Got Bed Bugs? Bedbugger Forums » Bed bug bites, skin, etc.
rate of increase of bites?
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JimmyChanga
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Posted 4 years ago
Tue Feb 10 2009 10:11:52
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If I had a small infestation (3 or 4 bites a week), about how bad will it be in a month? 15-20 bites per week? more? how much more? How about in 2 months?
I'm asking this because I'm still not sure if I have BBs. I've been getting bites for 2 months, but the rate of the bites has remained about the same (3 or 4 bites a week) and I have not seen any bugs, fecal matter or cast skins yet. Thanks in advance for any help on this.
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oldtimer
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Posted 4 years ago
Tue Feb 10 2009 16:31:54
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Hi,
I wish I could answer that one with a figure but its not as easy as you would assume, there is however hope from a different angle.
If you had bed bugs that were capable of breeding or that were capable of egg laying you would expect the numbers to start doing up in terms of the numbers of bites and frequency of bites. This would most likely steadily increase for the first 2 to 3 months and seems to plateau for a while before jumping up again later.
Now if the bites have not increased in frequency or numbers then if its bed bugs then it would need to be a group that was not capable of increasing in numbers.
It would however be the case that any faecal traces would increase in numbers over the time and seem to equate approximately to one bite results in one faecal trace. So if you have had 3 or 4 bites per week for a month you can assume to be looking for between 12 and 16 faecal traces, as time goes on the number increases and so does the chance of finding them without having a good idea of where to look.
It is why using dogs to detect low level infestations will usually be more accurate that human inspection, the detection level is much lower. I think with time we will also see the better handlers becoming adept in confirming the infestations by finding the physical signs of an infestation through experience and knowledge of inspecting numerous locations.
I suspect that in your case the longer the activity continues the less likely it is that you have bed bugs. I know this does open a whole world of other potential causes of the problem but at least you can narrow the list by one nasty pest.
Good luck hunting.
David Cain
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JimmyChanga
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Posted 4 years ago
Tue Feb 10 2009 18:08:27
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Thanks David! I'll keep my eye open for other possibilities as well.
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oldtimer
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Posted 4 years ago
Tue Feb 10 2009 19:09:55
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Well said David! I can't really add anything... And for that reason ... I don't know why I’m here =) Good luck in the hunt JimmyChanga! Have you had an inspection by a Human Pro/Imposter or K9?
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JimmyChanga
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Posted 4 years ago
Tue Feb 10 2009 22:51:51
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KQ: yes, I had a K9 come out and she alerted to the dresser. But the dog handler team were not able to find any visual traces afterwards. In a panic, I threw the dresser away after they left.
Then I had a PCO come to my house a few days later. They seemed to really know what they were doing, but they could not find any traces of BBs. They gave me 4 plastic BB traps to put on my bed legs (they are the type that the BB climbs in and can't climb out cause it's too slippery). I have not caught a single BB in them since they put it there (about a month or so ago).
The PCO was under the impression that the K9 team I had hired had ripped me off, but the K9 team said that when the dog alerts, they "have no doubt" that there are BBs there.
So I don't know who to trust, and I am just going to wait and see if it gets worse/better and look in the crevices daily. I don't know what else to do!
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spideyjg
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Posted 4 years ago
Tue Feb 10 2009 23:25:24
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JimmyChanga - 29 minutes ago »
So I don't know who to trust, and I am just going to wait and see if it gets worse/better and look in the crevices daily. I don't know what else to do!
Optimistically, you got lucky and the dog alerted to the nest of your small early infestation, and you tossed it. Problem solved.
You are doing the right thing by being vigilant.
Jim
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JimmyChanga
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Posted 4 years ago
Wed Feb 11 2009 11:40:21
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Thanks for the optimism, spideyjg. But I had been getting bites before the dresser was thrown out... and the bites continued at the same rate after the dresser was thrown out. So if there are BBs, they were obviously not all eradicated by throwing the dresser out. Then again, I might not have BBs at all, and it could have been a false positive.
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jack
newbite
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Posted 4 years ago
Wed Feb 11 2009 12:18:15
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i'm in a similar boat jimmy, in the past month i've gotten one or 2 bites per week or every other week. one night i got 5 bites, but that's all i got at one time at the most. yesterday i got a swelling on my big toe. i got so angry i moved my bed away from the wall and looked under the bed. i found 3 carpet beetles squirming. i almost lost my dinner. i'm not sure if they are walking over me at night and giving me an alergic reaction or if i still have bedbugs. have you found any carpet beetles in your home? do you think it's possible that's what's eating u??
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JimmyChanga
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Posted 4 years ago
Wed Feb 11 2009 12:21:22
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I have found carpet beetles. My PCO says they are harmless and they cannot bite you. Also, they eat the skin that you shed, so it's normal to find them around your bed.
