I can unequivocally assure you that bed bugs do NOT burrow under your skin.

Scabies mites do, however. Are you sure your doctor was not talking about scabies — the symptoms of bed bug bites are sometimes mistaken for scabies. Scabies is treated with a body cream as you describe.

Your pest pro is right that 91% alcohol will kill bed bugs on contact. However, you are extremely unlikely to be able to spray even a small percentage of your bed bugs directly. You will not “find them all.” I hope your pest management professional is using a variety of more serious treatments than this alcohol contact kill spray.

Scabies is found worldwide and a doctor in any country can help you. The important thing is to persist in seeing doctors until the problem is gone.

There is no way that scabies and bed bugs have mutated into a hybrid. Bed bugs are insects, scabies are mites. Besides, they are wildly different in size and behavior. You may be being bitten by some other kind of mite and you absolutely need a doctor and perhaps eventually an entomologist to help (but the doctor will know if that is needed).

I know this is frustrating, but please do persist with the doctors.

Actually, I’m sorry that I have not been more helpful to you, to be honest and that all the reasonable explanations I offered you were not useful to you.

If I may be frank, the sooner you start thinking in practical, problem-solving ways, and the sooner you move away from a persistent belief that you, and you alone, are afflicted with a strange, unique, hitherto unknown burrowing/hybrid bug–the characteristics of which are NOT based in fact or science–the sooner you will get better.

I know this is very hard to comprehend in your situation but I will repeat: a crawling sensation (or indeed any other kind of skin reaction) does not, does NOT equal a bug infestation that is unidentifiable. These are normal, again, NORMAL responses that are caused by something real, including a real bedbug infestation where your skin is constantly reacting to current and previous bites or other known and perfectly understood biting pests, or a medical condition, or an allergic response to something in your environment–and you can investigate and find the cause of your troubles, with the assistance of professionals and scientists. Further, if you continue to use and abuse pesticides in your environment and on your body, your problem will likely get worse.

If you persist in these various thoughts, the road to getting better will be difficult. I hope that is not what you actually want. I hope that you want and hope to be healthy and active and to have your life back.

My best advice is to continue to seek medical and professional advice (dermatologists, entomologists, pest control professionals) and to keep an open mind to the solutions, explanations and counsel that such people may offer.

And, as far as the internet, there are a lot of scary sites out there that peddle fear, paranoia, and outright lies. Please do not seek them.

regarding the burrowing and living on me sensation, just today i was in the movies and my arms started flaming up like crazy (on the old bites that are already there, plus two little tiny new bites) while i was sitting in the dark watching the movie. as soon as i left the theater this flameup ceased.

so he’s treating me for scabies, and gave me instructions of what to do, wash, vacuum, etc, like i don’t know how to do that already…. i’m still not sure what to do about my hosts. he suggested not getting them worried until i see how this treatment effects things….

thanks for your good thoughts, hopelessnomo and nobugsonme! i hope this is really the end of this nightmare.