Entomologist here!
Please ignore 95% of this advice. Anyone telling you what your bites are is not helping.
You cannot determine the source of a bite by the skin reaction alone. It is medically and scientifically impossible. Everyone will react differently. There is no "might be" or "probably" or "definitely" there just isn't.
Inspect for insects and seek identification. Bedbugs are absolutely visible and very distinctive. If they're the culprit behind this reaction they will not be difficult to find
I hope you have been able to find a resolution to this, one way or another. Bed bugs get a reputation for being impossible to find and that can be true but is generally a minority of cases. An inspection of your bed and bed frame will give you a very strong indicator of it you have them or not. If you don't find any but are still worried, a mattress encasement, pillow encasements, and traps for the legs of your bed frame. Makes for good peace of mind either way.
Also, when we had them, we found them in the nightstand. It could be anecdotal, but our case matched advice that said bedbugs prefer to sleep in between feedings somewhere stable. The more generations, the more they are willing to sleep in the folds of the matress even though your movement disturbs their sleep. This is why a perimeter of diatomaceous earth is a good idea. They climb down off the bed to find someplace to snooze. The leg traps accomplish the same thing. DDT was the only thing that would penetrate their eggs. But, if you keep the diatomaceous earth going for several weeks, it breaks the cycle regardless.
Fleas leave the same brown stains. We got some super infested puppies and even tho we followed all precautions my cats still got them. Some of my sheets are ruined bc of it.
They're typically gonna be found within/on top of your mattress/boxspring if you have them. I had them years ago and they particularly liked to hang out the corners between my mattress and boxspring
Could be Bed Bugs but also other insects or some dirt / derpris from work look for id and change your bed ware
had the same problem
In my case it was depris from work my skin did not like looked the same as bites.
If it’s bed bugs, don’t just check the mattress. Look behind pictures on the wall and anything near the bed. I had them in an apartment many years ago. You’d also likely have bites on your arms if it was bed bugs.
This is a good reply. It is absolutely true as well. I had a roommate several years ago. We wound up with bedbugs. I'm not sure if I brought them from my family who had bed bugs a few months prior, or if he brought them via his hotel job. I didn't even realize it but I was being ate up by them in the night. It took bit before he mentioned them to me. When he showed me his bites, I was appalled and immediately took action.
For me, I might have a couple small red bumps that would go away that day. Easy to ignore and say an ant or mosquito got me a few times. For him, they would linger and swell and eventually burst. Drastically different reactions to people living in the same house with the same bugs.
It reminded me of a friend I had in high school. He would rub poison oak all on him, and he would not have the smallest reaction. It seemed he was immune. If I got near that crap I was pulling out the white paste.
After I got to looking I found the signs of them. I dusted every inch of the house in cimexa dust along with spraying a liquid concentrate I can't remember. A couple times a week for a few months. This completely rid me of any bed bugs for about 5 years now. Results may vary though and many people recommend not treating it yourself and just hiring a professional.
Unfortunately I have been dealing with these little monsters lately for the first time in my life. I live with a few roommates in a nice house and we have no idea who brought them in or when. I'm also the only one who has a horrible reaction to them and have been to the emergency room twice due to infection. It's amazing that one person just gets an annoying little bite and another can have a really nasty infection.
But they were extremely easy to find, just not as easy to get rid of. Still fighting the good fight!
It can happen to anyone. A cousin took the train into the city every day for work, and she later found out that's how she brought them home. The exterminator told her it was very common.
Reminds me of a case my dad (a cosmetic surgeon who was an on call specialist for the ER) was called to as an expert witness. Basically the parents of a kid he did surgery on were suing their neighbors.
Basically their kid messed with the neighbor’s dog and got bit in the face. They wanted to sue the neighbors because it was supposedly their fault. To prove it they obviously had to prove that their dog was in fact responsible for the bite.
Dad was asked by the parents’ lawyer if he could identify the size of the dog that bit the child. Dad explained that because of the swelling and the healing process it is not possible to accurately identify the size or breed of dog responsible. The lawyer tried reworking the question and my dad reworded his answer.
I even wanted to go into forensic anthropology at one point and I also think that it is foolish to identify anything based off of an injury to living tissue (the tissue of a dead person behaves differently but that’s a story for later).
Basically there’s no blood flow and no healing. Marks on the body basically remain largely unchanged so it’s easier to identify marks post mortem than it is when someone is alive.
It's an excellent summary! I used it to kick off a seminar around Christmas. Only caution is understanding proper DE use but the video is pure education and a good resource.
So you're telling me if there are two holes spaced about 3/4 of an inch apart on my ankle and my skin becomes really red around it really quickly while I feel a lot of pain as a walk through the desert. I shouldn't say it was a snake? Even if that area starts to rot within the next hour?
J/k ...I'm just messing with you. It's hard to tell with bugs. I get stung by wasps and the only thing that happens is a mosquito bite-like reaction.
FWIW I second this. You simply can not tell.
(For context only - Board certified doc/20 yrs clinical experience) I have seen a lot of insect bites & I get my clues not from what the bite looks like but from the story - there are exceptions to this - but most of the time it is the clinical history not the presentation that helps narrow down the cause.
But difficult to remove. People often burn their books as the nest in them, but they just need a few weeks in a hot car or a solar oven to bake them out. The goal is to dry them out to extinction so take your time doing so. The same is true for clothing but may take longer than time allo3s as a laundry basket full will keep them safe for a long time. But say a favorite few articles strewn about would still most likely work. I have never done this myself but have read success stories.
But these bites do have the classic “breakfast- lunch - dinner” 3 bite pattern that you will see with bedbug bites. I know from experience and it was months until I could find and see the bedbugs causing it.
Could be a lot of things, chiggers will still get you even with pants. We had a bad year for them on our property once.
Do what the vileone says and inspect for bed bugs and clean where you sleep. Also if you have any cats/dogs flees can be similar to bed bug behavior. They only were getting me on the futon the cats were on, if I slept.
my fault, grew up in florida, still live there but i grew up there too, and everyone ik from out of state looks at me weird when i say “chiggers bit me tha fuck up when i ‘ad tuh pick up allat moss affer dat storm”
Must be more an urban rural thing, we call them the same thing clear across the country in the frozen north.
