I get a lot of phone calls from worried people who are experiencing bites or getting bitten in bed and their first thoughts are “Oh no, we’ve got bed bugs”, in fact this blog has been written to try and shine some light on the causes of ‘bites’ and why these may not be down to the dreaded bed bugs. 

 

I’ll give you an example, I was phoned by a lady in Reading who was ringing around different pest control companies for advice on the problem of these insect bites, I’ve got to be honest, its impossible to give an 100% accurate diagnosis to the problem based on a phone call. I usually ask for photos of any insects; pictures of bites doesn’t give you enough information. 

 

Her experience ranged from those companies that just wanted to give her a price for a bed bug treatment to the slightly pushier, “You’ll definitely need a heat treatment, and we can do that for £600, we’ll take payment now over the phone and send someone out to you tomorrow”. 

 

When she rang me, I talked her through the signs of a bed bug infestation, of which she had none, we talked about fleas and she had no pets so we could rule that out and then, from her answers I deduced it was carpet beetle larvae, and she didn’t need a treatment at all. 

 

So, lets look at what ‘bites’ when you’re lying in bed. There are three insects that immediately come to mind that leave us with itchy ‘bites’ and the obvious number one culprit would be bed bugs. 

 

These insects are dramatically on the increase across not only the UK but Europe and America – who can forget the fear factor from the 2024 Olympics in France, in fact, anytime there’s a sporting event held in France, pest control companies go into overdrive warning of an invasion of bed bugs when people return; so much so, it gets boring. 

 

As fearful as we are of bed bugs, you can easily see the results if you have a live infestation, these insects bite several times during a feeding session and between bites they’ll defecate the unwanted liquid part of your blood to make room for more of the solid part.  

 

So, within a matter of days, you will start to see little black spots appearing not only where they feed but just outside the crevice that they’re living inside because, once fed they will tuck themselves away in any crack that they can find, and to do that they have a poo before they go back to sleep.  

 

Yuck, look through the blogs and there’s plenty of photos and information on determining bed bugs, they pretty much are the easiest insects to detect. 

 

Another insect that bites us are bird mites, most people have their sleeping accommodation on the top floor of their property, and above your bedroom is either the space that forms the loft or, possibly a smaller space where a flat roof sits. Both of these areas are frequently home to birds and one species that seems to be particularly ridden with mites are starlings. It maybe because they nest in small colonies so rather than being a single nest up there, its multiples off and several birds all living in the same confined space. 

 

When the birds are in residence, you’ll be unaware of the mites as they’re feeding off the birds and their chicks, the problem begins when the last brood fledges, and the birds leave. Behind them in the void will be thousands of small bloodsucking mites that are hungry, these migrate down into the floor below and appear as really small white blobs that crawl very slowly across surfaces.  

 

This white colour means that the stomach is empty, when they’ve had a blood meal, they turn black and resemble poppy seeds. My experience of bird mites is from putting netting up in stables to prevent pigeons from pooping on the horses below and I thought that these mites don’t half nip. I could feel their bites and it was quite painful. 

 

Bird mites are easily dealt with through fogging the bedrooms and the loft if its applicable with a powerful, long-lasting insecticide, this as it suggests is a liquid fog that coats every surface leaving behind a strong residual insecticide that will take care of the problem. 

 

The last insect on the list is the variegated carpet beetle, but in truth its not the beetle that causes the trouble but the larval stage. These beetles spend the summer eating pollen and nectar from flowers and you can often see them sitting on large daisy’s, sounds OK so far? 

 

After mating the female beetle flies in through an open window and lays her eggs on wool and wool blend carpets, these then hatch into tiny caterpillar like larvae that go by an almost affectionate name; woolly bears. Still sounds, OK? 

 

These insects have as their name suggests long hairs protruding from their backs to ward of predators and its these hairs that cause the problem.  

 

As they grow in size the larvae shed their smaller and outgrown skin in an act that called moulting, this leaves the hairs behind which are then broken off and become airborne where they lodge in our skin and cause bite like rashes. 

 

Children are more susceptible to these ‘bites’ as they’ll lay and roll around on carpets, and because the female carpet beetle will lay around 100 eggs at a time so even if you regularly vacuum, the chances are if you’ve got these in the carpet you’ll probably miss a few. 

 

Again, these pests are easily treated with a combination of surface sprays and a fogging treatment to ensure that any hard-to-reach areas are covered. 

 

So, if you’re getting bitten or finding an itchy rash have a good look around before you reach for the phone; if you say that you’re getting bitten in bed then naturally pest control companies are going to assume that you’ve got bed bugs and will price accordingly.  

 

In reality the bed bug treatment may go on to deal with the actual pest but at a much greater cost, when I deal with bed bugs I start with a steamer, break the bed down as far as possible, and steam every crack, crevice, joint, bolt hole before putting the bed back together.  

 

Then I spray with chemicals, and I may follow up with the fogging treatment; all this takes a lot of time and that’s what you’re paying for. A strictly chemical treatment is much quicker and therefore cheaper, which is good for you.