The only thing I can suggest is getting prompt professional help. And take heart, you can beat this.

how in the hell do you sleep knowing you’ll get bitten and they’re in your bed? i look like i have chicken pox and i’m about to crack from the stress.

Hopeless wrote:

Crawling sensations are otherwise known as formication or, more generally, paresthesia. It is a physiological response that is extremely common in bedbug sufferers. Delayed allergic reactions to bedbug bites, “mere” or not, are abundantly documented in the literature.

I’ve heard of delayed onset of welts, but I’ve never heard of formication, delayed or otherwise, with regard to bed bugs. Can you point to some literature on this topic? Thank you.

hopelessnomo is right.

Bed bugs do not want to be caught.

And it is completely normal to FEEL like they are biting you all day long, even though they aren’t. It is a physiological reaction. They will on occasion come out and bite you in the daytime, if they cannot do so at night and you are very still, for example lying on a sofa. They would then scurry off to hide. But it is very unlikely that you are being bitten all day. And if you were, and you looked, you’d see them.

You should look at the life stage photo and the photo of Lou Sorkin with a first instar nymph feeding on his hand. It is fully visible. There is no larval stage: they hatch as first nymphs.

I urge you to get some on tape from your arm as hopelessnomo describes. Those pests do not sound like bed bugs. An entomologist could identify them for you. And yes, it is unlikely but fully possible that you do have bed bugs in your home as well as some other kind of mite. It’s important to ID them properly (professionally) AND to have a good pest control operator get rid of them all ASAP. If you have bed bugs or mites, you do not need to put up with that.

a) I did not say psychological aberration anywhere. Crawling sensations are otherwise known as formication or, more generally, paresthesia. It is a physiological response that is extremely common in bedbug sufferers. Delayed allergic reactions to bedbug bites, “mere” or not, are abundantly documented in the literature.

b) “I am able to clearly detect corpses of the insect” — well, either there are bedbugs present on your skin or there are not: this is a proposition that is easily verified by having the samples examined by an entomologist. There is no need to speculate and alarm others. Place some clear tape on your skin when you feel the crawling sensations. Have a scientist identify the presence of invisible bedbug nymphs. Or not.

c) “there really is no biological reason why they need run and hide” — I barely have a high school education but I urge you to reexamine this statement. You’ll see.

We’ve been at this a very long time, JR. There is a mountain and a half of stuff we don’t yet know, but some things we do.

In any case, good luck.

Could I instead be observing some other insect? Yes, that is certainly possible as I’m not observing under a carefully controlled laboratory environment. However, by leaving the lights on all the time, I have been able to occasionally detect and collect adult BB specimens so there is no question of a BB infestation. (And of course there are also the other telltale signs such as fecal droppings). Thus, considering that relatively little is known about the LARVE and NYMPH stages of the lifecycle, I cannot accept the unsupported arguments that crawling sensations and daytime bites are merely some delayed allergic or psychological aberrations.

A bite that appears during the daytime is most likely a delayed reaction from the night before or some earlier time.

Perhaps you are thinking of mites, which bedbugs are not. Bedbugs do not fit the pattern you are describing. I think that if you were able to catch a bedbug crawling on your hand, you would definitely see it unless your eyesight were poor. There are several photos here which can may be useful.

But yes, dealing with your clothes and keeping it all securely bagged after washing and drying is necessary to avoid any accidental transporting of bedbugs here and there, because that can definitely happen. There are many FAQs here that can help, as well as the forums. Good luck to you.

Also, I’ve just recently come to the realization that the nymph BB will often attach themselves to the seams of your clothing so that they are strategically placed for an easy meal the next time you put on the piece of clothing. I’ve made the mistake of wearing the same piece of clothing more than once between washings and now I see the error of my ways!