Bedbug bites changed - is it possible?
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Posted by Tiago on September 23, 2007 at 20:00:46:
Hi I am a Portuguese PhD student living in Sweden. In January (this year), after coming home from Christmas, I had a bedbug problem. I found them in my bed, after being very suspicious of large, swollen red welts in my arms and legs. These didn't itch so much, they were just strange, to me.
After I found out about the problem, I threw away the bed, had my apartment sprayed 6 (six, yes, six) times over a course of several months, put everything I could either through the very hot drier or the freezer (my lab has -20 ºC rooms). After the first treatment, I stopped habing the big bites but, some time after, I started having smaller (1 cm in diameter, mostly) red welts that itch quite a lot, sometimes. These appear mostly in the morning but I've had them later in the day. Unlike the first ones, which took days to fade away (and weeks before the bright red spots in the middle disappeared altogether), these disappear after a couple of hours.
After 4 months, I told the company I rent the apartment from that I couldn't take it anymore. Even though the guys from the extermination company said they couldn't find anything, they still agreed to move me into another apartment and take everything I had there into a chamber to treat with Vikane.
I went back to my parents' house, having put my clothes (which were all I took with me) in the hot (I mean over 70 ºC) drier, dressed in the laundry room and left for the airport. I still had the same bites there. Basically, I have them everywhere I go, no matter what I do.
I've never found any bugs or signs of them since (and I do know where to look). My parents have come to my new apartment here in Sweden, no problem. I slept at a friends house (taking all the precautions, I took only clothes I had bought the same day, which I dressed after taking a shower outside his apartment), I had the same welts, he had none.
I am currently taking anti-histamines (cetirizin) for almost a month, which seemed to make these welts disappear altogether but, recently, I have found some small welts in me. They don't itch (yet) but it would appear I am getting some resistance to the anti-histamines.
My questions are: has anyone had this problem before? Could it be that the bedbugs have this "dual" effect on me? If so, how to prove it - I tried double-sided tape, I have bowls with mineral oil under the feet of my bed, white sheets, I vacuum my mattress every week and inspect it as thoroughly as possible and never found anything - so that adequate treatment might be done? If not, what could it possibly be?
Any constructive ideas are most welcome.
Best regards
Tiago
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