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Bug problem.. :(

I've been suffering for the last several days and it's getting ugly. I have TONS of bug bites all over me. My hands, entire left arm and right foot are looking pretty ugly covered in red bumps, with numerous other bites spread all over the rest of my body, including my fucking cheek. Obviously, I get MOST of these bites in my sleep. That's obvious to me as I am laying there, mostly exposed and motionless - like a sacrificial slab of meat.

Your first claim will be "bed bugs" and I am not going to disagree with you. In fact last night I switched to white sheets before I slept, for this reason. Throughout the night, I sustained 3 more bites - ones on my left arm, leg and hand. I woke up after itching and scratching and I carefully scanned the surface of the sheets with my eyes. Sure enough, I found a TINY red/orange little bug crawling along. I couldn't tell if it was an arachnid or otherwise, because it was too tiny, but it did not have wings. And that explains the concentration of bites in small areas.

But what about the random bites? Last night I came home and I didn't touch the bed before I had to. I sat down in my chair and before you knew it, I had a bite under my right armpit. Similarly, I have sustained random bites while just walking around my apartment.

In the beginning, the bites were tiny. Soon, they grew in size.. as if the blood I was supplying to these guys only made them grow and become more effective. 3 giant mosquitos were found and killed, but the bites kept coming.

Well, today I am going to go out and find some spray and a bug bomb, but I'm not sure that these will be as effective as they need to be. Does anyone have any insight on these bug situations?

believe it or not I've had the same problem since Tuesday nite. Somehow I got bitten in my sleep and with my allergy to bug bites, managed to have the right side of my face swell 3 times its normal size. I've been on benadryl constantly since then.

I tried changing sheets too...still got bit

we are assuming its misquitoes and Im not having anaphylactic episodes (which I do with spiders, ants and bees)

I have no advice, bombing might give you some temporary relief, but not many things are labeled for misquitoes.

Wash all your bedding in as hot a water as you can, and then vaccuum around the apt VERY WELL and you might get some relief.

Glad to know you're not having as bad allergic reactions as I am!!

I thought you were reoprting a bug on the site...

Those bug bombs work pretty well, kind of a pain in the ass to use, but effective. You'll also want to get some sort of outdoor spray and hit the perimeter of your house to block them from entering.

We had a problem in our old place with ants. That would usually happen right after the property managers sprayed outside, they'd just come inside. Gotta do both inside and out at the same time. They'd come in through the walls and raid the pantry. Can't tell you how much food we had to throw away whenever the invasion came in.

Oh man, bad roommates.

I went through that years ago followed by an ant invasion. Couldn't get rid of the skin-crawls for months, though it did serve to reduce my sitting around for long. Served to reduce my going home, for that matter.

I went with the complete room-strip and chemical warfare route, along with replacing all my bedding and pillows, and getting mattress bags that don't let the critters hide. Strip, bomb, chemical wash, and seal up everything porous. Seems like I spent several $hundred on the chemicals and sheets. For the next year it was like going to bed on plastic wrap.

Nothing quite like home-sweet-home.

The creature you describe is Trombicula alfreddugesi, Halx. Also known as a chigger or harvest mite.

Here is some info:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2100.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_mite

Aggh, chiggers-- I had chigger bites all over my legs one summer after staying with relatives. Bomb your place, Halx; kill those little bastards. As for the bites, take some Benadryl and try chucking some oatmeal in an old stocking and soaking in the bath with it-- or buy Aveeno bath, but use the stocking anyway to reduce cleanup time later.

HAHAHAHA... Halx has fleas...

Anyway... bug bomb the fuck outta the place. Kill 'em all.

Holy crap! I thought chigger was someting else....*hint - combine to racist epithets

Halx. Bug bombs can be very effective. Follow the directions carefully. It takes some work but should help. However, if they are in the neighbors too, they might come back. Talk to you neighbors too to see if they have any problems. If so, then your super or manager will be responsible for fumigating the building. Maybe cynthetique will know a bit more about this stuff since he lives in New York and deals with housing stuff.

Good luck.

