One morning Scallywag woke up all itchy. His hands and knees where covered in huge inflamed bites. We had no idea what we were dealing with. A mosquito, maybe? But the following two nights the bites just increased, until we counted 80 itchy marks on one hand alone! A mosquito army could only do that kind of damage. But it was unlikely to be mosquitoes, because although I was sleeping in the same room, I got no bites at all. And you usually wake up in the night with this tell tale buzzing sound in your ears, which we did not.
Further inspection revealed that the bites were neatly aligned along the veins. Searching on the internet for comparable bites, we came to the conclusion that we were probably dealing with bed bugs.
Where had they suddenly come from??? And why were they biting only scallywag, when I was also sleeping in the same room???
To escape from the bed bugs we slept in the roach mobile, until we could move to another room. At least cockroaches don't bite.
It was fascinating to the bite marks change, as they started to get itchy. They swelled up a bit and turned all white. Poor Scallywag was itching like crazy for days. It almost drove him mad!
In hindsight, we think that we brought the bedbug bites from a garage sale home. The cushion we bought there must have had them inside, and washing at 30 degrees does not get rid of bed bugs, we later found out.
Since getting rid of that cushion and changing rooms, we haven't had a single bite.
Let's hope it stays that way!
-Bilge Rat
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