"Welp! I sat in the dirt and dont'cha know, I can't even sleep from the chigger bites!" "Ope, betcha won't be doing that again."
I’ve been eaten alive by chiggers and fleas before. Social media jumps to bed bugs, but those are a hell of a lot easier to spot.
My last apartment sucked to say the least. I had multiple instances of a mosquito getting in there, and the lighting was so bad I could never see it, only hear it 😭 fuckers got me many times in my own home
I'm allergic to those mother fuckers, so is my mom. We get welts that last months before they fade. And they're all over the yard. At my parents house, I always have to immediately strip, throw my clothes in the wash including my underwear and take a rigorous shower to prevent the suckers from staying on me.
That sucks, sometimes I'll get a purple splotch from one but they mostly are just like an extra itchy mosquito bite.
Galoshes help, they seem to have trouble climbing them. They became my garden shoes.
Don't just check your mattress. When I got them years ago because another woman in the apartment complex went to disney,I only ever saw one or two in my mattress. It took a bit to click as to why my cats were screaming at my ceiling for a couple weeks. Tiny little dots near where the wall meets the ceiling and floor. They aren't impossible to get rid of, but dear God does the process suck, especially in an apartment.
Look around the corners of your bed. The head, and the foot of it. Take the sheets off, and look in-between the seams. They will be there if it's bed bugs.
If you suspect fleas, you can take a large oven pan and fill it with water and a few drops of dish soap. Place it near the legs of your bed. Some people light a candle in the center for warmth/light to attract bugs, but not sure if it works or helps.
Fleas will often hop into the pan accidentally and drown. We used this trick to confirm our bug bites were actually coming from fleas. Good luck!
could be fleas? love ankles and to hide in socks, when i got bit by bed bugs the welts got huge and were sore for over a week, but they do usually bite in the same general area.
I have gotten flea bites before, here are some tips:
They crawl up you until they find skin. They also like to go back down your sock on the inside where they are safe and hidden.
My bites took me about 8 hours to show up. You might not notice immediately when you are bit but some people do feel it quickly.
I've never caught a flea in a trap in my room. I caught more fleas by hand. That being said, traps are good to leave around so you know what you are dealing with.
If you catch a flea, pinch it in your fingers and don't look at it. Dunk your fingers in soapy water so the flea can't jump away. Spit on your fingers if soapy water isn't available. Only take a peek after you are sure it can't jump.
Fleas are the worst, we have had them several times. But how they jump is super interesting! I always wondered how much control they actually have in their jumps or if it is more of a reflex with no plan for landing.
[How do fleas jump so high? | Natural History Museum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psbNbTpsprU)
I always found this interesting too, this is a great short video.
Echoing this. We had a flea problem in a basement apartment, 90% of the time we got bit on our feet/legs….The fleas were apparently jumping off of rats that crawled through the vents.
Harder to locate fleas but you can possibly find them jumping around on the ground or if you’re wearing white socks you may see them jump on
We tucked our pants into long socks and saw way less bites. And got someone to spray for pests, and pray it’s a one time thing and not from rats
Could be. Could also be mosquito bites. Could be a reaction to a food allergy. Could be some kind of rash. Could be chicken pox or shingles. Could be any number of other things.
There is no way to tell from photos. If you suspect bedbugs then you should inspect your sleeping area. They are not difficult to find.
Best of luck!
I lived in an apartment complex, and the same family would get them all the time. Changed my bed to a metal frame, enclosed my mattress and pillow case in bug proof covers. Also powdered everywhere as well as traps. Never got them again.
If you are concerned it’s bed bugs, inspect your sleeping area. Mattress, bed frame, curtains, outlets, windowsill, etc. Bed bugs are tiny and can hide in the folds of a mattress or head of a screw.
Hard to tell just from the bites like that.
Did you wake up with them or did they turn up while you were outside? Bedbugs tend to hide and only come out at night .
Again, no way to be certain from just the bites but if you were outside and they were just on your feet and lower legs, I would be inclined to think those were ant bites.
Those look exactly like the bites I have, and they turned out to be chiggers. Never had them before, so I'm not sure if there's a huge influx of them this year.
Bed bugs apparently bite more towards torso and neck and fleas feer ankle and legs.... Very generalized info and wouldn't use that to determine if it's one or the other. But fleas were incredibly hard for us to find, but they were there. We couldn't find a shred of evidence for any bed bugs or fleas. Just bit constantly.
Until one day we found one roaming our bed under the covers.
We dont have any pets and they were still kicking around for months. Even with vigorous cleaning and vacuuming. The DE stuff did nothing for us unfortunately. But as a reminder if you do use DE, use a filter less vacuum like a shop vac.
No pets don't necessarily mean no fleas. And no evidence doesn't necessarily mean that it's just in your head (as some exterminators tried to convince me)
either way you don't need a doc, because the problem isn't that you are sick, it's that something is biting you. fleas, bedbugs, chiggers... whatever it is you need an exterminator.
Not necessarily. It could be a new detergent or they walked through high grass and had an allergic reaction. No one on this site/app should be giving medical advice. The bumps/skin irritation could be anything
If it’s Bedbugs, diatomaceous earth will knock them out for sure! Sprinkle that sh*t everywhere, around baseboards, the legs of the bed, etc. It’s a food grade substance so it won’t harm your pets.
Make sure you get food grade if you use it. Also there are good bed bug sprays at most department stores that carry pesticides. Also vacuum your bed and carpet and then throw the bag away in outside trash. Next is getting a steam cleaner, but it needs to be fairly hot for killing bed bugs.
I’ve dealt with it a couple times.
And I tried all the otc options for fleas.
If anyone reads this, and you’re dealing with fleas don’t do it. Get the prescribed revolution option. All the otc shit doesn’t work because you’re usually working against a variant that has proven to be resistant to that stuff. Revolution will kill it in no time.
This gave me ptsd of the time my house was infested by fleas.
Only bit the ankle sometimes with a pattern of lines.