Sounds like a chigger to me also, we have plenty of those bastards here and they do bite like you described.

Don't know anything about chiggers. Frankly, though, from what I know about bed bugs, you should be glad if it is chiggers ;)

Do either of these look appropriate? (Chigger on the top, bed bug on the bottom)

http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/im...rs/chigger.jpg
http://www.utoronto.ca/forest/termit...gs/bedbugs.jpg

If it's bed bugs, the bites don't always appear right away. That would explain why sometimes you first notice them at other times and places in the day. The reason I say you should be glad if it's chiggers and not bed bugs is because bug bombs are typically ineffective against bed bugs. In fact, getting rid of them (especially if the infestation is as bad as this one would seem to be) typically requires buying a new mattress, etc, washing and bagging ALL of your clothes, calling in a professional exterminator, etc.

So, here's to hoping it's chiggers. Those guys look (and sound) pretty nasty, but at least they won't be as expensive to get rid of :thumbsup:

Debaser's links seemed to give helpful advice. But I'm sitting here itching just reading it. Since you are already bug bombing, maybe you could try a bug repelling lotion while you finish bombing and laundring in clothing and bedding in hot water. Is anyone else being bitten? One link did mention it leaves an itchy spot when it 'finishes' and falls off. That could be why you feel you are getting bitten in different rooms, but I would bomb/spray the entire residence inside and out.

Yep, the bug bomb isn't enough against bedbugs... not even the washing/bagging your clothes and getting a pro is enough sometimes. At my old apartment in Queens, one roommate brought in some old dresser that was infested and we had pros come in three times... and had to take extra measures before they were finally gone.

The thing about bedbugs is that the ones that bit you last night aren't the ones to bite you the next.. they feed once and then they burrow as deep as they can wherever they can hide and wake up to have another tasty snack about 30 days later. We had to buy a silicone gel and seal up all the cracks in the walls and moulding, toss out her old wooden dresser (too many little cracks and crevices to hide in) and vacuum her bedroom every single day. The pros also told us to keep the room cold, so we blasted the a/c in there for about a month, she slept in the living room, and every night she went in there to vacuum and spray again.

This was all after we sealed up all the cracks to trap the hiding ones in the walls and let them starve. The advice was that after about a month of this the coast would be clear... and it was. And that poor girl had about 50 welts all up and down her arms and legs.

Did you guys just bring in new (old) furniture? Or did somebody next door or downstairs just move in?

In either case (chiggers or bed bugs) it probably wouldn't hurt to head to Home Depot and buy a tube of silicone to seal up the cracks in your apartment.

Well this helps. I haven't been able to find any more bugs, so i'm not sure what they are exactly. The good part is I'm moving within a month (I hope.... hah) and whatever problem I currently have will be left in the past. Until then I have to fix it if I can. I was unable to find any bug bombs in the time I had to search today, which was disappointing. I hope that the hardware store is open before I go to work tomorrow or else I'll have to suffer a couple more nights and like 10 more bites.

I'm sorry you had to go through that. I cannot stand parasites or bugs that bite. The only way I'm familiar with is vacuuming consistently, keeping all linens clean and throwing your pillows in the dryer every week or so. Other than that, it's the pest inspector at my place.

Best of luck, both with the bugs and the move.

Try and find out if you can before you move. Especially with bed bugs, there's a pretty significant risk that you'll end up bringing them with you.

If it is chiggers (redbugs) you can't see them because they are too small. I have never heard of chiggers inside a home. They are normally found outdoors only and seem to prefer pine straw and rotten wood. I'm fairly sure you aren't having a problem with chiggers indoors. I would set off bug bombs and that should kill whatever is biting you.

I just caught one out of the corner of my eye.. it appears to be a bed bug, though it was too small to see the detailed anatomy. The legs appeared to be coming out of the front quarter, like in the pictures. However, the bug appeared to have pincers prodtruding in front of it. The pic doesn't show pincers, but ya never know. The interior of the body was deep red, which I guess is blood 'cause when I crushed it, it sure started to leak.

