fleas/dust mites ?

[Me]

I have been getting bitten by something when I sleep. I have a pet rabbit that stays with me occasionally, but the biting started after he left 5 months prior. It's been occuring for six weeks, it only happens when in bed. I pulled everything out of my room, steam cleaned the carpets, washed all the sheets, and put my mattress outside for the night. While everything was out of the room, I used a fogger to kill any fleas.

Everything I've read says people are only allergic to dust mites, they don't bite. I don't have any allergies. If I used a fogger that would kill fleas, then I'm stumped what could be biting me.

I'm not sure what to do next, any suggestions?

[CAStinneford]

I hate to suggest it but you might want to do some research on bed bugs.

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) I have been getting bitten by something when I sleep. I have a pet rabbit :) that stays with me occasionally, but the biting started after he left 5 :) months prior. :) It's been occuring for six weeks, it only happens when in bed. I pulled :) everything out of my room, steam cleaned the carpets, washed all the sheets, :) and put my mattress outside for the night. While everything was out of the :) room, I used a fogger to kill any fleas. :) :) Everything I've read says people are only allergic to dust mites, they don't :) bite. I don't have any allergies. If I used a fogger that would kill fleas, :) then I'm stumped what could be biting me. :) :) :) I'm not sure what to do next, any suggestions? :) :) :) Another thing that is possible is during the Winter months, static is up with the low humidity causing different type of fibers and paper slivers to be rigid and can irritate the skin. Often it looks like insect bites especially after scratching from the irritation....humidifiers will often help.

[Tom]

Saw a story on the national news the other day about bedbugs. Seems they are making a big comeback. And contrary to what you would think, they don't always hide in the bed. They like to hide behind pictures on the wall and other hard to get to crevices. Scarey if it was important enough to make the evening national news. Tom

[Nehmo Sergheyev]

- Me -

- Nehmo - You didn't sterilize the mattress. Putting it outside overnight won't accomplish anything. But I don't know how to handle the problem. If you don't have access to an Insecticide, maybe you could soak mattress in bleach and then let it dry.

[royroy]

[BeamGuy]

We had fleas once in our house - they do bite people. If you want to know for sure if you have them you can fall back on an old beduin trick. Take out an old cookie sheet and place it on the floor. Fill it with soapy water. Soap is necessary to break the surface tension of the water so that fleas will fall in rather than walk over the surface. Then set up a small desk lamp about 1 foot over the center of the cookie sheet and let it sit for a few days. Any fleas that come around will feel the heat from the lamp an jump at it, landing in the water and drown. After a few days you will know if you have fleas or not.

If you do the best treatment is one of many growth hormone products that break the reproductive cycle. Since fleas eggs hatch randomly over the course of 6 months you will not get rid of them no matter how much poison you spread around on one single day. The growth hormone we used stoped the development of the eggs, but new ones are out there now.

[norminn]

Fleas require repeat treatment in three days to kill the unhatched eggs the first treatment didn't kill. Our vet recommended sprinkling carpet with boric acid powder - purchased from him - but we didn't get around to it right away. As it turned out, the Advantage we put on the cat did the trick, with no further treatment of the house.

Biting critters could be scabies, bed bugs, roaches. Mattress should have been treated, as well as bedding and clothing. A rabbit in the bedroom? If the rabbit left five months before the bites began, it is unlikely to be the rabbit. Who else has slept there? Pretty unlikely that fleas would bother you only in bed.

[jmagerl]

Do you have any decorative dried flower type wreaths hanging over the bed? For some reason after 2 years, the one hanging over our bed developed a nest of these teenie tiny bugs that would fall off on to the bed and bite me. I took it outside and shook it over a newspaper and a cloud of them fell off. They weren't fleas but more like beetles half the size of a pin head.

I also read in the newspaper where bedbugs are making a big time comeback in the US.

development

[Me]

I have no plants in the house. I'm pretty clean. I've had this mattress since March. Sealy replaced it because the other one was defective. I did look on the tag, and it appeared to be manufactured a few days before I received it. The exterminator should be knocking any moment

[Art Todesco]