There are store-bought and home remedies weighed for their merits and demerits, including ice, which Willow-the-wisp recommends to numb the itch.

My own best advice:

(1) Keep your skin well-hydrated with a hypoallergenic, non-fragranced moisturizer applied twice a day (Aveeno and Cetaphil are great and among the reasonably-priced). Dry skin itches more. Frequent showers make skin drier (and you should keep the water as cool as you can, since hot water also dries skin.) Before bed bugs, I used lots of fun products. Once my skin was dry and under constant irritation, my usual moisturizers (which contained dyes and fragrances as most do) just dried my skin further. A dermatologist put me on to Aveeno and Cetaphil, and I have to say, things got much better once I started using a good plain unscented, un-pigmented moisturizer twice a day.

(2) Most importantly, do everything you can to resist the urge to scratch. It takes a tremendous act of will power, at first. However, once you do scratch, the itching will be magnified by many times, and the act of willpower required to resist will be even greater. When I finally, finally, stopped scratching, the bites became much smaller (sometimes unnoticeable), scabs healed, and I was so much more comfortable. I had to make a conscious choice not to scratch (and re-make that choice every day), but it was so much better than when the scratching was irritating my skin further.

Thanks to Hopelessnomo for the tip on the article.

Parakeets strongly recommends Corticool:

Benadryl may help:

One reader wrote me recently insisting that Glyerin USP could be used on skin (dabbed on with a Q-tip or cotton bud) to relieve the itchiness of bites. (Note: it can also cause drying; if you want to try this, dab only a little on your bites. Let us know how it works!)

• FAQ: Bed bugs are crawling on me all the time. I am being bitten all day long, no matter where I go!
• How about a nice 277-year-old remedy?
• FAQ: dry cleaners and bed bugs
• Bed bugs in another women’s shelter in Charlotte, North Carolina

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————————————————————————

By 3 pm on the second day, the two bites were fully swelled and majorly itchy.

Waaaaaay itchier than the “bites” I’ve been feeling for the past two months. This is definitely making me doubt myself, in the weirdest way - was it all a joke? It’s hard to pin down exactly when my “really itchy” bites stopped and my “less itchy” bites began, but it was probably at least two months ago. Were the past two months all “phantom bites?”

I don’t know the answer to this. For example, there was one time back in January when I saw a nymph run across my hand. I looked down because I felt a hot itch on my knuckle, and then I saw the bug. So I’d say that was a “confirmed bite.” That bite itched, for sure, but not like these. It swelled up for about two days, and then it faded to a small pink non-itchy bump on my knuckle.

Perhaps that bug was interrupted halfway through its bite, and that’s why the bite never got huge. Or perhaps different locations on the body elicit different bite responses. Last year, when we first had bedbugs (for about two weeks in April 06) I had bites all up the inside of my arm, in similar locations to these new test bites. And those were just as big and itchy as these. So maybe the inside of your forearm is just a particularly sensitive, reactive location, and your knuckle, not so much.

Either way, these bites are raging. They itch all day and night. There is definitely a difference. I know you guys know. It’s the kind of itch where you want to chew your own arm off.

By 11 am on the third day, I’d say the adult bite is slightly larger.

But the nymph bite is still far larger than any of my recent “bites.” All the skin around the adult bite is pink, in like a 2-inch circle. They are both swelled like crazy, and they both itch like mad. It makes me wonder, does the bites’ proximity to each other make a difference? I am not about to go back for another Bite Fest, but the new questions I’d love to answer are:

1. Does the length of time the bug takes, make a difference? What if it only feeds for say, 5 or 10 seconds?

2. Does the location on the body make a difference?

3. Does bites’ proximity to each other make a difference?

I know this sounds like a long shot, but the only way I could see that I’m still getting actual, new bites, is if bedbugs (adult or nymph) are biting me for like five seconds, on “tough” parts of my body, and not near each other. I guess they could be biting me for five seconds while I sit on the couch, but I don’t feel like my face and neck are “tougher” than my inner arm.

And still, zero reaction to the cast skin. I’m continuing to monitor that arm as well as the rest of my body. So far, incidentally, nothing on the rest of my body either.

