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OT: Waking up w/ mysterious bites
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Since moving to East Texas, I have about a week each month where I wake up with very red, raised, itchy bumps on my legs, stomach, and hips. At first, we thought I was being bitten by fleas because we found a few fleas on our dog, and she often snuggles with us in bed at night. Then we treated the house and the dog for fleas and haven’t had a problem since, yet I keep waking up with these mysterious and VERY itchy bites. I sleep in pajama pants and a t-shirt, and the bites are always under my clothes–never on my arms, neck, or face. Every morning about one week per month, I’ll wake up with 3-4 new bites. The bites are often in groups of two, but sometimes are single bites. We have checked for bed bugs and cannot see any. I’m also the only one in my family this is happening to. The kids and hubby are just fine. These bites don’t look like mosquito bites, and I cannot emphasize enough how itchy they are. Plus, they take several days to stop itching. I always wash our sheets in hot water and dry them on high. I had just washed our sheets and woke up with new bites the next morning!
I’ve tried to research this online, and I can’t find anything. Does anyone have an idea of what might be biting me??
Thanks!
Lindsey
Lindsey, are you sure they are bites? It sounds like what happens to me when I’ve come into contact with a food allergen the day before. That may not help, but for the itching, try this because it REALLY helps and is a homeopathic and interactions aren’t as likely:
http://www.vitacost.com/boericke-tafel-florasone-itches-and-rashes-cream
Hope you figure out what it is.
~jacqleene
Well, if it is chiggars, then they have a vendetta against me! Dh and I share a bed, and he has never woken up with one bite. And can chiggars survive hot water washing and high-temp drying? I only get these bites when I’m sleeping. Never when I’m just walking around the house.
If chiggars, you would get them in the daytime outside but they take a while to show up. Are they fairly large (1/2 to 3/4cm?), red and slightly raised? Chiggars like waist band areas a lot and bent areas (behind knees, under arms, groin). They usually come as clusters. Typically you get them from tall grass, like you climb into a brambly patch to grab a blackberry or ball, but I think they can be in any vegetation, preferably moist.
I have a doctor friend who claims similar sounding bites are ‘spider bites’. I don’t think I agree but the bites, from what I can remember, are similar to what I described above. I have had these ‘spider bites’ before such that you can see where the critter walked on me, a path of bites. I call them spider bites bc of my friend but I’ve held many a spiders and have never been bitten.
I’m not the “climbing into tall grass or brambles” type. 😉 I wake up with these bites even on mornings when I didn’t go outside at all the previous day. They’re also not behind my knee, in my armpit, or in other creased areas. My stomach, hips, thighs, and calves are where they are. They are about the size and shape you described. I don’t think they are spider bites. I’ve never seen a spider in our house since moving in 3 months ago. I’ve never seen any bugs, except fleas, and those are gone.
I just can’t figure out why there are four of us here, and I’m the only one getting bit.
bed bugs????
Scary, I know. But a sister-in-law of mine had them in her house. Only in her children’s room – but of course, the whole house had to be treated. Her daughters share a bed. Adn the youngest was waking up with these bites – they bothered her terribly. The dr. kept thinking it was an allergic reaction to something. AFter months of fooling around with allergy tests, benadryl, etc., they finally decided it was bed bugs. My SIL actually happened to see one of the bugs, asked a pest-control guy, and that’s how the diagnosis was made. By the way, the older daughter wasn’t bothered by the bites near like the younger daughter was – and yet they shared a bed.
If I were you, I’d be googling bed bugs and checking my mattress!
Best wishes. I so hope your problem is something that’s NOT bed bugs!!
Every once in a while, one of my children or I get bites like that. I’m convinced that they are spider bites. When we get bites like this, I dust behind & under the beds and bedroom furniture very carefully watching for small spiders & cobwebs. Especially check where you store your pajamas. There might be one hiding in your clothes when you put them on. Spiders will find a way into the house when the weather turns cooler or rainy. Whatever it is, I hope you find the solution quick! I know how miserable that is.
Lindsey, I had a friend with this same issue. It was carpet beetles. Carpet beetles are smaller than bed bugs and bite patterns are like whT you described. She used diatomaceous earth to kill them. If needed, I can put you in touch with her. http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/single-raised-bites-found-carpet-beetles-not-bed-bugs
I get those on occasion, but it is always fleas from the cats. The fleas don’t bother anyone in the family except for me – and DH and I share a bed. I have to be careful to remember to treat the cats with their flea medication monthly because they get fleas so easily and it is a nightmare to get them out of the house.
I will look into carpet beetles, Christie. After reading your link, that is definitely the closest description.
I truly don’t think it’s bedbugs. I have never seen anything–no shells, no bugs, no larvae, no fecal trails. We treated our carpet with diatomaceous earth, and that was what finally got rid of the fleas–although we never saw fleas in the beds either, but we did see them hopping in the carpet. DE is supposed to be effective against any type of bug, so I would have thought that it would have taken care of mites or carpet beetles too. Sigh….living in this new place has sure been wonderful, but there are so many more critters than we are used to!
Where in E Texas are you? I live in E. TX and we get bites all the time. And some bugs definitely like certain people at our house.
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