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jack
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Posted 4 years ago
Wed Feb 11 2009 12:33:04
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oh i'm sure they are harmless in the conventional sense. i don't think that's what's eating me, but i found a site that says if you have sensitive skin that you could develop an allergic reaction to carpet beetles...maybe i'm just desperate and grasping at straws! whatever's biting me is in its early stages so i'm trying to rule things out and hopefully get others thinking too about their own situation
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oldtimer
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Posted 4 years ago
Wed Feb 11 2009 14:14:55
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Hi,
Yes it is possible to get a "bite like" reaction to carpet beetles despite the fact that they do not feed on humans and only dead dead organic material (feathers and wool mainly).
I have confirmed this with discussions with medical entomologists but as they are not a treatable pest the pest control industry does not focus on them and as they are present but cause no problems in most UK homes over 4 or 5 years old it is safe to assume that they only cause a problem for a small minority of people.
The trick to resolving the issue if carpet beetles are involved is to remove the allergens from the atmosphere and environment. The first stage of that is deep cleaning with a hepa filter cleaner and we are still working on other ways of doing it. Oddly enough it is one of those situations where an enzyme to digest the chitin and rogue hair follicles is most likely to be the fastest solution although they are not products readily available in the UK so I cant really test it.
I have been working on an allergen removal system for my home as one of my favourite house guests is seriously allergic to something in my house. It is most likely the bye products of the 20 cigarettes a day I smoke (no lectures about giving up please) but since using this water based ioniser she is able to stay a whole weekend. Once I have had a chance to test it on a few pest related problems I will feel more comfortable about publically endorsing it.
David
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ladybug
newbite
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Posted 4 years ago
Thu Mar 5 2009 17:34:11
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I'm kind of hijacking this thread as JimmyChanga has many of the same questions as me - the main one being do I actually have bbs?
I'll try and keep it brief - I started getting bites/hives/welts back in mid-Oct, my husband and daughter to this day have no bites. We searched high and low, found nothing and finally in Jan called a K9 team. The dog alerted to several places in our room, my daughter's room (thankfully not her crib), the lounge and the guest bedroom. The PCO has now treated 4 times, we've thrown out some of the furniture as it was old anyway. 2 weeks ago the only place the dog alerted was our boxspring (all now encased) and they sprayed again then yesterday, the 4th time, the dog alerted again to our boxspring (or an area just between the bed and a chair where it has alerted every time) and again on a chair in my daughter's room (where it didn't alert last time).
In all this time I have never seen anything, no bugs, no fecal spots, no bloodstains in the bed, nothing. Yet I continue to get bites EVERY night, the rate has slowed down, last night about 5-8 but it never completely stops. The bites are often on my neck and my hands which are exposed but also have been bitten under my clothes etc. I sometimes wake up with the bites and most days more appear by mid-afternoon. If that dog didn't keep alerting by now I'd be thinking it must be something else but the dog team comes highly recommended (on these boards) so we keep on with the PCO.
We continue to live out of ziplocs and I'm scared to stop all the precautions because that will of course be the day I see my first bb but is it possible that we are missing something???
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pleasenotme
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Posted 4 years ago
Thu Mar 5 2009 18:53:58
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I've been in the same boat since Dec. of '07. Never seen any. Have seen possible traces but nothing difinitive. I've been self treating and bites have gone down to about 1 cluster or one single bit every 1-2 weeks. I can't wait till I get my monitor to finally see what's been biting me.
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Emmm
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Posted 4 years ago
Thu Mar 5 2009 23:26:54
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I have the same problem, wondering if we have the bugs. No signs of them yet, but I really don't want to wait around... this house is made of cracks and crevices.
I wouldn't worry so much, except my boyfriend has them, so I'm certain I must. I'm guessing the centipedes we've always had are waging a holy war on the bed bugs, but I can't think they actually eradicate them fully.
I've called the K9 in my area, but we're unsure if my cat has fleas or not, so he's not so keen on coming. We'll see. He did tell me dermatologists should be able to tell me if my bites are fleas or bed bugs. So fingers crossed it's fleas-- we've conquered those before.
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losingit
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 14:47:54
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Ladybug, is it possible you are getting the bugs from a neighbour? That's one possibility. If the dog is alerting to your encased boxspring, does it have a tear or rip in it? Check and see.
Emmm: I'd just go ahead and call Mike and Kody out, forget about the fleas for now. If it's bbs, you're better off knowing rather than waiting god knows how long for a derm appointment, and a derm may not even know. In the height of my battle last year I had a derm tell me "...not bites, you're just allergic to something" and essentially sent me to see a shrink cos I was so stressed out. How very helpful...
If you get the doggie all clear, then look for fleas.
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Emmm
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 15:39:14
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Thanks, losingit. It's just a matter of his being willing to come in. I'm happy to pay the fee to know either way.