So my initial conclusion is that while I’m NOT hypersensitive to chitin, I’m also NOT currently being bit by bedbugs. What is my skin doing? I have no freaking idea. But hey. As long as it’s not new bedbugs, I’m fine.

Last night, for the first time in four months, I experienced a brief moment - maybe ten seconds - where I actually accepted that this might be over. I was putting my bag into a ziploc as I came in the door, and I pictured not doing that. The feeling went away, sadly, almost right away! But this feeling rushed over me that for the first time, I actually believed that this might indeed be over.

Baby steps.

These are the marks S has gotten on her skin for the last 2-3 months before Bitefest began. She now thinks they were “bites” (in our parlance here at bedbugger.com, “bites” are marks someone is not sure are actual bites from a bed bug).

Editor’s note from Nobugsonme:

I actually started composing S a long email on Wednesday, posing just some of those questions she notes above. And I did not send it–deciding to wait and comment after the last installment. While I hope very much that S is bed bug-free, I do want us to be skeptical about the conclusions that can be drawn from this limited experiment.

What I think S and G proved was this:

(a) G can be bitten and not react (at least for three days), and

(b) S reacts the same to nymph and adult bites (at least on her arm), and

(c) Nymph bites and adult bites, at least sometimes, look the same.

I know my conclusions will seem stingy to many, but if we want solid information, we need more research to be done.

Remember, S said a few weeks ago she wants to keep people from getting caught up in “groupthink,” the sharing of incorrect information among members of a group until everyone believes it? One fact that was becoming gospel among many bed bug sufferers around the internet was that nymph bites are small and adult bites are large. I was always skeptical of this idea, since we just did not have any proof. I am immensely grateful that S tested and shattered that belief. Doesn’t mean they can’t be different sizes in different circumstances, mind you, but on S’s arm, this week, they were not. That’s quite a nugget of information.

As S says above, “…perhaps different locations on the body elicit different bite responses.” In my own experience, I know this to be true. I have not undergone testing, but I am fairly certain. Bites on my face always looked the same: less swollen, looking like pimples but with a distinct bedbuggy itchiness that set them apart. Nevertheless, they never itched like bites on my back, shoulders, or elsewhere. They often faded quickly. Those on my toes were always tiny, but again, charactertistically itchy.

It’s possible that length of time you were bitten may matter, that distance between bites may matter (both possibilities S also posits), that even variables such as your own immune system, the degree of histamine reaction at that time or to that bug’s saliva, even how dry your skin is, or how much water you drank in the day, all of this may be a variable. I am sure there are other factors that are possible. My point is, we don’t know: this is the tip of the iceberg.

I think S is probably bed bug free as she suggests. I just don’t think she can rule out that the other marks in the composite photo were from bed bugs. Both possibilities can co-exist at the same time, in the form of bugs who just hadn’t crossed the poison yet when they bit her–they could now be dead, though they bit her. That’s my hypothesis, but we won’t get to test it. Let’s hope all S’s and G’s only future bed bug bites, if any, are by choice– “from a can,” if you will.

Thanks again to S. and G for sharing this amazing experience, and for the nugget of wisdom we’ve gotten from it.
Thanks also to our readers, for coming back to parts two and three!

• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 4)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 2)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose!
• FAQ: Bed bugs are crawling on me all the time. I am being bitten all day long, no matter where I go!

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What We Learned, So Far (Day 2)

by S

George did not react immediately, and still has not reacted. It’s now the next day. So we now know that they may have been biting him the whole time too. Not “preferring me.” Sure, they still could have preferred me, but he had zero reaction. We studied the places on his skin, circled in pen. Not a red dot, not a pinprick, not a single clue that a bug had spent five minutes sucking his blood. He felt no itch, either.

The adults take longer to feed than the nymphs. I guess that’s intuitive but it’s still interesting to know. The nymphs were each like 2-3 minutes, and his adult was like 5 min and mine was like 10. Maybe I am actually tastier, or maybe the bugs were just different.

