Bed bug bites and bed bugs: how to tell if you have them

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Ok, so here is the million dollar questionare these bites from bedbugs? If not, any suggestions what they are?

Long story, but Ill make it as short as possible. Im a mom of 4, stand-alone house, not apartment, household of 6 plus 2 dogs & 2 birds. Four years ago I had shingles. About a month or so after having shingles, I started having red itchy bumps. At first I freaked out thinking they were a re-occurrence of shingles wouldnt wish that on anyone! Now I kinda wish it had been shingles. When they werent shingles, I assumed they were some sort of hives, since no one else in the family was getting them.

I noticed when I went on a low carb diet that the hives seemed to go away. That made me think they were allergy related Ive been treated for wheat, dairy, sugar, corn, latex allergies and more. The marks decrease with the treatments and I have certainly noticed other benefits but then the marks come back. Eventually one of the kids started showing the same marks at which point we figured it was a bite rather than hives.

Talked to the kids dr who said it was scabies ugh! Scabies have got to be as difficult to get rid of as bed bugs from what Ive read. We did the dr treatment cream on the whole family, twice. Scabies are only supposed to live up to 72 hours without human contact. We have repeatedly gone on long & short vacations with relief while on vacation but same-o same-o upon returning home. Hot tubs seem to help, as does clove oil, but no guarantee.

Finally (mind you this has been going on for 4 years) hubby decided to get serious about this last week (he has been bitten periodically, but really is just sick of my chronic insomnia, itching and complaining). He did some research and figures the problem is not scabies as no one has bites on feet, behind knees, inside of elbows, between fingers classic scabies spots. We all have bites on thighs, shoulders, back, particularly shoulder blades, all look like mosquito bites, but there are no mosquitos in Colorado this time of year. He figures theyre bed bugs. We have a prime location for bed bugs & other things that like to hide way too much junk, not good at cleaning, etc. We went to town on our room 4+ huge trash bags later, carpet out for the trash, floors, bed, night stands vacuumed, dressers cleaned out (still working on that one) we have seen no sign of bed bugs. The mattress before and after cleaning had no spots, no obvious issue. We did vacuum the carpet before removing, but when we pulled it up, nothing went scurrying and nothing but dust under it (and a DVD how did that happen?). After emptying our room of everything we could not moving anything to other parts of the house other than books & a handful of items like combs that went through the dishwasher, I disassembled our box spring its a sleep number bed platform all plastic whipped the whole thing down to clean it, put it all back together and checked inside the bed still nothing. But since doing that, I have gotten a ton of bites, 10+ the first night after cleaning. One would think whatever it is would be better after a thorough cleaning but it almost seems worse. Perhaps I was just getting my hopes up.

One of the kids gets eaten alive similar to me. I checked his mattress this morning nothing. There are a couple large spots on the mattress that look like ink or something was spilled 2 inch irregular spots, but nothing else.

If this has been going on for 4 years, would we be able to miss the signs in cleaning? Ive read incessantly for the last several nights cant sleep itching so badly & too paranoid. From what I can tell, in 4 years if it is a bed bug infestation, the signs ought to be totally obvious.

I so want to just burn the place down but cant afford to do that and dont want to spread whatever it is any more than we probably already have. Tired of guessing and being proven wrong but dont have money to spend on the wrong treatment. Tired, frustrated, itchy and I just want to cry.

What are these bites from and how do I make them go away?

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Bed bug bites and bed bugs: how to tell if you have them