Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Detection / Identification of bed bugs
Advice for detecting bedbugs?
(4 posts)-
To anyone who might be interested in answering:
My wife and two children (3 year old boy, 1 year old girl) recently took a trip and stayed in a house our friends frequently lend to visitors. While there, my son had a cold and many (on the order of 20) raised red welts on his lower abdomen and upper left thigh that looked just like pimples. At the time we thought it was surely a reaction to the virus.
We returned home January 3rd. About a week later, the welts returned---again, on the order of 20 total appeared in one day. We took him to see his pediatrician who suggested it might be bedbugs, so I found this site and forum, which I have found extremely useful (and interesting, if disturbing).
Since then he has had new ones every few days, usually a few (maybe 5 or so) appearing at a time. They do not appear only at night. After beginning to suspect bedbugs, we took his bed apart. It is a simple wooden toddler bed with slats and no box spring. His mattress is new and easily inspected. We found no definite signs of bedbugs or molted skins or feces on the bed itself, nor the mattress, pillow etc. The room has very few objects in it but is carpeted.
Our landlord had a PCO come over to inspect. He did not do a very thorough job (so far; he's going to come back with his supervisor) and did not find anything. He left glue traps. I wrapped double sided packing tape around the four posts of my son's bed. After one night, no trapped bugs.
However, his sister has had similar---but not identical---symptoms on her left hip. Neither I nor my wife have any visible signs of bites.
To be honest, right now I doubt it's bedbugs but I'm not ready to rule it out. Any advice?
I'll be very grateful for your help!
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losingit
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Joined: Nov '08
Posts: 292
Posted 1 year ago
Wed Jan 21 2009 16:27:43
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Your son could be showing delayed reaction to bite which often show up a few weeks after the fact.
You might want to look at getting a bb sniffing dog in to check it out they're usually better detectives than mere humans.
Good luck!
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Hi Steve
Where are you located?
An experienced Bed Bug Dog team could help you rule out bed bugs quickly or help identify a harborage if they are present. I will be glad to refer you to a qualified K9 team, if you are interested.
Otherwise, you are on the right track with a PCO performing visual inspections & the use of sticky traps to collect a specimen. Capturing a physical specimen is the best way to identify the cause of a bite mark.
Here is a link to a Texas A&M article on unexplained bite marks.
http://citybugs.tamu.edu/FastSheets/Ent-1012.htmlThe article reviews some other potential sources for bite marks to consider.
I hope you find it useful. Please keep us updated with your progress.
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DougSummersMS:
We're in Minneapolis. I'd appreciate a reference to a K9 team, if there are any in our area!
Thanks for the link to the Texas A&M article. I did find it useful.
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