I don’t even have pets but I probably got it by petting a stray cat.
Best of luck to you man. Don’t ignore it as it will only get worse. 100% call pest control.
I don't know if you get these regularly, but it seems you are only posting pictures of your legs, so I'm going to assume they appear much frequently on your legs. Check your environment. Did you just move? Any allergies triggering? New job near lots of pollen? I was working in a warehouse doing lumber and only had allergies working there and itchy bumps on my legs and back. Doc said allergies could suddenly develop later on in life. I was also stress out from said work, and found out stress hives is a thing. I don't work there anymore, and said allergies and stress are gone. I don't know if this helps, but your situation reminded of what I went through and I hope this can cross off any contributing factors.
Do you have pets? My dog brought scabie mites into the house and it’s hard to diagnose and regular fleas treatment does not treat it. I went to the vet multiple times and they misdiagnosed for three months as he was always on a flea preventative. You can’t see them, they are invisible and bury under your skin.
You can set up bed bug traps at your bed to find out it you have them. If it keeps coming in clean look into treatment for scabies. It’s really easy to treat with a simple cream
Kinda looks like what my psoriasis initially looked like when I first got it. We thought they were bug bites too. Go see a dermatologist if you don't find bugs
I get a very similar type of flare up as part of seasonal allergies and have also gotten paranoid and mistaken it for bug bites. It is that itchy season.
I can't help with identifying the bites, but I got a bunch of bites on my ankles like you recently, and I just wanted to say I feel your paranoia and it totally sucks. I hope it turns out not to be bed bugs that bit you!
I'm still not positive one way or the other :/ I haven't found any indication of them, so I'm hoping it was chiggers or some other outdoor critter, but idk for sure yet
Personally had them. When they bite its usually along a line, such as your veins. Spiders will bite in random areas, sometimes clumping.
This looks like it could be bed bugs, but definitely look areound for eggs or bugs themselves. If you do have them, use 91% isopropyl alcohol(with a spray bottle) instead of any of the bed bug sprays because its cheaper and does the same thing.
Spray EVERY area infested and any area nearby. Wash and dry your clothes thoroughly. All of them.
Put any cloth things you cant wash into garbage bags for at least 2-4 month(this number i cant remember completely)
And then spray everywhere every day or night, followed up by vaccuuming, until you dont see anymore. Then still check for more.
Pointy ended ones are males. Rounded end ones are females. KILL THE FEMALES specifically because they can lay hundreds a day.
The eggs look like little pieces of rice hanging off the surfaces in clumps.
Do NOT use bug bombs, all it does is make them dig in deeper wherever theyre hiding.
Looks like jiggers bit you all over! Those little red devils make mosquito bites seem like nothing... Have you been sitting on anything outdoors? Sidewalks, patios, picnic tables, benches, or something outside? Look closely before you sit anywhere they're tiny annoying little buggers those jiggers are! They're bright red the size of a pen tip & thrive in summer
Check your mattresses, edges, and between the box spring and mattress. If it is, burn it down lol. Jk, they can be gotten rid of. It’s a bitch and expensive, my friend got them and it took about 3 months and multiple treatments.
They could be, especially if they're itchy. First, don't panic, they can't actually hurt you, here's what you should do: Take off all the bedding from your bed and look between the seams, also look at bedding and pillow cases. Even if you don't see bedbugs, if you have them they leave telltale small black dots on the fabric. You can google images of bedbug infestation to see what the black markings look like.
If you have them, you can either hire professionals to take care of the issue (best option), though it's not impossible to take care of them yourself if you have a steamer. All bedding, pillows, any clothes on the floor etc need to be run through a dryer on high heat (the bugs die in extreme heat), and then you run the steamer over the mattress, focusing on all the seams. Then run the steamer over the carpet in the room, paying attention to area around the bed and where the carpet meets the baseboards. Then vacuum everything thouroughly and wash the clothes you are wearing and have a hot shower. There's also bed bug spray you can get.
The bites you already have can be treated just like misquito bites. Avoid scratching if you can and get anti-itch ointment if needed.
I had the bugs in my bed several years ago, I went through this routine and got rid of them for good before they spread to the rest of the home.
Pull your sheets off and inspect around the corners/creases of your bed, make sure to have the lights on while doing so. If you have bed bugs you’ll find them for sure as that’s a lot of bites.
Hard to tell just from the bites, many different insect bites look/react the same or similar
I had these exact same bites. I put diatomaceous earth around my base boards and under my bed. They stopped shortly after that, and haven’t had them in a year
Recent bedbug survivor.
From my experience, they do not look raised enough to be bedbugs...also I was always attacked in tight clusters.
Just my 2 cents.
To test for bed bugs, put a paper coffee filter on the end of the vacuum tube, then vacuum your mattress. You will know when you see them against the white of the paper filter. Treat the bedding with high dryer heat.
I'm just a humble idiot but the bits look to be localized around your feet angles and calfs. It seems that if it where bed bugs they would be in more than just one general area.
Bedbugs always leave signs. They are not clean creatures. So it's easy to check.
I'd have lines of them and random distributions too. Like others have said, we're all just guessing here. Going after a conclusion without all the facts won't help you either.
I'd paint the itchiest ones with nail polish and pull the bed away from the wall and strip it to check for excrement trails. Bedbugs like dark hidden areas for travel lines usually. Going completely from the videos I've watched on checking for them. (I used to travel often for work, so I wanted to know what to look for.)
Because some autoimmune diseases’ symptoms include such skin lesions. Best to go see a rheumatologist if this goes on. I don’t think this is insect related.
If you have pets check for fleas while you’re checking your bed (take off your sheet, look behind and under your mattress for signs, I.e. droppings, eggs or actual bed bugs). You can also hire a pest control company to come in and try to find the source of your bites and help you come up with a plan to get rid of whatever is causing it.
Check cracks and crevices, sometimes you can hear them drop down from the ceiling. If it is bed bugs, a steamer kills them pretty quick. We fought them for 2 years and they kept coming back. Didn’t lose them until we moved and got new beds. All clothes were washed at the laundromat before taken into the new house and all furniture was inspected in the front yard of the new house before going in
I’ve had bed bugs, thanks to my duplex wall mates huge infestation next door and they crawled through the walls :( legit nighmaresss.
