So it was with interest that I read Thursday’s press release today from the National Pest Management Association, one timed as to use Halloween as an opportunity to remind people about “ghoulish” pests they should watch out for, namely bats, rats, and bed bugs. And they give several suggestions to consumers:

While these pests can provide their fair share of scares, NPMA recommends tips for homeowners to limit their trick-or-treaters to neighborhood children, and not the local pests, this Halloween:

1. Keep an eye out for tiny blood spots left behind by bed bugs. They can be found throughout the house, and are not just limited to bedrooms.

2. To keep rodents out ensure that all holes larger than a pencil are sealed and inspect the perimeter of your house for possible pathways inside.

3. Put screens over laundry or attic vents to prevent rodents and bats from entering the home.

4. An active infestation should not be controlled with do-it-yourself measures; contact a licensed pest professional.

Numbers one and four are of particular interest.

Number one implies that the only sign one might easily find are “blood spots” around the house. I think what is meant are not what we Bedbuggers call blood spots–little red stains where humans were bitten and blood came out, which are generally found on sheets–these are not found as frequently as what we’ve been calling “fecal stains,” or “fecal spots,” which are dark stains (like the classic mattress stains), or “fecal specks”, dark specks which can be anywhere from red or rust colored to black, and may be poppy-seed sized, or larger, or smaller, and harder or slightly damp. Both fecal stains/spots and fecal specks are made up of your blood, but their consistency and appearance vary. We suspect this variance may relate to local climates, humidity, etc.

Obviously, the NPMA is not going to go into that level of pooh-detail in a general warning. My point is that the warning did not warn consumers to watch out for bites, or for bed bugs themselves, but (if I am indeed interpreting them correctly) fecal spots. That sign, is often the only sign, or one of two (if coupled with bite marks and itching), that people have, for a very, very long time.

The media has traditionally warned people to look for bites and bed bugs. This is, I think, the first time I have read industry professionals telling people to look for this more subtle sign. And only this sign.

Coupled with suggestion number four, “an active infestation should not be controlled with do-it-yourself measures; contact a licensed pest professional,” the question arises as to what happens when the licensed professional cannot easily find bed bugs, as is often the case.

We hear from Bedbuggers whose PCOs treat anyway, because they now know finding an actual bug, bed bug shells, or eggs, or even really obvious fecal stains, can be very tricky.

But I think we still hear from many more Bedbuggers whose PCOs will not treat, who tell customers they “don’t have” bed bugs, or who recommend that in the absence of clear signs, they use pesticides on their own (in direct conflict with NPMA’s fourth recommendation here). That suggestion is surprisingly common–and raises the question as to why a PCO would recommend a customer starts spraying Suspend or Bedlam, if they don’t actually have bed bugs.

The press release reminds us that the pest control industry is quickly adapting, as are we customers, to a “new (to us)” pest that can be surprisingly stealthy. I recognize this press release was just a general warning to consumers to be alert for bed bugs, and I truly hope the NPMA is discussing the difficulty of finding bed bug evidence, and the broader definition of what that might consist of, with its members. Bedbuggers will tell you that even thorough, careful searches by professionals may yield nothing in terms of obvious signs, or that many PCOs that search cannot recognize or don’t want to count fecal specks as “signs.”

• Bed bugs in French SNCF trains
• Bed bug news round-up: USA Today, Minnesota Star-Tribune, and the Astral in Greenpoint
• New Yorkers: what happens when you call 311 with a bed bug complaint?
• FAQ: What are bed bugs? Do I have them? What else could be causing this?

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There’s currently an outbreak there, and a hundred people have reported itchy red welts at area emergency rooms in the last week. Here’s a news clip from the Chicago Tribune.

Itch mite bites last 10-14 days and itch mites will not infest your person or your home. If you have not spent time in a wooded area, or if you have other signs of bed bugs, or if your bites persist beyond the next two weeks or continue to get worse (without you visiting the forest preserves again), you should be very proactive about seeking an experienced PCO who can inspect for bed bugs. Itch mites are a very specific condition, so read the article and watch the video and consider whether that’s a likely culprit.

