & to see her doc. She did and it was her laundry detergent in her sheets. He told her the allergy could have progressed to difficulty breathing.

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onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · #11 · May 5, 2020

Nik333 said:
Those are large swellings. Not normal for simple bug bites..

Not to scare you unnecessarily, but, illnesses can also cause swellings.

Please see someone. Good luck.

Swelling is mostly gone after two days. The one on my left wrist looked particularly bad because there was two directly next to each other. The one on my right hand looks more like the majority of the bites that I have gotten.

I can absolutely guarantee that this is not an allergic reaction to something other than an insect or some sort of illness. I'm in very good health, so I doubt that it's an illness either.

I am not someone who has historically had issues with allergic reactions to foreign things, nor has anyone in my family. I have not changed anything about where I sleep in many years. I wash things the same way, use the same cleaning products, etc. I am very certain that I do not need a doctor, these are very much not threatening to my health, I just need to figure out whatever is doing it so I can rid them from my life.

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Bud9051

· #12 · May 5, 2020

From a construction perspective a multi-unit building looks like swiss cheese to a small insect, they can easily pass through walls and floors. Basically, if you have bedbugs so do others.

As for others not dealing with the same problem, they may still be dealing with the insect bites just not the swelling reaction.

As for being healthy it does not eliminate developing an allergy. Our bodies can change without telling us until symptoms show up.

Set some traps for bed bugs and see what you get.

Bud

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onetimeaccount

Discussion Starter · #13 · May 5, 2020

Bud9051 said:
From a construction perspective a multi-unit building looks like swiss cheese to a small insect, they can easily pass through walls and floors. Basically, if you have bedbugs so do others.

As for others not dealing with the same problem, they may still be dealing with the insect bites just not the swelling reaction.

As for being healthy it does not eliminate developing an allergy. Our bodies can change without telling us until symptoms show up.

Set some traps for bed bugs and see what you get.

Bud

No, like no bites at all on anyone else in the house. And I'm telling you, I have not seen ANYTHING that would suggest bed bugs. No excrement anywhere, I even opened up my mattress and the inside is pristine. Plus I don't think I'm getting enough (?) bites that this would be bed bugs; the most I've ever gotten is 3.

I have yet to get any more bites since the first post, since then I have sprayed some stuff in every gap on my bed that is accessible and tightened down what I can, we'll see what happens.

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Ongoing Unknown Insect Bites

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