Something is biting me at night and I cannot find anything
The short answer
Do not start treatment on bites alone. Work through the physical evidence in order: bed bug signs on the mattress seams and frame, fleas if there is a pet, bird or rodent mites if there has been a nest in the building, and carpet beetle larvae. If nothing is found, a technician using monitors and a proper inspection is the next step rather than a spray.
Why bites are not a diagnosis
Skin reactions to insect bites vary enormously between people, appear hours or days later, and look similar across several species. Several non-insect causes produce marks that people reasonably read as bites. Treating a house on the basis of skin alone routinely means treating for the wrong thing.
Work through it in this order
- Inspect the bed properly: mattress seams, box spring, frame joints, headboard, and the first few feet around the bed. Look for dark staining, shed skins and live insects.
- If there is a pet, check for fleas at the base of the tail and on the belly, and comb over a white sheet to catch flea dirt.
- Ask whether a bird or rodent nest has recently been in the attic, the eaves or a chimney. When the host leaves, the mites disperse and come indoors looking for another one. This is a well-known sequel and it is frequently missed.
- Check for carpet beetle larvae in closets, under furniture and along carpet edges.
- If all of that is clear, have a technician place interceptors and monitors rather than treating blind.
Bring any specimen you find, however damaged, in a sealed container. It converts a week of guessing into a five-minute identification.
Also asked
- Could it be mites from a bird nest?
- It is a genuine and under-recognised cause. Bird and rodent mites feed on their host and disperse when the nest is abandoned, moving into living space in search of another. If a nest was removed from your building recently, mention it — it changes the whole line of inquiry.
Read next
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General information about pest problems and about hiring, not advice about your specific property. Pest control licensing, wildlife protection and landlord and tenant law are all set state by state and province by province across the United States and Canada, so your own regulator is the current answer. How we read the data.