my reaction to bed bugs (bites) can the reactions vary over time?

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my reaction to bed bugs (bites) can the reactions vary over time?

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blazing

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Posted 3 years ago
Thu May 28 2009 16:32:19
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i mean, if i saw dead bed bugs in my old room at that apartment, and saw a blood stain on the sheet, which prompted me to check.. then i must have been getting bit right?

but i never felt anything at all.. nothing visible.. except for one part on my arm my mom noticed, that i totally dismissed... maybe was, maybe wasn't bedbugs.. but it was a faint two or three pinkish marks midarm opposite the elbow, where the arm bends.

but the last night i was there, just 2 days after discovering the bugs, after i got to my folks home, i felt
a B**** of an itch around the knuckle of my right foot toe. This was what bedbug bites, I feel, would cause me to react. I am really sure, I got bit while packing over there (and the shoes went in the trash, never having been inside my folks home, so no worries about mixing)

I just find it odd.. that that horrible itch that swelled and even pussed and seemed like a bed bug bite.. yet i could have gotten bit before and not have any symptoms>
people react differently to bites.. but can those reactions change so greatly within the SAME person?

I have not found any real signs of bed bugs in my folks house. it has been over 2 months, so i feel safe.
at the same time, if a few managed to hitchhike on me while i was visiting my parents, prior to moving back home, a bed bug population might still be slow to develop, especially because i am not feeling the bites?

i have looked in GREAT DETAIL... nothing that i can see or feel or sense, other than being very cautious and prepared. It seems we are ok for now. but i always worry about bringing them home and becoming a paranoid woody allen type putting my stuff all in plastic. and at some point i will have to move again to the big bad bed bug city of toronto. are there bed bug free buildings there even.. i dont even believe that.
DragonFlight

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Posted 3 years ago
Thu May 28 2009 19:52:56
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It is possible you have Bed Bugs, I'd start the process of inspection now.
Not all of Toronto has this problem, but it is increasing rapidly. Especially in apartments where (to be blunt) you're getting a lot of hicks moving into units and bringing bed bug with them. I have had a encounter with one person, in which they mentioned bed bugs like every body had them, which is untrue.

Truth is the core of Toronto is falling apart and bed bugs in the City of Toronto is just showing that it is falling apart very rapidly.
blazing

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Posted 3 years ago
Mon Jun 1 2009 20:08:52
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I indeed DO have bedbugs... they have successfully hitched to my parent's suburban home on a visit prior to me finding out I had them in Toronto. Or it could have been another way, because who can really tell.. Anyhow, I saw the dead bug in the kitchen, and past two night looking by the baseboards briefly saw one scrambling to hide.

Obviously they are biting me. Obviously my reaction to getting bitten is very low. I got a couple nasty bites (one of them I didn't think was a bite at first), and I have felt an itchy spot a few times. other than that nothing. I guess I am lucky... however, I am guessing I am mostly getting bit by nymphs and since I am a big guy, the impact is not great right now. I did also, have a trio of bites in the shape of a triangle though come to think of it the other day. the area felt warm.. like there was foreign matter injected. It has long since subsided.

I am not at all scared to go to sleep. I am sick and tired of being scared of things. They can just go stick it! But I do know the situation will worsen, and change to a greater degree of seriousness.
DragonFlight

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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Jun 2 2009 10:47:14
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Triangle bites ? Those seems odd, not bed bug related.
bed-bugscouk

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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Jun 2 2009 14:15:26
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Hi,

Pattern, numbers or appearance will not tell you if its bed bugs unless you happen to have had a recent bite test with something you know to have been a bed bug. Even then your bite response is also influenced by stress and the environment you are in so its not much better than 25% accurate.

Its more reliable to focus on looking for the physical signs such as:
- Faecal traces
- Cast skins
- Live samples
They are much more reliable than any bite symptoms.

Hope that helps.

David Cain
Bed Bugs Limited
buggyinsocal

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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Jun 2 2009 14:28:04
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There's a lot we still don't know about bed bugs since they were radically understudied for decades. (There was one entemologist who kept colonies for decades when everyone thought the scourge was gone, and if I ever see him in person, I'll be tempted to hug him I'm so grateful).

At any rate, one thing that the research so far suggests is this: the best research we have suggests that even though you would think that nymph bites would be smaller than the bites from adults, that does not seem to be true.

Somewhere on this website, there's footage of someone going for a bite response check. A nymph and an adult were placed on the person's arm and allowed to feed in order to tell how responsive this individual was to bites. The nymph bite and the adult bite were exactly the same size as each other after feeding.

I know it would seem to make intuitive sense that a smaller bug would inject less numbing stuff, and so the bite would be smaller, but the small set of research we have now seems to suggest that that's not the case. (I won't say it's 100% disproved, since any hard or social scientist will tell you that conclusions are best drawn after lots and lots of data, and we don't have that yet.)

I mention this only because I drove myself nuts after treatment thinking anything mildly itchy might be a nymph bite, and then thinking about how small they were, and worrying that I wouldn't see them until a full blown infestation was back. My post treatment itchy skin turned out to be the result of plenty of other things besides bed bugs, nymphs or adults.

I'm sorry to hear that you definitely have them, but if you now have confirmation, that makes the next step of getting a pro in to treat a little easier to move toward.

Hang in there.
blazing

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Posted 3 years ago
Tue Jun 2 2009 20:11:27
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well triangle as in breakfast, lunch dinner.
one bite.. then another beside it.. about two three inches apart.. then one above them..
or it could be three bites from three bugs...

i could be wrong but i know we have bedbugs now and that means they must be biting me.

i am just lucky it hasnt made me nuts yet.

i am hoping my dad gets bit good so he can get a pro in there.. because until that happens, this will fester.
Nobugsonme

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Posted 3 years ago
Wed Jun 3 2009 2:20:15
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Bed bugs can bite in lines, in triangles, or singly.
You can react or not react.
And yes, your bite reactions can vary on different days, on different parts of your body, or over time, they can change.
buggblues

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Posted 3 years ago
Thu Jun 4 2009 6:16:53
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I had held onto a slight delusional thread of hope that my 'new' bites might not be bedbugs because i am not having the same awful terrible red swelling itchy allergic reaction as i did the first time....
this time bites.. in lines... takes a couple of days for the area to get real red.. mild itching... and now i know that bites change and allergic reactions change and everything changes.... a moving target of a problem to solve. ugh.