I prefer a more diplomatic approach to start, rather than random bombing of the Insect Federation which could result in retaliatory attacks to your most valuable areas. Go into diplomatic relations, maybe make a peace offering, like leave a big cake next to your bed one night.

They will all gather and be overwhelmed with delight and then just when they have their guard down, rain napalm down on that cake, mother of jesus will they be eradicated.

Ofcourse you might attract like a big rat or something, and then you're fucked, or like me step in the cake as you get up to go to the toilet.

When I first moved to the south of China, to my gf's hometown, it was like mosquito utopia. They riddled my body in bites, so we basically got every anti insect device and chemical and bombarded the house with them.

Long story short, didn't work, but I'm in a different city now and we live on the 16th floor, its seems not many insects can get up here or something . Just have a few cockroaches and the odd ant when it gets messy with food.

Basically we'll never defeat insects, they will in time, bite us so much, that they'll absorb our dna and become superior to us, overthrowing us and ruling the multi-verse.

Maybe you could set up like a fan to blow over your bed, I mean the insects would be facing what would seem to be gale force winds. Or freeze your house, insects don't like the cold. Keeping my AC on overnight seems to work well recently.

The bugs are still around! I am covered in bites and welts. Hal has taken to spraying himself with repellent before going to bed.
Last night I was woken up with the odd feeling of something climbing on my foot and falling off, sliding down towards my ankles. I got up in a hurry trying not to move my foot so that I can catch the bug. Indeed, it was a big, fat, juicy bug, probably just finished feeding off of me, about 1/8" in width and 1/4" in length. *squish*.. *splat* .... bloody mess. Looked like a bedbug. And then I caught 2 more, same kind, 1 skinny, 1 fat. The skinny seems almost transparent, the fat one dark red, almost black.

I really really hope they don't come with us when we move next week!
Today is the second flea-bombing attempt.

Let's hope they all go to hell.

Don't take ANY furniture that's stuffed, ie; mattresses, chairs, etc. Toss'em or you'll just be taking the bugs with you.
Wash all your linens, sheets, towels, quilts, etc., in hot water and, if possible, bleach. Get your clothes professionally cleaned.
Vaccuum, vaccuum and vaccuum some more-bed, chairs, sofa, rugs. And, notify the landlord. Chances are they are in the building and made their way up to your place.
Fleas are narrow and their bite is not as disgusting looking as bedbugs and a fleabomb may not work on bedbugs-those critters hide deep into the mattress.
A friend of mine had bedbugs in her apartment; after contacting housing authorities and a lawyer, her landlord had to give her a new apartment, but she had to toss everything into the trash and start new.
Good luck.

Some links which may be of use:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=6147499
http://bedbugblog.blogspot.com/
Especially: http://bedbugblog.blogspot.com/2005/...formation.html
Bed bug bite photos, for comparison: http://bedbugblog.blogspot.com/2005/...te-photos.html
http://www.thebedbugresource.com/
http://thebedbugwar.blogspot.com/
http://bedbugsnyc.blogspot.com/

Sadly, bedbugs are persistent motherfuckers. They can go for months without feeding and have apparently been known to crawl up to the ceiling and then drop down to where they detect a body when they can't get up on the bed through any other means. Hopefully the sites above will give you some info on beginning to combat this :(

From the NY Times. Apparently, you're not alone, guys :(
Bed Bugs in NY

Quote:

New York City is experiencing a dramatic resurgence in bedbugs — those pesky oval insects that hide in the crevices of furniture and feast on human blood at night — and officials are confounded about how best to respond.
Moreover, city officials revealed yesterday that state regulators had failed to publish standards for sanitizing used mattresses and box springs before they can be resold — even though such standards were supposed to be developed years ago. The proliferation of secondhand furniture is believed to be one factor in the rise in bedbug infestations.

Although bedbugs are not considered a major health threat because they do not transmit disease, they can cause itchy welts and often require expensive exterminations. In the last fiscal year, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development received 4,638 complaints about bedbugs in rental housing — nearly five times as many as in the previous year.

