Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Detection / Identification of bed bugs
Bed bug, tick, or something else? Need help from experts!
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newbite
Joined: Jun '12
Posts: 4offline
Posted 11 months ago
Tue Jun 19 2012 4:01:43
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Hello,
I desperately need help identifying a bed bug or tick, or possibly something else from what I am about to describe. Please bare with me, I am going to be as detailed as possible...I have recently been getting or finding bites on my lower legs, pretty sporadically, but consistently having bites. Once I threw on some long johns, and I was itching so bad after two hours, I threw them off, to find open bloody bite marks, with some in clusters...I was working around the apt, not sleeping at this time. I have always suspected bed bugs, because they're my worse fear and I live in an older apartment complex, however everyone I know has always said I'm just nuts. Different roommates that have come in and out have often inquired about bites from time to time, but other than this, this was all i had to go by. I have two chihuahuas, I live in west Hollywood, Los Angeles area..so bugs, ticks, mites, fleas are rampant. I've treated my dogs in the past for fleas and ticks.
I had just purchases a pocket microscope and noticed orange flakes close to my bed, on my tv stand. I had a flashlight and had decided to check out what these things looked like under my 50x microscope. I was freaked out and astonished, as there's a microscopic lively world that i found dancing and moving about under my lense. it was about 7 am, so it was pretty light, but my curtains were drawn so my room was Duskey. I figured I might as well check my bed for anything, as much as I didn't want to, I started to. I lifted my sheets and there wasn't a lot of the red clusters, but there were flakes, small particles...and at the time I swore there were tons of sheddings at the time. My dogs and I had just slept on the bare mattress for a week before I put sheets on. (I needed to do laundry and was being lazy, and my no real means did I ever believe I had bed bugs.).
I started to pull up the seem of my pillow top on the mattress, out of no where a black looking beetle leaped out of the seams, me being shocked and astonished all at once...ti couldn't move, the bug scurried in a few circles and darted right back inside my mattress. All I remember is it was small, it looked as though there were legs from head to it's back and it's was a darker brown, to what I perceived to be black. I spent countless hours trying to get it to show again, and I never spotted this bug again.I called a pesticide company and they said it was probably bed bugs, but they'd have to come out an test to be sure. I'm dear friends with someone at city hall, and he set me up with someone from the health department and I contacted my landlord to get a second set of eyes.
during this time, I have not been able to sleep in my bed again, I have been out by the couch and not receiving bites. I already know I am not supposed to do this if I have bed bugs, believe me, I am somewhat of a bedbug expert, I just need help possibly identifying this. Ug I saw based on it's mannerisms and the time of day I spotted it.
Both inspectors who came out, said they couldn't find any classic signs of a bed bug infestation...I've also read how incorrect these inspections often are. One guy told me I did have carpet beetles, because I caught one in the kitchen near the dog food, and routinely spotted these little bugs there. I had been cleaning my mattress and throwing out any old bedding, so I kind of threw out all the proof I had when i freaked out. The health other health inspector said the stuff i found looked as if they were remains from bedbugs, but she'd have to find a live bed bug to tat, and I'd have to let my condition worsen so when she came back shed see a bug.
When I was staying in a hotel that weekend, I checked my dogs, as I heard dogs could carry or get bites, and found flea larva on one of my dogs. I was the creepiest thing, but i ended up treating them for fleas shortly after. I fogged my room like 4 times, and had just bought that 1200 mattress less than 2 years ago, which seemed to be completely worthless now.
I'm also pretty sure I haves a flea infestation in my apartment, because I have found fleas jumping on me and biting me, after I had detected them on my dogs once again. La is the worst place to live due to this awful pests!!! Anyways, I would enter my room now and again and check my bed, I continued to find little spiders, etc. But never that bug.
I've read that ticks and dogs go hand in hand, ESP if your dogs have fleas. I've googled and researched as much was I could and just needed to post this to get someone's advice who knows a but more than me. Isn't it very rare that I'd ever find a soft tick squeezing itself out of a hole from a stitching. This bug was a descent size, I'd say the size of the tip of a pen, when you click a pen to work, the entire part that pops out, maybe twice that. What I saw was almost blackish and the legs seemed very prominent.
Would a bed bug scurry out in the daylight like that? I was breathing close to where it ran out, could the co2 have really entice this bug to crawl out and see what was going on? Cold it be a flea of any sort from my dogs?? It seems this old apartment is infested with all sorts of pests, could it have been a large darker grain beetle? I haven't been finding a lot of luck when trying to find what other bugs literally live inside your mattress. 2 inspectors came up empty handed, I have confirmed fleas and flea bites, the only thing that still points to a bed bug infestation is the fact that I saw a round, small, black bug scurry out of a hole the size of a sewing needle, then jet back in, at 7 am. Please analyze all portions of this post and ask me any additional info if needed. Is there any other bug that could have been living in my mattress? Could my dogs have carried in a soft tick from one of our hikes, before flea control...and they now hanging out in my bed? I slept on this mattress bare every night before this one for a week. It seems it would have to be a bed bug, I'm just hoping there's some oth freaky little bug that might possible fit the description. The bug from what I remember, at the time I hadn't been studying bed bug photos, but i remember it being round, possibly having 2distinct segments, maybe a segment for it's head, very round and circular, legs, little legs that seemed to encircle it. I'd love to say it was more than six, I'd say at least 8, but I know bed bugs antennas can be confusing, it looked like some sort of beetle. My roommate kept mentioning a spider, but I'm pretty sure be able to distinguish if it was a spider or not. Its movements, the was it scurried quickly around then wasting no time to dive back in my mattress. If my infestation wasn't that bad, would i be seeing an extra bed bug? Or is it likely this might be a tick from my dog? Just share your thoughts and experiences, I know there's no way of knowing for sure without the bug. Thanks so much for your time and reading my post in it's entirety. All of your comments will be helpful and appreciated.
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oldtimer
Joined: Apr '07
Posts: 6,761offline
Posted 11 months ago
Tue Jun 19 2012 4:22:34
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Hi,
Images are more useful than descriptions if that is possible.
However having read through this my suspicions are:
- Carpet beetles
- Fleas
- Ticks highly unlikely
- Bedbugs last
But you need to find and confirm things before planning a treatment program.
David Cain
Bed Bugs Limited
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