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losingit
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 16:19:00
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Emm, can you take your cat to the vet for fleas? or buy a flea comb? Could be the easy route for now.
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Emmm
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 16:26:23
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She's been treated with advantage and continually combed. We have a spray we've used before, but it's been suggested we not use it until we know what we're dealing with first.
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ladybug
newbite
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 17:52:47
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Losingit, funny the PCO suggested earlier this week that our neighbours may have a problem. I guess its possible - we live in single family home but its attached to our neighbours (a rowhouse). I think there is a brick cavity between each house although they are attached. It seems unlikely but I guess its possible. The boxspring encasement is definitely fine - we changed it about 2 wks ago as the original cheap vinyl one was ripped so I was hoping it would be all-clear this time. On a brighter note, I had my best day (bite-wise) in probably 4 months today, only 1 or 2 little itchy patches so maybe the 4th treatment is working.
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wiggywild
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 23:15:29
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Hello everyone first time post.
I will say that I had never seen a bed bug until yesterday with help from this forum. I have the crawly sensation on me all day long, and finally today I spotted 5-6 nymphs on my body. I have seen them before, but they are usually near hair follicles, and previously I mistook them for a tiny piece of upturned white skin. I watched one for long enough and he moved a little bit, I could make out some body part moving while he was stationary as well.
I will also say that I have had this problem for over 2 years, but I was unable to find evidence. I convinced myself that my liver was shutting down, that I had delusional parasitosis, and all sorts of other things.
On the subject of bite increase, up until a week or two ago I had absolutely no symptoms. Then, the weather in Kentucky changed from very cold to warm. That very day I started getting bites, and although the weather has fluctuated, I have had a very steady increase in bites which is starting to climax as I've been hunting them down for personal satisfaction (and prolly driving them out of hiding) until I can get a PCO in.
I believe that these bugs have laid dormant in my unheated attic or basement, and the change in temp prompted them to come out of their hiding place.
OP if you live further north and have a similar housing arrangement you may be in trouble, but I wish you the best.
Thus far I have killed 4-6 adults, but the nymphs must be in the 100's. I can feel 6-7 crawling on me at a time, and I verified this today through visual inspection.
Good luck!
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Emmm
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 23:27:23
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My stomach just plummetted reading about the nymphs being in the 100s and crawling all over.
I have the creepy crawlies all day and every small itch freaks me out. I've only had two sets of bites (First set were one-offs and probably from my boyfriend's house). Now I'm wondering if every itch that turns out to be nothing is really a lot of somethings... Every pinprick is freaking me out now.I don't know how people deal with this.
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spideyjg
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Posted 4 years ago
Fri Mar 6 2009 23:47:28
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Nymphs in the 100s means you have some serious infestation going on after 2 years.
Keep all the corpses to show the PCO and try to get some live captives to show as well.
Emmm, remember Wiggy has been having an active infestation for 2 years so that is lots of potential bugs.
However the nymphs staying on you doesn't sound right. BBs bite, fill with blood, and go hide.
Keep those bugs for definitive ID.
Jim
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Emmm
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Posted 4 years ago
Sat Mar 7 2009 2:02:24
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Thank you, Spideyjig. I think I just worry because I often get these tiny pin-prick-type pains, almost like a light mosquito bite, all day. All over. No mark, sometime itchy and sometimes not. Are they nymph bites? Am I just really over sensitive (with perhaps too-dry skin) at the moment?
I can't wait for the dog to come on Tuesday.
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BugBoy911
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Posted 4 years ago
Sat Mar 7 2009 7:49:56
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Changa are your bites in patterns? Was your PCO of choice able to identify bedbug bites? 99% of the time I only have to look at the bites to determine if the client has bedbugs. Nothing looks like bedbug bites period.
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Emmm
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Posted 4 years ago
Sat Mar 7 2009 22:26:10
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Can some PCO's identify bites? I was told by Toronto's health line for bed bugs that they don't tend to be body bugs and will only bite at night or when you're sitting still a very long time. When I'm at the computer, or even just moving my arms and legs, I can feel those pin pricks, often with no mark or not itchy, and it's hard to calm down.
I saw a doctor about the bites, as they said he might be able to identify them. He just brought up Toronto's website and looked. And then said mine were too big (almost a week later) to be bed bugs. That's all he did. And any dermatologist I ask generally says "we can't tell, so don't come in."
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losingit
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Posted 4 years ago
Mon Mar 9 2009 11:46:57
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I don't put a lot of faith in PCOs diagnosing bites, some can, some can't, it's not really their field. My PCO breeds the bugs for his sniffer dog and he showed me his bites. They were huge and completely different from mine.
Same for a derm, I had one told me I had 'allergies' and to see a shrink (last year, height of my bb problem). But the one from 7 weeks ago was better, I have Folliculitis, and I believe he's right since it's improving a little each week.
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