We don’t normally report on “other conditions” here at bedbugger.com. But in the last few days, participants on the forums have reported visiting doctors who claimed to have the same itchy welts. And I was starting to worry bed bugs in Chicago were even more widespread than I had thought! Well, at least in many cases, it appears to be another cause.

But consider this: at least some of those 100 emergency room visitors will doubtless be suffering from bed bugs and thinking they have itch mites. Be alert, and proceed with caution.

• Lou’s bed bug bite photos
• Presidential Towers sold, with free bed bugs! Doctors and bedbugs (again)
• World exclusive: Bedbuggers experiment with being bitten, on purpose! (Part 4)
• 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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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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When ceritifed PCOs publish mediocre advice about bed bugs in the newspaper, it makes me a bit worried. Anyone who writes for a newspaper probably has internet access and can do some research.

Readers of the Marcos Island (Florida) Sun Times were given some poor advice today in the Ask the Bug Guy column, by columnist and PCO Peter Masi, of West Coast Pest Control. A reader asked about the resurgence of bed bugs and how to deal with them. Masi said,

. . . for the first time in many years and I’m talking 30 or 40 years, bedbugs are back! Why?

No one seems to know.

They were the scourge of the hotel/motel industry for years and back then, DDT was the cure. Of course, you can’t use that now!
First, make sure they are, in fact, bedbugs and not lice. They do leave the same type of marks when they decide to eat someone’s blood.

This all sounds rather awful, doesn’t it? I would try using the same powdered insecticide they use for lice. We know that will be safe as long as you follow the directions to the letter.

I’m not a certified PCO, but I have a few problems with this.

First, there will be other evidence (besides bites–which I don’t agree will look the same as lice bites) if you’re infested with lice: lice and nits, for example. On your person. Whereas people can go months without seeing a bed bug. Signs like little black specks and cast shells may come before a bed bug sighting.

Also, people primarily need to treat their heads with insecticides, for lice (using something like this), or their bodies, in the case of body lice. You might also need to use powder in the home, and this is what Masi seems to be referring to. But he should know that bed bugs don’t simply infest mattresses anymore (though this was more common back in the day.) Instead, they infest baseboards, ceiling and electrical fixtures, floorboards, bed frames, and the insides and bottoms of bedroom furniture, among other things.

What’s more, they spread quickly. It would be much better advice for people to have a PCO come out and inspect, to see if it really is a light problem. If you’ve been bitten for more than one day running, you probably have multiple bed bugs, and who knows how many. Very small infestations may clear up with cursory treatments (such as Masi suggests) and thorough vacuuming and laundering. But most people who think they have a small infestation because they’ve “only seen a few bugs” have a real infestation that needs prompt and careful treatment.

But what really annoyed me was this:

I’ll bet most folks on Marco Island will opt to just buy a new mattress. They’ll deliver the new one and take away the old one. We are an affluent community and I just can’t visualize most of you taking the time and painstaking effort to exterminate bedbugs.

The problem with the Bug Guy’s advice here is that while the author clearly understands bed bugs take time and painstaking effort to get rid of, nevertheless just finished giving poor advice as to how and do that.

And on top of that, Masi encouraged people with bed bugs to buy a new mattress from a company that delivers new mattresses in the same trucks in which they cart away the old ones, and he encouraged them to send their mattress away in the truck with the delivery guy. With these words, Masi provided a solution that is not guaranteed to get rid of bed bugs (since homes, as well as mattresses, are usually infested). It is likely that people will purchase new mattresses and these will become infested too, if bed bugs are still in the home.

More importantly, Masi also just gave lots of Marcos Islanders a nice recipe for spreading bed bugs to others. Since we know that one common method by which people get bed bugs is from new mattresses delivered in trucks carrying infested used mattresses, I would not encourage anyone to purchase a mattress from a company that does this, if they can avoid it.