My right arm, which had the cast skin on it, had no reaction. No itch, no redness. The skin sat there for 5 minutes, in two different places. I’ll continue to monitor it. But maybe, at least in me, there is no chitin hypersensitivity. I don’t doubt that it exists in others, but it hasn’t shown up in me. This leaves me confused, but at least I’m able to rule that out - or at least make a guess that chitin is not to blame.

The spot where the adult bit me, showed a little white swell, immediately after the bug was done. This looked very similar to the little white swell that the nymph bite made. Neither of these itched, right away. During the time when the adult was biting me, G said that he could see my skin turning a little pink around the bug. This went away pretty quickly. When we walked out of there, if it weren’t for the circles in pen, you would not have known we were just bit by bedbugs.

I woke up a few times throughout the night last night, just because I was nervous. I kept thinking I could feel an itch on my neck. But no, there was nothing there this morning. Most importantly, my arms did not itch throughout the night.

This morning, my left arm itched. And I will say with complete confidence that right now, the two bites look EXACTLY THE SAME. No joke. The nymph fed for like 3 minutes, and was teeny tiny. The adult fed for like 10 minutes, and got all big and fat and made my skin turn pink right then. Today, they look identical. Check it out in the photos.

S’s arm that night:

S’s arm the next day:

Finally, the itch started when I woke up and has been getting worse and worse all day. It itches hard. Both bites itch the same. They burn. They are sensitive to my clothes on them.

They feel like my original bites did, but I don’t think I’ve felt an itch like this in a long time. And you know what, I WANT these to itch like mad - it helps me to confirm that I have NOT been getting bit by bedbugs these last couple months. Plus, I’m obviously not immune to the bugs’ effects. I didn’t think immunity was possible, but hey, now I have a little proof of that, at least in me.

Now granted, these two bites are close to each other, and are maybe somehow affecting each other. They are also on the underside of my forearm, a pretty sensitive spot. I had bites here when our first infestation began, but none here this time around. I know that location has an impact.

But let me just say, that I am feeling a little (okay, a lot) better about my recent “bites” being only some type of lingering sensation. I don’t know what it is, or what is causing it, and so far I don’t have reason to believe it’s chitin. But maybe bedbugs have forever changed my skin, and I’ll just get little itchy swellings from this point on.

I will continue to monitor these bites. They are already bigger and itchier than they were just a few hours ago. Damn, an itch never felt so good. (I am not scratching - I’m trying not to even touch them).

Plus, I faced my fear. Well, I didn’t totally face it because I didn’t look, at least not at the adult. But now I’m looking at the pictures G took. And here I am. With two growing welts, but otherwise, healthy and alive. This doesn’t make bedbugs less hated, but it’s giving me a little bit of perspective.

I want to add that I don’t think everyone should do this, because if you had bedbugs and you’re still seeing “bites,” you should do every possible thing you can to get rid of them, and try every doctor or PCO before resorting to this test. In many cases, you probably still have bedbugs. I still think, with a shrinking but persistent part of my mind, that we could still have them too. We could always have dormant ones, and hey, we could always get them again. But for me, in my particular situation, I needed to know a very specific answer to some very specific questions. So now I have a little more information. I hope this helps others as much as it’s helped me.

Editor’s note from Nobugsonme:
Two things stand out at me:

First, when we’re told a lot of people don’t get bitten by bed bugs, I wonder if this is an error. Parakeets was quoted a statistic by entomologists at the Bed Bugs conference she attended last fall, that as many as 70% of people are not bitten. I have no idea where they got the statistic from, and would love to know.

Has anyone ever verified that in any way, or was it assumed that since some people did not react, they were not being bitten? G assumed he wasn’t, and many of us have roommates, family members or partners who thought the same of themselves. G’s research is valuable in that it is proof at least some people are bitten and show no signs.

I hear a deep-pitched collective gasp; while some men suffer from bites (hello BuggedinBrooklyn, Willow-the-wisp, et al.), and some women don’t, we at Bedbugger.com usually hear from women who are bitten that live with unaffected men. That might simply mean men don’t talk about their problems as much online, or that this site just appeals more to women. But it looks, from where we stand, that women are more likely to suffer from bed bug bites in a home with both women and men present.