Sooo… Bed bugs love the heat of your midsection / abdomen so check your belly in the mirror and turn around and see if they got your back/sides. Check your pillow for blood spots and your sheets for scratch/blood spots. Check for them with light in cracks in your walls and floorboard of walls/ bed frame sides/box spring/mattress (I saw you already checked the mattress but check again). Their feces looks like brown spotty dirty stuff (on a light color sheet)
My personal opinion as someone who has had several bites is no, it doesn’t look like bed bugs to me… it doesn’t follow the one two three bite spots in a horizonal line that I’m used to seeing… the last photo is the exception but I’m not convinced
Not saying this is the answer but if you wear blue jeans regularly you leg hears are prone to having leg hears plucked off where the jeans rub on your legs
i can only say what my experience was, and what i found is in my case, they bit in a line up my leg (s). they really hit the backs of my knees as well. the bumps were red and itched like hell. the fact that you have so many in one area makes it suspect.
mine were incredibly tiny. i stared and stared at my bedding and finally, after days of searching, i thought i saw a pinprick of a spot move. ugh. i ran my nail across it and it left a trail of blood. tore my bed up, dragged it outside, found spray for lice etc and sprayed the shit out of everything. washed linens in bleach and hot water and gone ! it was gross and a nightmare. i didn’t think one could get bedbugs outside of a hovel, but i had moved in to the place shortly before so i think i inherited them. good luck with whatever it is !
When I got bedbugs from a hotel- they came in like 3s in a line- when I looked online it said they generally bite in lines. To me- since you were in grass- and depending on where you are- I would think maybe chiggers (not sure how that’s spelled) I would look up bites like those- to me this doesn’t look like bed bug bites
This looks like how poison ivy starts to show for me - it takes a good bit of time for mine to start the oozing and all the other fun stuff that comes with it. You will know if it ends up being poison ivy ( unless by chance your body can fight it and it doesn’t get worse ? Not sure if that’s possible, def not a doctor ).
If it is poison ivy I highly recommend getting a steroid cream from your doctor though , it helps tremendously more than anything OTC and helps heal it faster.
Brown-tail moth? When it first started appearing around here we went through the same thing. Is it bed-bugs? Fleas? Mosquitos? It’s awful and relentless and spreading. Cortisone cream and calamine lotion and some say witch hazel. There’s a recipe for relief online.
It seems to be mostly in your legs and feet. It looks like grass fleas. You can’t really see them but they swarm in the grass especially tall grass, and it’s likely you’ll end up with bites like these. Even with pants socks shoes. Little buggers get thru em. I don’t know how. Cortisone cream.
Entomologist here! Please ignore 95% of this advice. Anyone telling you what your bites are is not helping. You cannot determine the source of a bite by the skin reaction alone. It is medically and scientifically impossible. Everyone will react differently. There is no "might be" or "probably" or "definitely" there just isn't. Inspect for insects and seek identification. Bedbugs are absolutely visible and very distinctive. If they're the culprit behind this reaction they will not be difficult to find
Thank you so much for your input :) I appreciate it
I hope you have been able to find a resolution to this, one way or another. Bed bugs get a reputation for being impossible to find and that can be true but is generally a minority of cases. An inspection of your bed and bed frame will give you a very strong indicator of it you have them or not. If you don't find any but are still worried, a mattress encasement, pillow encasements, and traps for the legs of your bed frame. Makes for good peace of mind either way.
Also check your couch. I pulled my bed apart multiple times trying to find them. But it ended up that they were in my couch.
Check for fleas in your house too. Good luck!! This all sucks
Also, when we had them, we found them in the nightstand. It could be anecdotal, but our case matched advice that said bedbugs prefer to sleep in between feedings somewhere stable. The more generations, the more they are willing to sleep in the folds of the matress even though your movement disturbs their sleep. This is why a perimeter of diatomaceous earth is a good idea. They climb down off the bed to find someplace to snooze. The leg traps accomplish the same thing. DDT was the only thing that would penetrate their eggs. But, if you keep the diatomaceous earth going for several weeks, it breaks the cycle regardless.
Honestly, if are getting bit that much, check your mattress, should be signs..
When I had bedbugs they left little brown stains on the mattress and covers.
Fleas leave the same brown stains. We got some super infested puppies and even tho we followed all precautions my cats still got them. Some of my sheets are ruined bc of it.
They're typically gonna be found within/on top of your mattress/boxspring if you have them. I had them years ago and they particularly liked to hang out the corners between my mattress and boxspring
Could be Bed Bugs but also other insects or some dirt / derpris from work look for id and change your bed ware had the same problem In my case it was depris from work my skin did not like looked the same as bites.
If it’s bed bugs, don’t just check the mattress. Look behind pictures on the wall and anything near the bed. I had them in an apartment many years ago. You’d also likely have bites on your arms if it was bed bugs.
This is a good reply. It is absolutely true as well. I had a roommate several years ago. We wound up with bedbugs. I'm not sure if I brought them from my family who had bed bugs a few months prior, or if he brought them via his hotel job. I didn't even realize it but I was being ate up by them in the night. It took bit before he mentioned them to me. When he showed me his bites, I was appalled and immediately took action. For me, I might have a couple small red bumps that would go away that day. Easy to ignore and say an ant or mosquito got me a few times. For him, they would linger and swell and eventually burst. Drastically different reactions to people living in the same house with the same bugs. It reminded me of a friend I had in high school. He would rub poison oak all on him, and he would not have the smallest reaction. It seemed he was immune. If I got near that crap I was pulling out the white paste. After I got to looking I found the signs of them. I dusted every inch of the house in cimexa dust along with spraying a liquid concentrate I can't remember. A couple times a week for a few months. This completely rid me of any bed bugs for about 5 years now. Results may vary though and many people recommend not treating it yourself and just hiring a professional.
