Bed bugs are what nightmares are made of—lurking around your property at night, waiting to find the perfect moment to bite you. Once they’ve penetrated your skin, it’s hard to deny it. Itchiness, bumps, and occasionally blisters appear, revealing you’ve been bitten by these nasty pests. But what if those symptoms aren’t caused by bed bugs after all? Could those new bites be the work of another pest sneaking around your property?
In this article, you’ll learn to identify bed bug bites and their unfortunate symptoms. We’ll also discuss 4 common types of bites that are often mistaken for bed bug bites. Keep reading to determine if those red bumps on your skin are caused by bed bugs or another annoying critter on your property!
What Do Bed Bug Bites Look Like?
Do you suspect a bed bug infestation? If you keep getting bitten at night, you may be correct in assuming bed bugs are the culprit. However, since numerous pests are active late at night, it’s difficult to determine whether bed bugs are the villain. If you’d like to find out who’s interrupting your sleep, here’s how to identify bed bug bites:
- Appearance: Bed bug bites can show up as raised bumps, blisters, or pimple-like humps on the skin. Often, they appear as hives, and after a couple of hours, the bite shrinks in size and looks like a pimple. The skin surrounding the bite may become swollen and lighter in coloring. Another telltale sign of a bed bug bite is their shape. Usually appearing in a line, zigzag, or random pattern, these bites are commonly found in clusters of 3–5.
- Symptoms: Bed bug bite symptoms often include itchy or inflamed skin around the affected area. They can also cause a burning sensation, discomfort, and pain. In more severe cases, you could have an allergic reaction that involves blisters, itching, and hives.
- Location: Bites are typically located on areas of the body that are vulnerable to bed bugs at night, including the neck, hands, face, shoulders, legs, and arms.
If you’ve determined that the bites on your skin are indeed from bed bugs, it’s time to treat them before they cause more trouble.
How to Treat Bed Bug Bites in 3 Simple Steps
Fortunately, bed bug bites are rarely dangerous and usually heal independently within 1–2 weeks. If you’d like to speed up the process, here are 3 things you can do to treat bed bug bites:
- Wash the bites and avoid itching them. Use a gentle soap brand to scrub the affected area, rinsing with water for a few minutes. This will decrease the chances of an infection and extreme itchiness. It’s also essential to avoid touching or scratching the bed bug bites during healing to ensure a quick recovery.
- Apply a cream to alleviate the discomfort. Once you’ve washed the bed bug bites, apply a cream that contains hydrocortisone, such as Cortaid, to decrease itchiness. You can also use triamcinolone or other steroid ointments that are available with a prescription. Apply aloe vera gel to the bites to soothe the affected area during the healing process.
- If necessary, take an antihistamine. If you can’t sleep due to the bite’s itchiness, you can take an antihistamine such as Benadryl, Zyrtec, or Claritin.
Washing your bedding, clothing, curtains, and other infested areas in hot water, drying them on the hottest temperature to get rid of bed bugs. You’ll also need to put shoes, stuffed animals, and other items that can’t be washed into the dryer for 30 minutes. If you’ve tried to eliminate bed bugs on your own without success, call a professional pest control company to get the job done right.
Got Bites But No Sign of Bed Bugs? 4 Other Common Bug Bites
If you don’t have any of the above signs of bed bug bites, there may be another villain that’s causing the annoying symptoms you’re experiencing. Spiders, mosquitos, lice, and fleas are also active in the late night hours, so the bites on your body could be caused by one of these pests. Here’s how to identify these 4 common types of bug bites:
1. Spiders
Unlike bed bugs, spiders only bite once, meaning if you spot a single inflamed bump on your skin with two punctures, it could be a spider bite. Depending on the type of spider, these can appear red and swollen or small and painless. However, it can be more painful and serious if you receive a bite from a brown recluse spider or black widow. These dangerous spiders carry a nasty punch, including symptoms of severe cramping, body pain, nausea, chills, or sweating. The appearance of these spiders’ bites is also different. Brown recluse bites, for instance, start as a red bump, then form a dark blue/purple ring with a pale center, eventually turning into an open sore until it heals.
Bed Bug vs. Spider Bite: Spider bites only once, whereas bed bugs leave behind a cluster of bites. Compared to the bed bugs’ grouped bites, if you’re a spider victim, you’ll spot only a single bite on your skin. More dangerous consequences follow after spider bites, with symptoms such as pain, sweating, or tremors.
2. Fleas
If you own a dog or cat, flea bites can be a common occurrence. Fleas tend to bite under the skin folds on the lower body, such as the ankles, calves, feet, and legs. Like bed bugs, fleas leave clusters of bites in groups of 3. The most common symptom is extreme itchiness, with a small red bump forming within 30 minutes of the bite. While swelling can occur around the affected area, flea bites don’t usually grow to the size of mosquito bites. A discolored ring or halo can appear around the bite.
Bed Bug Bites vs. Flea Bites: The biggest giveaway to a flea bite vs. a bed bug bite is the location of the affected area. Fleas usually penetrate the lower body, while bed bugs target the upper body, such as the neck, arms, back, hands, and face.
3. Mosquitos
When mosquitoes bite, they use their mouthpart, to penetrate your skin and suck blood. While they feed, these pests inject saliva into your skin, causing a red bump that’s irritating and itchy. Mosquito bites appear as small, raised, red bumps, varying in size based on each person’s reaction to the pest’s saliva. Unfortunately, mosquitoes can bite through clothing, which means these bumps can appear just about anywhere on your body. You can receive multiple bites from a mosquito, but they often appear randomly and not in a line or pattern.
Mosquito vs. Bed Bug Bite: There are a few differences between mosquito bites and bed bugs. First, mosquitoes bite in random areas, whereas bed bugs bite in clusters of lines, patterns, or zigzags. Additionally, while mosquitoes can bite through clothing, bed bugs cannot. If bed bugs have bitten you, you’ll only notice bites on areas not covered by your clothing. On the other hand, mosquitoes bite anywhere and everywhere.
4. Lice
Both bed bugs and lice feed off of blood, but they do so using different methods. Lice are often found on the scalp or in items that touch your head, including pillows, blankets, or towels. These pests leave behind small, discolored (brown, red, purple) dots on the skin. However, lice rarely leave bites on the skin and instead stay in the scalp and neck area. Due to a reaction to the lice’s saliva, symptoms of itchiness and rashes on and around your head/scalp occur from these pests.
Bed Bug vs. Lice Bite: The primary difference between lice and bed bug bites is the location. Lice are most commonly found in the head and neck, leaving your scalp extremely itchy. However, bed bugs bite on exposed areas of your body and rarely travel to your head and neck. If your head is the only thing feeling irritated, it’s most likely lice instead of bed bugs.
Don’t Want Bug Bites? Contact Preventive’s Team To Protect Your Property
Whether you’ve identified bed bug bites or a spider infestation, it’s not a pleasant thought to realize you’re sharing your space with unwelcomed company. Prevent these bugs from entering your home or business, biting you, and wreaking havoc on your property with the help of Preventive Pest Control.
For over 20 years, we’ve provided 5-star pest control solutions for Southern California residents, from Orange County to the Inland Empire. If you’ve discovered bed bugs or other pests in your environment, we’ll bring proven extermination techniques to remove them from your property for good. Contact us today to eliminate bed bugs and live in peace once again!