Secondly, S’s research backs up Sean the PCO’s experience — he has said that his nymph and adult bites look the same. S has proved that in her case, at least in this instance, that is true. Many people have assumed that their smaller bites were from nymphs. But this was just speculation.

I’ve often cautioned against making assumptions about why this bite or that bite looks as it does, and in light of this experiment, I’m even more inclined to be cautious: when it comes to how bites look and how they feel and when and for how long they appear, you really don’t know for sure, unless you see it happen, like S and G did. But remember, S’s other bite photo (on the bite photos page) looks quite different: this is evidence that even on the same person, every bite does not cause the same reaction.

Folks may want to look back at the comments following the lingering sensations post I wrote a month ago. You should remember that one of the three regular Bedbugger commenters who speculated they might be having “lingering sensations” or phantom bites now has evidence s/he is still being bitten. I think S has good reason to think she’s not getting bitten at home now, as she says. Her experiement gives her some good information on that. But the other Bedbugger’s experience is a caution against assuming your itchy “bites” or sensations are not from bed bugs, and against waiting too long to find out, rather than taking action.

S has some follow up on the bites three days after the deed was done, so this is now a three-part series.
More to come Friday at 9 am EST! Thanks again to S and G, the first official Bedbuggers of the Week!

• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 4)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose!
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 3)
• FAQ: Bed bugs are crawling on me all the time. I am being bitten all day long, no matter where I go!

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I must confess, I thought S and G were mad when they decided to beg their PCO/entomologist friend to let them be bitten by bed bugs. He must have too: he made them sign a waiver, but he let them experiment.

I am really amazed at the story you’re about to read, and while I think it’s a bit crazy, it also provides a certain kind of scientific evidence that has been lacking. Look, this is not a controlled research study, and research needs to be done in order to draw any major conclusions. If we know one thing about bed bugs, it’s that we don’t all react the same to bites, which can look different, feel different, and take longer to appear (or, in fact, never appear) depending on who is bitten.

S and G each wanted to know if they would react differently to adults vs. nymphs, whether G would react at all, since he assumed he wasn’t being bitten at home, and whether S would react to having a dead bed bug on her skin. What I do think is safe to say is that S and G learned something very interesting about they way they react to bed bugs. It may or may not correspond to your experience, but it probably does mirror lots of peoples’ experiences.

For some background on bed bug bites, here’s an article from last October about doctors (not) diagnosing them, which links to a number of photos of bed bug bites that do, and don’t, look typical. You may also be interested in S’s two photos from our “bite photos” page, which is a reminder that bites do not always look the same on the same person.

One final disclaimer: please do NOT try this at home. While bed bugs are not known to spread disease, that can always change, and it probably isn’t a good idea to get bitten on purpose or to share bed bugs with others.

So without further ado, here’s the first of two installments (the second is coming on Thursday morning). Thanks to S and G for taking it on the arm, in the name of research! And my super-special thanks to S for writing the article below.

Bite Fest 2007

By S.

I decided to get bitten because I really need to know if my bedbugs are gone. The infestation began in early December 06 and after 4 months, we really, really, really think they are gone. Our PCO does too. There’s been no evidence in months. But I am still waking up with little, mildly itchy bumps on my skin, maybe 3-4 a week, and nobody has been able to give me a satisfying explanation.

Are my bumps a reaction to the chemical? I don’t think so. I spoke with the makers of Demand, and no, it would not cause single, itchy bumps. Are they pimples? Well, a lot are on my face, but they look and feel different to pimples. Are they a skin hypersensitivity? Maybe. But could that account for ALL of them? The ones on my face look different than the ones on my chest, which look different than the ones on my arms or back. And what would I be having a hypersensitivity TO? Are they old bites flaring back up? Maybe, but some of them, I’m fairly certain, are in new places. Are they nymph bites? Maybe, although by now, wouldn’t the nymphs have grown up, and the bites gotten bigger? Are nymph bites smaller than adult bites? Finally, might these be regular bedbug bites, but I’m not reacting as much as I used to? Can you become immune?