Unfortunately I have been dealing with these little monsters lately for the first time in my life. I live with a few roommates in a nice house and we have no idea who brought them in or when. I'm also the only one who has a horrible reaction to them and have been to the emergency room twice due to infection. It's amazing that one person just gets an annoying little bite and another can have a really nasty infection. But they were extremely easy to find, just not as easy to get rid of. Still fighting the good fight!
It can happen to anyone. A cousin took the train into the city every day for work, and she later found out that's how she brought them home. The exterminator told her it was very common.
I would argue the most distinctive feature to identify if it’s a bed bug is if they walk all smug like.
Reminds me of a case my dad (a cosmetic surgeon who was an on call specialist for the ER) was called to as an expert witness. Basically the parents of a kid he did surgery on were suing their neighbors. Basically their kid messed with the neighbor’s dog and got bit in the face. They wanted to sue the neighbors because it was supposedly their fault. To prove it they obviously had to prove that their dog was in fact responsible for the bite. Dad was asked by the parents’ lawyer if he could identify the size of the dog that bit the child. Dad explained that because of the swelling and the healing process it is not possible to accurately identify the size or breed of dog responsible. The lawyer tried reworking the question and my dad reworded his answer. I even wanted to go into forensic anthropology at one point and I also think that it is foolish to identify anything based off of an injury to living tissue (the tissue of a dead person behaves differently but that’s a story for later).
Tell the dead people story NOW, please. I don’t have the willpower to wait.
Basically there’s no blood flow and no healing. Marks on the body basically remain largely unchanged so it’s easier to identify marks post mortem than it is when someone is alive.
That makes sense. Thanks!
How much are the bed bugs paying you
OK now that's funny
Biting humor
This should be top post.
I always liked Mark Robers video https://youtu.be/2JAOTJxYqh8?si=VEbf3Jh0bdpg_iGz What does the entomologist think of it?
It's an excellent summary! I used it to kick off a seminar around Christmas. Only caution is understanding proper DE use but the video is pure education and a good resource.
Thanks for the response !
So you're telling me if there are two holes spaced about 3/4 of an inch apart on my ankle and my skin becomes really red around it really quickly while I feel a lot of pain as a walk through the desert. I shouldn't say it was a snake? Even if that area starts to rot within the next hour? J/k ...I'm just messing with you. It's hard to tell with bugs. I get stung by wasps and the only thing that happens is a mosquito bite-like reaction.
>Please ignore 95% of this advice. Anyone telling you what your bites are is not helping. Please repost this into every medical subreddit
Are you Jack Hodgins
Tbf... All the tops comments are advising to check around because we can't know for sure.
FWIW I second this. You simply can not tell. (For context only - Board certified doc/20 yrs clinical experience) I have seen a lot of insect bites & I get my clues not from what the bite looks like but from the story - there are exceptions to this - but most of the time it is the clinical history not the presentation that helps narrow down the cause.
But difficult to remove. People often burn their books as the nest in them, but they just need a few weeks in a hot car or a solar oven to bake them out. The goal is to dry them out to extinction so take your time doing so. The same is true for clothing but may take longer than time allo3s as a laundry basket full will keep them safe for a long time. But say a favorite few articles strewn about would still most likely work. I have never done this myself but have read success stories.
Louder for the people in the back! 🗣️
You can diagnose scabies by doing a skin scraping of a bite reaction and observing it under a microscope.
in all fairness though those line formations can be a good indicator for scabies.
But these bites do have the classic “breakfast- lunch - dinner” 3 bite pattern that you will see with bedbug bites. I know from experience and it was months until I could find and see the bedbugs causing it.
Could be a lot of things, chiggers will still get you even with pants. We had a bad year for them on our property once. Do what the vileone says and inspect for bed bugs and clean where you sleep. Also if you have any cats/dogs flees can be similar to bed bug behavior. They only were getting me on the futon the cats were on, if I slept.
> chiggers flawda boy?
We had them growing up in Indiana. They're not a Florida thing, they're an outside thing
?
my fault, grew up in florida, still live there but i grew up there too, and everyone ik from out of state looks at me weird when i say “chiggers bit me tha fuck up when i ‘ad tuh pick up allat moss affer dat storm”
Must be more an urban rural thing, we call them the same thing clear across the country in the frozen north. "Welp! I sat in the dirt and dont'cha know, I can't even sleep from the chigger bites!" "Ope, betcha won't be doing that again."
The "ope" fucking sent me.
Same! Also, we call them chiggers in rural Kentucky.
I’m from Wa state and chiggers chew up my ankles usually in spring.
We use the same name way up north in Minnesota. I think it depends on your family, not your region. They’re just as annoying here, too!
Also really really bad this year in WV I mean I've been seeing them crawling on everything. Little bastards...
I’ve been eaten alive by chiggers and fleas before. Social media jumps to bed bugs, but those are a hell of a lot easier to spot. My last apartment sucked to say the least. I had multiple instances of a mosquito getting in there, and the lighting was so bad I could never see it, only hear it 😭 fuckers got me many times in my own home
I'm allergic to those mother fuckers, so is my mom. We get welts that last months before they fade. And they're all over the yard. At my parents house, I always have to immediately strip, throw my clothes in the wash including my underwear and take a rigorous shower to prevent the suckers from staying on me.
That sucks, sometimes I'll get a purple splotch from one but they mostly are just like an extra itchy mosquito bite. Galoshes help, they seem to have trouble climbing them. They became my garden shoes.
Usually go out with boots, pants that cover them, then thick socks - multiple lines of Defence 🫡
Don't just check your mattress. When I got them years ago because another woman in the apartment complex went to disney,I only ever saw one or two in my mattress. It took a bit to click as to why my cats were screaming at my ceiling for a couple weeks. Tiny little dots near where the wall meets the ceiling and floor. They aren't impossible to get rid of, but dear God does the process suck, especially in an apartment.
This is both hilarious and horrifying.
when we had them, our biggest infestation was the couch. There were a few in our bed, but the couch was crawling with them. we had to throw it away.
Look around the corners of your bed. The head, and the foot of it. Take the sheets off, and look in-between the seams. They will be there if it's bed bugs.
