# Anyone want to take a stab at ID'ing a bug bite on my son?



## SkitterAlong (Aug 30, 2012)

I know it's not much to go by but eh, why not. He woke up with the bites yesterday morning and they have not improved with a few daily apps of cortizone/antibotic cream. Tried a little benedryl, hasn't seemed to help. He says they hurt a little bit but I haven't seen him scratching them. Each bite has a single 'pinprick' in the center and is slightly raised. They are only on his face, three on one side one on the other. Mosquito maybe? Husband and I are unbitten and our two cats are flea-free. The backdoor slider was accidentally left open the night he was bitten so perhaps something wandered in and snacked on him - he did leave his bed sometime in the night and go back to sleep on the sofa (he does that every now and then) near the open slider. Haven't seen anything inside the house besides my tarantulas. The bites are all identical to the one in the photo. We are in Southern California, orange county. Any guesses?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/purplesquirrel27/7896201624/


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## The Snark (Sep 1, 2012)

Extremely difficult to determine the cause. Does he have any history of allergic reactions to bites or stings? I would tentatively rule out mosquito jabs since they usually leave a white welt and reduce in a matter of an hour or so. That would leave an animal with an irritant saliva or a bacterium. Observe, watch for other symptoms and if the marks remain for more than 48 hours, seek professional advice. This may be a very common incident that ERs would be well informed of.
If fever, cramps, nausea or dizziness develop, seek medical advice immediately.

PS Of course, watch the wounds for signs of pus developing.

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## ShredderEmp (Sep 1, 2012)

looks like a bed bug bite, but they usually itch    to get rid of bed bugs if that is them, ud need to heat ur house to 115 and leave the temp like that for a day as bed bugs can only withstand up to 112 but that should also kill every animal in the house so ud have to remove ur ts and any living thing you dont want to die youd need to remove or put in a friends house

but this is ONLY IF ITS BED BUGS do more research on them to be 100 percent sure


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## cacoseraph (Sep 1, 2012)

pretty much can't identify species from the bite it leaves.  that actually half looks like an infection, to me, to be honest


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## Necromion (Sep 1, 2012)

does he have these on onther parts of his body? If he does I would agree on the bed bug thought. But i also agree with caco, because if they are just isolated to the face then chances are its something else. I would also wait to see if he develops more. 

Some ways you can attempt to confirm if there are bed bugs is to check his sheets for blood spots and dead bed bugs, check the mattress, bed frame and surrounding areas for bugs (they move fast but you should still see them), I would also inspect any electrical sockets around the bed. I suggest the electrical sockets because I used to be an exterminator, and I had a case where the bed bugs were crawling in to the customers appartment from the appartment next door.

And lastly if you do find the bugs, try to catch one and call an exterminator, I know people dont like to resort to chemical means but they often have access to chemicals and other materials that you cannot get a hold of without the proper permits.

best of luck, and hope they aren't bed bugs.


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## cacoseraph (Sep 1, 2012)

very good stuff, necro!  a bite type wound like this combined with a lot of other evidence can definitely strongly point to some culprits.  lacking "secondary" evidence like that or primary evidence of actually seeing the bug make the bite or sting is is pretty impossible to determine the root cause.  there aren't even blood tests to randomly tell what caused a mark, though there are some tests to confirm antibodies for some bites and stings, if i recall correctly


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## ShredderEmp (Sep 1, 2012)

Necromion said:


> And lastly if you do find the bugs, try to catch one and call an exterminator, I know people dont like to resort to chemical means but they often have access to chemicals and other materials that you cannot get a hold of without the proper permits.


Actually, the bed bugs have become so resistant to the chemicals that we use that now the only way to kill them is to superheat the house to 115   chemicals would  just be wasting money


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## Tarac (Sep 1, 2012)

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?235519-weird-bite..someone-help-me-id&highlight=staph

Please get it cultured before you start any course of treatment lest you could potentially make it worse, even life threatening.  Not to scare you, but best to be sure you don't have an infection with any "bug bites" that cannot be concretely linked to a bug.  The bug could be staph.  Benadryl will just make it worse, the antibiotic cream is useless if that is the case.  Many many many staph infections are presumed to be "bug bites" that mysteriously appeared.  As soon as the culture is taken you can start mitigating the symptoms until the results are in.  Otherwise you are trying to tackle something you can't identify.  Hopefully it is just a bug bite.  If it is staph, catching it now will make it very easy to treat so don't worry.  Just be pro-active and GET A CULTURE.