All these questions have been plaguing me for months. I felt that at this point, after consulting two dermatologists, many PCOs online and in person, and gleaning everything I could from other peoples’ stories, I just had to try it out for myself. The only way to know if these are new bedbug bites, is to see what actual, confirmed bedbug bites look like. Not four months ago, but now. And not photos of other people’s bites, but my bites, on my skin.

So my PCO raises colonies of bedbugs because, well, he is crazy. But also brilliant. He feeds them on himself and keeps them in vials. He has adults, nymphs of every instar, including first instars. There was fecal matter, cast skins and a crumpled-up piece of paper in the vials - just a little jar of goodies! Ugh, it was SO GROSS. And something else, that I knew but was still gross to see for myself, was basically how LAZY they are. In the vial, they don’t crawl around. They just sit there, in the folds of the paper.

My lovely boyfriend (we’ll call him G) said he’d do this with me, because he wasn’t scared, and he knew it would help me to be braver. I am not brave. I had nightmares about this for weeks - mostly that the bug would somehow run up my arm and into my shirt. Also, in my nightmares they were humongous. The one dead one, that we found on a glue mat when our infestation began, had grown larger in my memory. So while my boyfriend was like “THEY’RE HUGE!” I was like “Oh, they’re actually not as big as I remember.”

The other reason for G to do this, was that he’s never found a single bite. So we hoped to answer the question “Do they just prefer me? Or do they bite him, and he doesn’t react?” We knew that if G DID react, then they have actually been choosing me over him all this time.

Andy (the PCO) was well-prepared when we arrived at his office, on the south side of Chicago. He had us sign waivers saying that we wouldn’t blame him or his company for any damages. Sure, no problem. Then, here’s what he did. He’d take the bug we wanted to test out of the main vial, with tweezers. He’d place it in a clean, empty vial. Then, he’d tip the vial sideways, until it was pressing against my arm. Then he’d turn it over, and just hold it down. This way, the bug had about a one-inch circle of skin, and couldn’t run away. We’d press the vial down firmly the entire time. When the bug was done biting, I’d gently tip my arm until the bug fell back into the vial, and then Andy would cover it with a lid. It was all very controlled.

BUT STILL REALLY GROSS!

So, here’s how it went. First, G did a first instar nymph.

This is the nymph on G:

This is G’s immediate reaction to the first instar nymph:

As you can see, his reaction was basically nothing. No itch, no red dot, no evidence that a bug was ever there. (We made a circle where the vial was, and a smaller circle where the actual bite took place).

While he was doing that, I did a cast skin. (We just placed it on my skin). I have read from multiple sources that chitin hypersensitivity could possibly elicit a bite-like skin response from a dead bug, or even a skin. (Their skin contains chitin).

This is the cast skin on S:

And S. right after the cast skin:

The skin sat on my arm for about 5 minutes. It fell off once, so we put it back in a different place (hence the two circles). No immediate reaction to the skin.

Meanwhile, the nymph was biting G, but he couldn’t feel a thing. They are really tiny. We watched it go from clear to red.

Then, G did an adult, while I did a first instar nymph. His adult was oh so gross. It landed on its back, then turned itself over, stood there, and started biting. It was really quick. Again, he didn’t feel a thing.

This is the adult after it fed on G:

As you can see, it’s huge. The adult grew fatter as well as longer, during the 5 minutes it was feeding.

I had the teeniest little first instar nymph that latched onto me quickly, and when I saw the little red spot form, I looked away. It was done after maybe 2 or 3 minutes. We took it off and circled the spot with pen.

This is S’s arm after the nymph:

There was the tiniest whitish flat swelling on my skin by the nymph bite, and that was all. G was showing no reaction to either bite. It seemed like we weren’t gonna learn anything from him about the difference between nymph and adult bites.

So he said, “I think you should do an adult.” I was not mentally prepared for this. They are just so much bigger, and grosser, to me. But I knew he was right, that would be a true experiment, and we’d learn so much more this way.

Adult biting S.