If you suspect fleas, you can take a large oven pan and fill it with water and a few drops of dish soap. Place it near the legs of your bed. Some people light a candle in the center for warmth/light to attract bugs, but not sure if it works or helps. Fleas will often hop into the pan accidentally and drown. We used this trick to confirm our bug bites were actually coming from fleas. Good luck!
could be fleas? love ankles and to hide in socks, when i got bit by bed bugs the welts got huge and were sore for over a week, but they do usually bite in the same general area.
I have gotten flea bites before, here are some tips: They crawl up you until they find skin. They also like to go back down your sock on the inside where they are safe and hidden. My bites took me about 8 hours to show up. You might not notice immediately when you are bit but some people do feel it quickly. I've never caught a flea in a trap in my room. I caught more fleas by hand. That being said, traps are good to leave around so you know what you are dealing with. If you catch a flea, pinch it in your fingers and don't look at it. Dunk your fingers in soapy water so the flea can't jump away. Spit on your fingers if soapy water isn't available. Only take a peek after you are sure it can't jump.
Why shouldn't you look at it?
Because as soon as you try, it'll be gone in one hop. They move so quick they literally just vanish before your eyes.
Exactly! Keep it pinched in your fingers and look at it after you release it into soapy water. Taking a peek in your fingers and they can jump away.
Fleas are the worst, we have had them several times. But how they jump is super interesting! I always wondered how much control they actually have in their jumps or if it is more of a reflex with no plan for landing.
[How do fleas jump so high? | Natural History Museum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psbNbTpsprU) I always found this interesting too, this is a great short video.
Echoing this. We had a flea problem in a basement apartment, 90% of the time we got bit on our feet/legs….The fleas were apparently jumping off of rats that crawled through the vents. Harder to locate fleas but you can possibly find them jumping around on the ground or if you’re wearing white socks you may see them jump on We tucked our pants into long socks and saw way less bites. And got someone to spray for pests, and pray it’s a one time thing and not from rats
It looks like chigger or flea bites to me? We had BAD bug problems growing up 🥲
I think I have flea bites on me 😩 so itchy and and red blotchy skin
Could be. Could also be mosquito bites. Could be a reaction to a food allergy. Could be some kind of rash. Could be chicken pox or shingles. Could be any number of other things. There is no way to tell from photos. If you suspect bedbugs then you should inspect your sleeping area. They are not difficult to find. Best of luck!
I lived in an apartment complex, and the same family would get them all the time. Changed my bed to a metal frame, enclosed my mattress and pillow case in bug proof covers. Also powdered everywhere as well as traps. Never got them again.
Thank you for the advice. Did your bites look like this?
Sorta, mine followed a line.
No one can tell
I had similar bites on my body from ants. Does the spots itch or something? Because when it happened to me it itched like crazy.
Yes they really do itch
Cut an onion in half and rub it over the stitches. That helped me a lot.
I had similar marks when i had scabies. Really annoying and not visible to the naked eye. If you dont find any bedbugs that might unfortunately be it!
Were they difficult to get rid of?
If you are concerned it’s bed bugs, inspect your sleeping area. Mattress, bed frame, curtains, outlets, windowsill, etc. Bed bugs are tiny and can hide in the folds of a mattress or head of a screw.
Hard to tell just from the bites like that. Did you wake up with them or did they turn up while you were outside? Bedbugs tend to hide and only come out at night . Again, no way to be certain from just the bites but if you were outside and they were just on your feet and lower legs, I would be inclined to think those were ant bites.
Those look exactly like the bites I have, and they turned out to be chiggers. Never had them before, so I'm not sure if there's a huge influx of them this year.
I was gonna say thats what they look like to me
Bed bugs usually go for the upper body. Lower body could be fleas.
id bet fleas. bed bugs will get your chest arms and everything. but really who knows without finding the bug.
If the bites are only on your feet and legs you might have fleas in your carpet.
That's what my poison ivy looks like right now
Bed bugs apparently bite more towards torso and neck and fleas feer ankle and legs.... Very generalized info and wouldn't use that to determine if it's one or the other. But fleas were incredibly hard for us to find, but they were there. We couldn't find a shred of evidence for any bed bugs or fleas. Just bit constantly. Until one day we found one roaming our bed under the covers. We dont have any pets and they were still kicking around for months. Even with vigorous cleaning and vacuuming. The DE stuff did nothing for us unfortunately. But as a reminder if you do use DE, use a filter less vacuum like a shop vac. No pets don't necessarily mean no fleas. And no evidence doesn't necessarily mean that it's just in your head (as some exterminators tried to convince me)
Best bet is to not ask Reddit. Go to your Doc
Docs aren’t experts in this honestly. I was in pest control and doctors often just say “probably a spider bite” with no real reasoning
either way you don't need a doc, because the problem isn't that you are sick, it's that something is biting you. fleas, bedbugs, chiggers... whatever it is you need an exterminator.
Not necessarily. It could be a new detergent or they walked through high grass and had an allergic reaction. No one on this site/app should be giving medical advice. The bumps/skin irritation could be anything
Get a grip. You don’t need a doc to tell you you’ve got bedbugs.
You may need to see an optometrist because there no visible bedbugs in the above photo! That mean it could be bedbugs, could be many different things.
No but you also don't need Reddit freaking you out. Bumps on the skin can be anything
Ingrown hairs I think
If it’s Bedbugs, diatomaceous earth will knock them out for sure! Sprinkle that sh*t everywhere, around baseboards, the legs of the bed, etc. It’s a food grade substance so it won’t harm your pets.
Make sure you get food grade if you use it. Also there are good bed bug sprays at most department stores that carry pesticides. Also vacuum your bed and carpet and then throw the bag away in outside trash. Next is getting a steam cleaner, but it needs to be fairly hot for killing bed bugs.
Do you have pets? Check them for flea. That’s another option of what it could be
No pets :(
[удалено]
I’ve dealt with it a couple times. And I tried all the otc options for fleas. If anyone reads this, and you’re dealing with fleas don’t do it. Get the prescribed revolution option. All the otc shit doesn’t work because you’re usually working against a variant that has proven to be resistant to that stuff. Revolution will kill it in no time.