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## SkitterAlong (Sep 1, 2012)

Well the bites came to tiny white heads that night so I took him to the doctor. No fever, behaving normally and didn't seem particularly bothered unless were bites are touched. Doctor scratched her head, put him on amoxicillian, told me to do warm compresses and bring him back in for a culture when/if they rupture. They did by late morning the next day and a culture was taken. Still waiting on results but the 'bites' have scabbed over and seem to be healing nicely now. He hasn't any more that I can see, just the four on his face and has not developed any more since then. Still sleeping in his own bed but I tore the room and bedframe apart looking for bed bug signs. Nothing, thank goodness! I washed everything and I mean everything in hot water too. Doesn't mean they aren't there, of course - I'm checking him every morning and sneaking into the dark room with a flashlight after he's asleep to see if I spot a bug. I'm thinking of just calling an exterminator if another bite or more shows up since I figure that they will find the bugs if they are there at all. Doc did say that she has seen infected mosquito bites that looked similar, but these never looked like 'squito bites even when fresh. We did have a major fire ant infestation some time ago but we haven't seen a single ant since the house and surrounding land was treated. My fire ant stings blistered; these 'bites' have not.

He's never had an allergic reaction to anything as far as we know; he hardly even reacted (other than ouch!) to a bee sting last year. Might not even be insect related at all. Doc said to take him to the ER right away if he runs a fever over 100 or his behavior seems 'off' just to be safe. I had sepsis last summer that put me in the hospital for nine days (followed by 3 weeks of in-home hospice care from a visiting nurse and daily heart-catheter IV medication) so I certainly won't mess around with a possible bacterial infection. If this kid seems even a little off I'll have him at the ER so fast that I'll break the sound barrier. But so far, so good. Thanks for imput!


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## The Snark (Sep 1, 2012)

*Addendum*

The bites were only on air exposed skin so bed bugs are pretty much ruled out. Coming to a white head indicates infection so the doc whams it with good old ultra broad spectrum Amoxy. The culture will take up to a week. Out of curiosity, could the OP please post the results for us?

It is sounding like a kissing/assasin bug, Triatominae, to me. They range up into California at least as far as Orange County and are well known to carry bacteria as well as parasites. You might mention this possibility to that rather dumb sounding doctor as well as reading up on Chagas disease and it's indicators. If there is even a remote chance of it being Chagas this should be followed up immediately as treatment effectiveness drops dramatically over time.

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## SkitterAlong (Sep 2, 2012)

I'm a worried mama now! His doctor won't be back in the office until Monday...should I wait until then to contact her as long as he seems fine? He eats, plays and cheerfully drive me nuts just the same as he always has, as if nothing ever happened. Or just say screw it and take him to Urgent Care tomorrow morning and demand a full lab workup and exam on him?

 My other concern is that if this was indeed a Triatominae that came in through the open slider it could very well still be in the house. I'd like to think that my two indoor cats (capable bug hunters) would have made short work of it by now....but the urge to tear the house apart on a bug hunt is quite overwhelming. I wouldn't be shocked if that *is* the culprit since I have a huge veggie/fruit garden in the backyard and have seen quite an array of invert predators working on the pests out there. I even found an A. cristatus out there among the sweet peas in spring. (THAT threw me for a loop. Never seen one in the area before.) There haven't been any other bites on anyone so far, but that slider has been staying shut.

I've found that general care doctors are rather useless when it comes to these things so I'll certainly be printing out this info to show to his pediatrician or any doc I might take him to tomorrow. I'll be watching that boy like a lion watches a limping zebra in the meantime - tiny fever, appetite change, less playing, sleeping longer, anything at all and we're off to the ER as fast as I can stuff him into his carseat. He's four 1/2 btw.


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## The Snark (Sep 2, 2012)

Well, the bites match Triatominae in appearance and common traits. Next, Chagas has been reported in So. Cal. So square 1, call the CDPH and getting the low down on things would be your next step. Web page: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/cid/Pages/default.aspx.
Their search engine turns up a lot on Chagas.

Through the CDPH you should be able to contact an infectious disease specialist in your area who can give you the low down. They may even suggest running a prophylactic drug course as a safety measure.

I would hold off doing major eradication efforts like widespread spraying of pesticides. They may want to come out and investigate.

While I may sound like an alarmist, and I hope I am wrong, this is exactly how they turned up bubonic plague in El Monte some years ago. In squirrels in a park. Odd things can happen, even in densely populated urban areas.


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