Andy brought it over in a vial, and I covered my face with my hands. He pressed that vial down so hard, and during the entire time, I kept telling him to press it harder! I did not feel the adult biting me. But I did start to feel an itch, about halfway through! And that freaking bug sat there for ten minutes. It felt like ten hours. I never looked. G held my hand and we tried to talk about other things. Finally, it was done and I knew it was done because right away, I felt it walk. I practically screamed, and Andy came over and took it away. It clung to my skin at first, it didn’t want to fall off and into the vial, he apparently had to move the vial a little, and I was trying hard not to cry. I never looked. And then it was off, and it was done.

S’s skin immediately after the adult bed bug bit her:

Editor’s note:
What happened the next day?

Did G develop a reaction to the bites? Did S?
If so, did the nymph and adult bites look different?
Did S develop a reaction to the cast shell?
And what does it all mean?

Tomorrow (Thursday) @ 9am EST, come back for Part 2 of S’s story.

• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 2)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 4)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 3)
• recent bites from bed bugs (photo)

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Good times!

Yay Caryn!

• Caryn, on fighting an infestation in 2004 vs. 2007, and a few words about the banner
• Caitlin of the bed bug blog was reinfested.
• bed bugs not fun anymore (part 2)
• bed bugs: not fun anymore!

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Please do not adjust your set– the site is not hosted by a 1970’s Leonard Nimoy and I will not be blogging about the Loch Ness Monster tomorrow. We want rational, researched, peer-reviewed information on the after effects of bed bug bites, and causes of sensations we’re experiencing. However, until we get that (remember, bed bug entomologists have their hands and brains tied up right now with the whole killing-the-monsters business), we have to share information amonst ourselves. Entomologists and doctors are encouraged to share their input and I’d love sources on this. But be warned, non-sufferers may just not get this one.

On another thread, Hopelessnomo’ raised the question of whether it’s possible to feel bites, sense bugs crawling on the skin, and even see “bites” in the absence of bed bugs (I distinguish actual bed bug bites here from “bites” which may or may not have another cause, by use of those quotation marks):

I moved to escape bedbugs. I took extreme precautions. I am fairly certain that I don’t have bedbugs in my new apartment. . . . I moved about 2 months ago. My “bites” (both biting sensations and small nymph-like bites) have only recently begun to fade. I’m sitting here, using the computer at work since I no longer own a computer, and it’s very warm and I feel faint crawling and itching sensations on my arm and back. I’m not sure if this will ever go away. A few weeks ago, I was still feeling what I call the “memory” of bites at different times during the day. . . . [The new bites are] Complete with raised bumps and little red dots and all the old manifestations, except that there was a difference in the quality of these sensations that I cannot articulate that allowed me . . . to believe that they were not new bites.

I did a bit of snipping for space, but you get the idea. What could be causing this?

1. Bed bugs. Yeah, we know. It’s improbable in this case, though it is worth taking seriously as the most likely cause in most cases.

2. Old bites that won’t stop itching plus lingering allergies. (Nomo’, are the new bite marks in the same places, or are you breaking out in new “bites”?)

3. Sensitivity to insect by-products touched or ingested. (Eh?) Seriously. This came up on the yahoo Bedbugger group (which is not affiliated with this site, but which you can join by clicking the links in the sidebar under “information and help”). American Museum of Natural History entomologist Lou Sorkin said (9/25/06, message 1358: I can’t link to these but you can join the group and view it),

I know it has been reported for mites [that] shed skins of the mites on a patient’s skin sometime after having been bitten will elicit a similar or indistiguishable “bite” from an early bite.

Though bed bugs are true bugs, and not “mites,” Lou is speculating over whether the same thing may happen with bed bugs as happens with mites. Lou continues:

A researcher who raises bed bugs told me that a person had been bitten and had “typical bites” (bites had been witnessed by the researcher) and later when the patient ate a . . . preparation vitamin D (later found out to have been mixed with crustacean shell derivative called chitin . . . . The patient broke out in “bites” indistinguishable from real bites.

Perhaps chitin–made from shells of unidentified origin (usually it’s shellfish) used in the vitamins caused an allergic reaction in someone who had become very sensitive to chitin in bed bug shells? However, Lou noted in another message that chitin is not supposed to cause reactions, and he speculated that perhaps something else was in the vitamin.