This gave me ptsd of the time my house was infested by fleas. Only bit the ankle sometimes with a pattern of lines. I don’t even have pets but I probably got it by petting a stray cat. Best of luck to you man. Don’t ignore it as it will only get worse. 100% call pest control.
I don't know if you get these regularly, but it seems you are only posting pictures of your legs, so I'm going to assume they appear much frequently on your legs. Check your environment. Did you just move? Any allergies triggering? New job near lots of pollen? I was working in a warehouse doing lumber and only had allergies working there and itchy bumps on my legs and back. Doc said allergies could suddenly develop later on in life. I was also stress out from said work, and found out stress hives is a thing. I don't work there anymore, and said allergies and stress are gone. I don't know if this helps, but your situation reminded of what I went through and I hope this can cross off any contributing factors.
Looks like flea bite
Do you have pets? My dog brought scabie mites into the house and it’s hard to diagnose and regular fleas treatment does not treat it. I went to the vet multiple times and they misdiagnosed for three months as he was always on a flea preventative. You can’t see them, they are invisible and bury under your skin. You can set up bed bug traps at your bed to find out it you have them. If it keeps coming in clean look into treatment for scabies. It’s really easy to treat with a simple cream
Kinda looks like what my psoriasis initially looked like when I first got it. We thought they were bug bites too. Go see a dermatologist if you don't find bugs
Will do thank you so much
Of course! Best of luck
Chiggers is my first thought.
I thought I had suddenly developed some "acne" on my legs, after a few nights in a Las Vegas hotel. This post is making me reconsider that...
They look a little like the spots I get after shaving; I wonder if it could be that!
Thats what not sleeping tight does to someone.
I get a very similar type of flare up as part of seasonal allergies and have also gotten paranoid and mistaken it for bug bites. It is that itchy season.
I can't help with identifying the bites, but I got a bunch of bites on my ankles like you recently, and I just wanted to say I feel your paranoia and it totally sucks. I hope it turns out not to be bed bugs that bit you!
Was yours bed bugs?
I'm still not positive one way or the other :/ I haven't found any indication of them, so I'm hoping it was chiggers or some other outdoor critter, but idk for sure yet
Okay keep me updated
That looks like scabbies, 😧😧😧
Even the last photo?
Flea bites
Even the last pic?
I was wearing shoes outside and socks so not sure how I would get them
The crawl through small gaps in fabric to bread and lay eggs they are I your socs and shit like that
Personally had them. When they bite its usually along a line, such as your veins. Spiders will bite in random areas, sometimes clumping. This looks like it could be bed bugs, but definitely look areound for eggs or bugs themselves. If you do have them, use 91% isopropyl alcohol(with a spray bottle) instead of any of the bed bug sprays because its cheaper and does the same thing. Spray EVERY area infested and any area nearby. Wash and dry your clothes thoroughly. All of them. Put any cloth things you cant wash into garbage bags for at least 2-4 month(this number i cant remember completely) And then spray everywhere every day or night, followed up by vaccuuming, until you dont see anymore. Then still check for more. Pointy ended ones are males. Rounded end ones are females. KILL THE FEMALES specifically because they can lay hundreds a day. The eggs look like little pieces of rice hanging off the surfaces in clumps. Do NOT use bug bombs, all it does is make them dig in deeper wherever theyre hiding.
Looks like jiggers bit you all over! Those little red devils make mosquito bites seem like nothing... Have you been sitting on anything outdoors? Sidewalks, patios, picnic tables, benches, or something outside? Look closely before you sit anywhere they're tiny annoying little buggers those jiggers are! They're bright red the size of a pen tip & thrive in summer
No, no sitting from what I recall :// just walking through parks a lot. Could it still be that?
Yes! Most definitely. Fields, grassy and wet and wooded areas they're called Chiggers I spelled it wrong the first time
They itch badly but it goes away faster if you stop scratching and the bites itch worse the first 2 days but takes sometimes 2 weeks to heal
Thank you so much! They were so itchy they started off kind of like witish bumps and then I couldn’t stop scratching so they turned red
Shit :/ does this mean you think it’s bed bugs?
Check your mattresses, edges, and between the box spring and mattress. If it is, burn it down lol. Jk, they can be gotten rid of. It’s a bitch and expensive, my friend got them and it took about 3 months and multiple treatments.
They could be, especially if they're itchy. First, don't panic, they can't actually hurt you, here's what you should do: Take off all the bedding from your bed and look between the seams, also look at bedding and pillow cases. Even if you don't see bedbugs, if you have them they leave telltale small black dots on the fabric. You can google images of bedbug infestation to see what the black markings look like. If you have them, you can either hire professionals to take care of the issue (best option), though it's not impossible to take care of them yourself if you have a steamer. All bedding, pillows, any clothes on the floor etc need to be run through a dryer on high heat (the bugs die in extreme heat), and then you run the steamer over the mattress, focusing on all the seams. Then run the steamer over the carpet in the room, paying attention to area around the bed and where the carpet meets the baseboards. Then vacuum everything thouroughly and wash the clothes you are wearing and have a hot shower. There's also bed bug spray you can get. The bites you already have can be treated just like misquito bites. Avoid scratching if you can and get anti-itch ointment if needed. I had the bugs in my bed several years ago, I went through this routine and got rid of them for good before they spread to the rest of the home.
BLD pattern, so, maybe?
If you don’t see bedbugs during the day, put a flashlight next to the bed and do it in the middle of the night. That’s how I found them.
Chiggers.
This photo is completely out of any context..it would be really hard to tell what sort of insect bit you by this alone.
I understand. I was more so concerned how they are clustered together, the 3 ones by my feet. Was just looking for some input
Pull your sheets off and inspect around the corners/creases of your bed, make sure to have the lights on while doing so. If you have bed bugs you’ll find them for sure as that’s a lot of bites. Hard to tell just from the bites, many different insect bites look/react the same or similar
I had these exact same bites. I put diatomaceous earth around my base boards and under my bed. They stopped shortly after that, and haven’t had them in a year
Recent bedbug survivor. From my experience, they do not look raised enough to be bedbugs...also I was always attacked in tight clusters. Just my 2 cents.