At a City Council hearing yesterday on the issue, entomologists and exterminators said that bedbugs have been proliferating at levels not seen in decades. The cause of the resurgence is not certain, but experts have speculated that increased international travel, a recent ban on powerful pesticides and the market in used furniture have been factors.

A bill by Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer of Manhattan would ban the sale of reconditioned mattresses — old mattresses with a new fabric cover sewn onto them, often with the original upholstery and padding underneath — and create a task force to study the issue and make recommendations within a year.

The International Sleep Products Association, the trade association for mattress manufacturers, said yesterday that it supported a ban on the sale of reconditioned mattresses. “The filth from the used mattress that lies just beneath the new fabric cover of a reconditioned product can be astounding,” said Ryan Trainer, a lawyer for the association.

Andrew Eiler, director of legislation for the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs, however, expressed uncertainty about the bill. A twin-size mattress without a box spring can be bought for $40 from the Salvation Army, or about $50 less than a new mattress. “While $50 may not appear as a significant difference to some, it may be an unbridgeable gap to consumers with limited incomes,” he said.

Under a 1996 law, manufacturers of used bedding must certify that they have sanitized the bedding, using standards developed by the state’s Department of State, in consultation with the Department of Health. The law was later expanded to cover sellers of used bedding — there are currently 261 registered with the state — as well.

The problem, Mr. Eiler said, is that the state has never published sanitization standards. “Since there are no rules, the certifications are relatively meaningless,” he said.

In a telephone interview after the hearing, Eamon Moynihan, a spokesman for the Department of State, confirmed that “there were no standards promulgated.” The reasons why were not entirely clear, he said, but it seems that when the staff looked at the 1996 law, they concluded that to enforce it would have made reconditioned mattresses so expensive as to effectively outlaw them.

Mr. Moynihan said the department had no plan to revisit the issue.

The city does not directly regulate the sale of used mattresses. It licenses 3,795 dealers in secondhand goods, not counting used-car dealers, Mr. Eiler said, but it has no way to know how many of those dealers sell used mattresses. There is just not enough information, he said, to know whether banning the sale of used mattresses in the city would prevent the spread of the pests.

Richard J. Pollack, an expert in parasitic insects at the Harvard School of Public Health who testified at the hearing, said he doubted that the proposed ban would be effective. “As long as used mattresses have value, they will remain a commodity despite attempts to regulate their movements,” he said.

The resurgence of bedbugs appears to be affecting the city as a whole. “There is no clear pattern, or neighborhood that’s particularly at risk, at least that I’m aware of,” Daniel Kass, director of environmental surveillance and policy for the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said at the hearing.

Exterminators have been grappling with how to suppress the infestations. Several of them testified yesterday, and Cindy Mannes, of the National Pest Management Association, said in a telephone interview that it recorded a 71 percent increase from 2000 to 2005 in the number of exterminators who had received calls about bedbugs.

Councilman Leroy G. Comrie Jr. of Queens, who presided over the hearing, said that residents often blame themselves for infestations. The insects easily crawl between homes through walls, floors and ceilings.

Louis N. Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History, said there was an urgent need to raise public awareness. “In some cases, people are using old remedies that may be dangerous to one’s health, such as spraying a mattress with gasoline or kerosene to kill bedbugs,” he said.

Dr. Pollack said, “We shouldn’t be too hysterical when dealing with bedbugs.” At one point, he showed a slide of a 1793 pamphlet on how to control bedbugs. ‘We keep trying to throw things at them, but they are outwitting us,” he said.

Nice...outwitted by a bug....

It to me sounds like a bad case of the scabies.

Scabies tend to start in the warm areas of the body, pubic region armpits, etc. They start out as red itchy bumps like a mosquito bite or pimple then grow into a rash and so on. They burrow into the skin and lay eggs then die. The burrowing feels like bites, the eggs hatching and the allergic reaction to their waste is the itching.

They can be passed by any physical contact, even shaking hands.

While almost microscopic they can be seen by the naked eye.

here's a few sites on them:

http://www.safe2use.com/pests/scabies/scabies.htm

http://www.metrokc.gov/health/prevcont/scabies.htm

http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseas...fact_sheet.htm

good luck!