I absolutely would not encourage anyone who suspected or knew they had bed bugs to send their mattress away in a delivery truck. If you have bed bugs, you can protect your mattress and keep it. Or, if you decide you want to get rid of it (preferably at the end of treatment, when a new mattress is less likely to be exposed), for Pete’s sake, destroy the mattress by slashing it up and leaving it on the curb (being careful to wrap it tightly in plastic so as not to spread bugs on the way out the door). Please do not expose other people to your problem. It’s as irresponsible as exposing them to a contagious disease: and I don’t mean the flu. Think mono. Or worse.

If keeping others from suffering does not motivate you, then give a thought to the fact that if bed bugs keep spreading due in part to carelessness. If you’re not careful to keep bed bugs to yourself, then once they’re gone, bed bug karma says you will get them again in time.

Unfortunately, so will lots of other people who were more careful than you were. Most people, I should add, get bed bugs through no fault of their own. But we all should take steps to avoid causing others to suffer needlessly.

So called “bug experts” should be more careful to give good advice; PCOs who know bed bugs and have been exposed to them are very cautious.

• Bed bugs in Sweden: Ikea, used mattresses, and the spread of vägglus
• Bed bug unfriendly mattress re-sellers: recommendations?
• Making mattress companies part of the no-bedbug solution
• So many bad bedbug-fighting practices, so little time

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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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You may notice that I am beginning to remove the comment function from the FAQs, since people are overwhelmingly using them to post tales of bed bug woe and questions and answers, rather than comments related to the FAQs. This would be okay, except it means people “lose” where they leave their questions, and they don’t always find their way back.

Instead, if you have a suggestion for a FAQ, you can email me, nobugsonme at yahoo dot com.

Thanks!

• FAQ: I am not in the US. Can you tell me where to buy XL ziplocs, or what mattress covers are called in my country?
• Ask your bed bug questions / share your tales of bed bug woe here
• Hints from Bed Bug Helloise!
• Welcome Bedbuggers!

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The bold phrases were googled today:

• allergic reaction to metal beds (Or perhaps something on the bed is causing the reaction?)
• bed bug faqs (check!)
• prepare for the bed bugs fumigation (First, ask your Pest Control Operator if you’re really having a fumigation. If it’s Vikane, get out of your home! If it’s a bug bomb, don’t do it! If it is not a fumigation, then prepare for treatment following the PCO’s advice.)
• “traumatic insemination” video (here)
• bed mites bite pictures (Forget the pictures! The problem is when the mites bite you…)
• how to know if you have bed bugs on your (Ahem! Long search phrases get cut off. I so wonder what that next word was!)
• bedbugger
• landlord liable for bed bugs new york (Yup, and in other civilzed places too. See here)
• bed bug bites
• hotel lawsuits (yes)
• Hourly professional bed bug charge (good question; varies, but many charge by the treatment–either one or several visits they plan to make– as opposed to charging by the hour)
• Bed bug feces black (yes, they are)
• bug sniffing dogs (love ‘em)
• chinche de cama (you want this)
• What kind of over the counter pesticide
• skin biopsy for diagnosing scabies (get one)
• recognizing bed bugs (here)
• chinchas (mas en Espanol)
• down comforter, bug (Oh no! Not again!)
• medical photos bugs under skin (That’s another website)

I hope they found what they were looking for somewhere if not here.

• Bed bugs also causing havoc in England & Northern Ireland: university residence, hospital staff residence, possibly a school, infested
• Council bed bug treatment in the UK: rates going up
• teaching doctors to diagnose bed bug bites
• Lingering sensations, phantom bed bug bites: what does a bed bug infestation really do to our skin?

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Called SCRATCH –the letters form a memorable acronym for symmetry, cluster, Rover, age, target/time, confused, household) – it is a guide to the symptoms and features that help pediatricians and others to recognize the source of a rash.

Insect-bite skin rashes mimic the symptoms of a variety of conditions, ranging from fungal infections, scabies, allergies and environmental contacts to HIV-associated dermatoses. Reactions to a bite are often delayed, making it difficult to trace exposure.

“SCRATCH could spare many children and their parents from going through invasive, not to mention expensive, procedures if pediatricians recognize the problem early on,” said Raquel Hernandez, a third-year resident at the Children’s Center and lead author of the article, published in the July online edition of Pediatrics.