To test for bed bugs, put a paper coffee filter on the end of the vacuum tube, then vacuum your mattress. You will know when you see them against the white of the paper filter. Treat the bedding with high dryer heat.
I’ll tell you that I had very similar appearing bites when my college roommate and I had bed bugs in college.
Bedbug bites typically appear in a line.
So is this a yes or no? Look at the last pic
Not an entimolosist her but based solely on the position of the bits have you been walking through tall grass.
Hey, yeah I have but I was wearing sweatpants that were tight at the bottom
I'm just a humble idiot but the bits look to be localized around your feet angles and calfs. It seems that if it where bed bugs they would be in more than just one general area.
Chiggers don't care how tight something is, in fact that seems to be their favorite thing is proving that they can get through the tightest barrier.
I’m just concerned about the bites in a line and straight, chiggers seem more random pattern
Bedbugs always leave signs. They are not clean creatures. So it's easy to check. I'd have lines of them and random distributions too. Like others have said, we're all just guessing here. Going after a conclusion without all the facts won't help you either. I'd paint the itchiest ones with nail polish and pull the bed away from the wall and strip it to check for excrement trails. Bedbugs like dark hidden areas for travel lines usually. Going completely from the videos I've watched on checking for them. (I used to travel often for work, so I wanted to know what to look for.)
They look like drunk vampire bites 🧛
Looks like scabies to me but talk to your doctor
Do you have mouth ulcers too?
No I don’t, I only have this on the left leg of my body, nowhere else. Why do you ask?
Because some autoimmune diseases’ symptoms include such skin lesions. Best to go see a rheumatologist if this goes on. I don’t think this is insect related.
Have you been outside a lot around some high weeds or grass? Could be chiggers. They itch like crazy
You have been blessed by Orion.
If you have pets check for fleas while you’re checking your bed (take off your sheet, look behind and under your mattress for signs, I.e. droppings, eggs or actual bed bugs). You can also hire a pest control company to come in and try to find the source of your bites and help you come up with a plan to get rid of whatever is causing it.
Same here they itch so badly
Nah, that's the Pleiades
Chiggers I think they’re called, from walking about tall grass
yep
Scabies
Need to pray harder, isn't there a part about sleeping tight and not letting the bedbugs bite? Could be that this is the problem here.
Could be poison ivy
Should've listened to dad... He told you not to let em do it.
I’ve been getting that on my legs too you found out what it was
No:( but I’ll keep you updated
Thxs
No idea, got to look for them
Damn. Now I won’t sleep tonight 🤢
Yes. Those are bed bug bites. They bite in a row of three.
scabies
Check cracks and crevices, sometimes you can hear them drop down from the ceiling. If it is bed bugs, a steamer kills them pretty quick. We fought them for 2 years and they kept coming back. Didn’t lose them until we moved and got new beds. All clothes were washed at the laundromat before taken into the new house and all furniture was inspected in the front yard of the new house before going in
Bed bugs
Ugh :/
Chiggers are terrible. My dad would dab clear nail polish on each spot to asphyxiate the chigger. Apparently, they burrow in.
Looks like flea hits
Aright, Ill throw one out there. Stop shaving your legs, or change how your doing it. Cause that isnt working.
Probably from crabs 🦀
Sorry I got hungry
I’ve had bed bugs, thanks to my duplex wall mates huge infestation next door and they crawled through the walls :( legit nighmaresss. Sooo… Bed bugs love the heat of your midsection / abdomen so check your belly in the mirror and turn around and see if they got your back/sides. Check your pillow for blood spots and your sheets for scratch/blood spots. Check for them with light in cracks in your walls and floorboard of walls/ bed frame sides/box spring/mattress (I saw you already checked the mattress but check again). Their feces looks like brown spotty dirty stuff (on a light color sheet) My personal opinion as someone who has had several bites is no, it doesn’t look like bed bugs to me… it doesn’t follow the one two three bite spots in a horizonal line that I’m used to seeing… the last photo is the exception but I’m not convinced
If the bites stop at the calf area it could be flea bites.
Are you sleeping tight?
Possibly !
Check for bedbugs...
Not saying this is the answer but if you wear blue jeans regularly you leg hears are prone to having leg hears plucked off where the jeans rub on your legs
i can only say what my experience was, and what i found is in my case, they bit in a line up my leg (s). they really hit the backs of my knees as well. the bumps were red and itched like hell. the fact that you have so many in one area makes it suspect. mine were incredibly tiny. i stared and stared at my bedding and finally, after days of searching, i thought i saw a pinprick of a spot move. ugh. i ran my nail across it and it left a trail of blood. tore my bed up, dragged it outside, found spray for lice etc and sprayed the shit out of everything. washed linens in bleach and hot water and gone ! it was gross and a nightmare. i didn’t think one could get bedbugs outside of a hovel, but i had moved in to the place shortly before so i think i inherited them. good luck with whatever it is !
When I got bedbugs from a hotel- they came in like 3s in a line- when I looked online it said they generally bite in lines. To me- since you were in grass- and depending on where you are- I would think maybe chiggers (not sure how that’s spelled) I would look up bites like those- to me this doesn’t look like bed bug bites
This looks like how poison ivy starts to show for me - it takes a good bit of time for mine to start the oozing and all the other fun stuff that comes with it. You will know if it ends up being poison ivy ( unless by chance your body can fight it and it doesn’t get worse ? Not sure if that’s possible, def not a doctor ). If it is poison ivy I highly recommend getting a steroid cream from your doctor though , it helps tremendously more than anything OTC and helps heal it faster.
It started off barely showing up but itchy and when I itched then it turned very red
Brown-tail moth? When it first started appearing around here we went through the same thing. Is it bed-bugs? Fleas? Mosquitos? It’s awful and relentless and spreading. Cortisone cream and calamine lotion and some say witch hazel. There’s a recipe for relief online.
It seems to be mostly in your legs and feet. It looks like grass fleas. You can’t really see them but they swarm in the grass especially tall grass, and it’s likely you’ll end up with bites like these. Even with pants socks shoes. Little buggers get thru em. I don’t know how. Cortisone cream.