4. On the Leonard Lopate show on NPR (2/3/06), Richard Pollack, Harvard entomologist, and Richard Cooper of Cooper Pest Solutions in NJ (a PCO), discussed how sometimes people who are no longer getting bitten get new “bites” (that is, lesions appear, even in the absence of bed bugs) after bed bugs are gone. A caller to the show reports occasional isolated “bites” three and six months after an infestation. (Possibly, but not likely to be a reinfestation if they wait 3 months to feed.)

Richard Pollack gives as another example of this: a grad student he knows who was exposed to bed bugs in a hotel room, months later experienced “bites,” identical lesions, though she was not exposed to bed bugs in the interim. Granted, how you can be sure you were not exposed to bed bugs–especially if you’re a student living in Boston– is a tricky question! Nevertheless, these “phantom bites” seem to be a phenomenon bed bug researchers are aware of.

Is it an allergy to debris left behind after the infestation? Is it a lingering skin problem caused by months of allergic reactions to bites? Is it your imagination? A reaction to pesticides (which can also cause allergies and reactions)?

5. Some other non-bed-bug-related cause:

There is at least one person who was on the yahoo group who had bites but could find no bed bugs (or other mites). After months of treatment, she finally found out the cause: folliculitis. She never had bed bugs. (I found this out offlist.) It’s just a reminder to rule out everything. However, it’s unlikely that bites which continued after an infestation and a careful move (like Nomo’s) would be caused by something else. Possible, not likely, but I want to throw it out there for others.

Warning: I strongly discourage anyone from assuming their bed bugs are gone and that the bites are just “phantom” bites unless they have really good evidence this is the case. Bed bugs are really hard to get rid of and they can linger a long time; don’t ignore bites unless you have very good reason to think they are gone. Nomo’ didn’t “just move,” Nomo’ went to extreme lengths while moving; “just moving” on its own, and even parting with lots of stuff, is not reason enough to assume you have phantom bites.

Also, don’t panic if you are fighting bed bugs and worry this will never end. This reaction is not experienced by everyone.

That said, does one of these theories explain what’s happening to Nomo’? I’m going to ask Lou to pop in and see this thread if he has time. Perhaps he will have further insight. I welcome your thoughts and any relevant leads. This should probably become a FAQ, but it needs some whittling down.

And let me give another plug for the Leonard Lopate show on NPR, which mentions how hard the bugs are to find, how people can go for months without seeing any bed bugs, as well as how bites do not look the same on every person, or on the same person at different times. NJ PCO Richard Cooper also says they’re seeing infested laundromats. That is so, so something I had in mind: most people in NYC go to laundromats; many leave their laundry (unsealed! unattended! for days! side-by-side with others’ dirty laundry! Arrrggghhh!)

• FAQ: What are bed bugs? Do I have them? What else could be causing this?
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 2)
• recent bites from bed bugs (photo)
• Bed bugs also causing havoc in England & Northern Ireland: university residence, hospital staff residence, possibly a school, infested

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Why is it that some people aren’t being bitten and some are? Example: My boyfriend and I share an apartment. I am being bitten all night long. He, on the other hand, does not seem to be bothered at all by these critters. Please, I need an answer.

The short answer is that some people are not allergic to bed bugs so they don’t notice they’re being bitten. It’s also possible that others may not be bitten at all. I saw one report that suggested as many as 70% of people live with bed bugs and either aren’t bitten or are bitten and don’t notice (maybe someone can point me to where it was, but I know Parakeets and others have seen this statistic too). Nobody has a definitive answer as to why, and frankly, I guess researchers are a bit too busy trying to figure out how to kill bed bugs (and also, find out how many bed bugs are resistant to which insecticides and how to find new ways to kill them) to spend much time on questions like this. I am sure that if bed bugs stick around a while, we’ll learn a lot more about them.

Given that we don’t know for certain, a few sources (of the news article or fact-sheet variety) have suggested that women may be more likely than men to either be bitten or feel the bites (again, we don’t know if this is true, but for what little its worth, it appears that way to me), and that this may be because women’s body temperatures differ from men’s (very slightly). (Are they higher? Lower? Does it matter? If anyone has a source on this, help me out. I’m ready to study as a Yogi to try and adjust my temperature to something less tasty!) It’s among the vast wealth of stuff I gleaned from goodness-knows-where when I first started reading about bed bugs. I rushed onwards to find the “how to stop them” information, but now wish I’d taken down some names. I will update this FAQ when someone tips me off or when I find them again.