Hernandez and co-author Bernard Cohen, associate professor in the School of Medicine and head of dermatology at the Children’s Center, developed SCRATCH by examining a month’s worth of patient records from visits to the Children’s Center dermatology clinic. They found that the majority of children who were eventually diagnosed with an insect-bite rash had undergone extensive lab tests and skin biopsies before they were referred to Johns Hopkins.

The most common misdiagnosis was scabies, a skin infection caused by a parasite that produces red, itchy lesions. Many of the children were treated repeatedly for scabies.

“These guidelines are really intended to make pediatricians consider insect-bite hypersensitivity as a diagnosis and think twice before referring a child for a skin biopsy or another invasive procedure,” Cohen said.

My doctor did not hesitate to prescribe Elimite for Scabies, which she could have ruled out with a simple skin scraping. Instead, the Elimite gave me a bad reaction, and my “mysterious rash” did not disappear.

Here’s how SCRATCH works, and keep in mind, it’s all applicable to adults too:

Using the tool is straightforward, Cohen said. If the rash fits the SCRATCH criteria, it’s likely bug-borne. The seven checkpoints are:

S for symmetry. Erruptions are usually symmetric and appear on exposed parts of the body, such as face, neck, arms, legs. Younger children may have rashes on their scalps. Diaper areas, palms and soles are not affected. The trunk is rarely affected. By contrast, scabies causes rashes on palms, soles and between toes and fingers.

Keep in mind that you can get single bed bug bites, as well as bites on any part of your body (though the scalp is rarely troubled: they don’t like going through hair). You can get bed bug bites, therefore between toes or fingers, on palms, etc. But they’re not the hotspots they are with scabies.

C for clusters. Lesions appear in “meal clusters,” described as breakfast, lunch and dinner. The linear or triangular clusters are typical of bedbug bites but also appear in bites caused by fleas.

As above, bed bug bites do come in singles. You are likely to see at least some clusters.

R for Rover not required. Presence of pets in the household is not a criterion for diagnosis because a bite might occur outside of the home.

You need not have pets to have fleas or bed bugs.

A for age specific. The condition is most prevalent in children between the ages of 2 and 10.

I am not sure about this one, actually. Most of the bedbuggers are allergic to bedbugs and we’re all grown up.

T for target lesions and for time. Target-shaped lesions – so named for their resemblance to the bull’s-eye on a target — are typical of insect-bite hypersensitivity. Time indicates the chronic/recurrent nature of the eruptions. Many patients may have delayed reactions and may not experience flare-ups until months or years after the initial exposure. Most children develop full immunity by age 10 and no longer have recurrent rashes.

C for confusion. Parents often express confusion and disbelief at the suggestion that there might be fleas or bedbugs in their homes. “One of the primary criteria is that if the parents don’t believe me, I am probably right,” Cohen said.

Forget parents: my doctor expressed said confusion. She said if I had bed bugs I’d see them. Not always as soon as you’re suffering, and for me, many months of suffering without a sighting.

H for household with single family member affected. Unlike conditions that have similar symptoms, such as scabies and atopic dermatitis, insect-bite rashes often appear in a single member in a family.

“Common sense might tell us that fleas and mosquitoes would affect other members of the family, but we must keep in mind that these rashes develop in children who have hypersensitivity that others do not have,” Hernandez said.

This one is very telling: if you have scabies, those in close physical contact with you will too, at least in short order.

Bed bugs can trouble one in a household. They can even trouble no-one in a household. Which is why my neighbors can have given them to me and have no clue they have them.

Hopefully SCRATCH is a start towards doctors better recognizing the growing incidence of bed bug bites in kids. But hopefully all doctors will soon have more relevant knowledge for diagnosing various skin problems.

• teaching doctors to diagnose bed bug bites
• Presidential Towers sold, with free bed bugs! Doctors and bedbugs (again)
• Barona Resort and Casino bed bug lawsuit
• Harvard dorm treated for scabies–but what was it really? Also, bed bugs at Columbia?

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