Even if many or even most people with bed bugs aren’t itchy or aren’t bitten, most of our readers (though not all) are among the itchy. Why? Well, itchy people, and those who are really worried about their itchy partners, are most likely to come on the site and try and find a solution. Bed bugs would make one heck of a torture device.

Reader, the fact that every able adult isn’t affected by having bed bugs in the home is really one of the worst things about bed bugs. I am going out on a limb saying this, since many readers no doubt have bed bugs but are among the non-itchy and/or non-bitten sector of the bedbugger community (here’s a a shout out to Bugzinthehood!) Let me clarify: I don’t mean I want everyone to suffer!

However, I do wish bed bugs were noticed, somehow, by everyone who had them, because then we would not have people developing serious infestations, which they do not notice (and so can’t treat) until bed bugs are running up the walls in broad daylight. With out the early warning of itching, many people don’t get treatment until an infestation has gotten very, very bad. Some of the non-afflicted don’t even get treated then. If they never wake up and see themselves bitten, a small minority of people just won’t care.

If everyone got a clear and non-ignorable “sign,” it would reduce another problem, which this reader has touched on (and my heart goes out to her): those of us who are “the one who itches” in a relationship or communal-living situation don’t just suffer the enormous discomfort (and in rare cases even life-threatening allergic reactions) of bed bug bites. We often also have to deal with a partner or housemate who doesn’t get it–especially in cases where the bed bugs are elusive and never present themselves for clear-tape-sampling and close-up photos.

The effects of those we live with “not getting it” range from a reluctance on their part to getting treatment or to cooperating with treatment protocols, to the non-afflicted partner doubting the other’s experiences. People have been called crazy by loved ones, many times. Many arguments have been fought, and no doubt, some relationships have crumbled under the weight of what is a very stressful situation (whether you’re the one itching, or not).

There’s nothing worse than having those closest to you (either physically or emotionally) not getting the fact that an invisible creature they haven’t seen, that has no effect on them, is physically making you miserable. And when the only solution includes expensive treatments, inconvenient laundering and bagging, and sometimes even parting with stuff temporarily or for a long time, these significant others are likely to be even more hostile to the idea of solving your problem. Hostile in a way they’d never be if you had a verifiable illness or a clearly visible pest.

These skeptical partners, relatives and housemates need to get that bed bugs don’t affect everyone, and are not always easy to spot, but that they can seriously damage one’s physical and emotional health, they need to be eradicated and that extreme measures are generally necessary.

In addition to giving a shout out to the loving partners and solid friends who do support the itchier folks, despite the stretch of the imagination doing so can require, it would also be remiss of me not to express some sympathy for the non-afflicted partners and friends who don’t get it, since in most cases, they’re good, caring people, and it’s certainly not easy to live with someone suffering from bed bugs. It would also be irresponsible for me not to admit that sometimes people do have other causes besides bed bugs for their itching. Sometimes, it really is in their head, or in their laundry detergent, or in the hot tub that gave them folliculitis, among other possible causes. But it also is really common for one person in a place not to be affected by bed bugs, while those sleeping in the same bed or home, or working in the same office or school, are.

We need to get that information circulated more widely: people don’t always know they have bed bugs. This doesn’t just pertain to the non-itchy spouse or roommate. People in multi-unit dwellings –especially those living alone– need to learn to look for other signs of bed bugs (like the black specks and the cast-off shells), landlords need to have adjacent units (top, bottom, sides) of infested units treated as well as actively investigating whether other tenants may be infested but not noticing it. Because people who aren’t allergic to bed bugs and don’t live with anyone who is, are the ones whose infestations are likeliest to grow the largest (and spread most widely) before being treated.

• FAQ: Bed bugs are crawling on me all the time. I am being bitten all day long, no matter where I go!
• Bed bug notice: East Village, NYC, January 2008
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 2)
• Do not watch this if you have an active bed bug infestation

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