mysterious bites

I've had three since June, the last just two days ago.

I don't notice the initial bite, and it takes hours to start itching, but I have to assume they occur while I'm sleeping. There's no real pain, but they start itching a lot for up to a week. Scratching around them lightly reveals a large (2 in dia) swollen and firm patch of skin around the bite, which has two clearly discernable but small dark red blisters, about 2mm apart. The swolen area tends to be horizontal (around the leg, around the ankle, etc.) more than vertical, leading me to believe it's some sort of poison that gets spread by gravity while I'm asleep. After a few days, the two blisters turn form almost a ringed shape (dark red/purple) about .7-1 cm in dia, with little swelling in the center. Swelling and itching gradually decrease, but are still noticable if the area is scratched up to several (3-4) weeks later. Both previous bites ended up scabbing over mildly about a month after the bite. There's no significant necrosis besides a layer or two of skin immediately surrounding the bite during scabbing, but it's extremely annoying as it itches (I tried aveeno last night - it works for maybe 15 minutes, then the itching comes back gradually) and takes a long time to heal. They haven't appeared infected - though the partial ring turns dark red/purple after a couple weeks, there's never any noticable oozing or pus.

Any ideas? A couple months ago I found what reasonably resembled tegenaria aggrestis, but given the location/climate and lack of necrosis or pain, I'm writing off any tegenaria, loxosceles, or latrodectus. Any ideas what the critter is? There's no noticable systemic reaction, even this time (3rd encounter), and I don't recall ever having this kind of bite before June, so I doubt it's an allergic reaction.

I'm doubting that it's a spider at all. A spider might bite if you happened to roll over onto one in your sleep, but since you've been bitten 3 times in a short span of time, it seems like a long shot.

If I had to make an uneducated guess, I'd say bed bugs or kissing bugs, both of which feed on blood of sleeping mammals, including people. Just a guess.

Wade

If you dont mind me asking, could you tell us your location as it does help in the ID of the animal. Thanks.

Alex S.

its not unheard of,

My dad got bit 3 times in 2 months by what we think was a hobo spider, It always occured while he slept, we never found the specimen though, but we have had hobo spiders in our house from the previous year.

I'm in dfw - north texas.

I not sure it's one of those bugs. The two clearly separated blisters aren't like anything I've had before. Though last night the bite burst and a bit of slightly yellow liquid came out, not all at once. Then I put neosporin and a bandaid on (first time I've done that) and tonight it looks much better - only slightly raised, and the separation between the two blisters isn't really visible, though the area around it is still itchy, slightly red, and tough. The red areas aren't very circular, they're more oblong. Right now it's bounded by an oval with about a 1.5cm minor axis and 4cm major axis radius. Last time the swelling got up to about 2.5cm minor and 6cm major axis before starting to recede.

These bites were one and two months apart, and only one each time. I can't imagine where any such bugs could be hiding out. There are a respectable number of spiders around - a few theridiidae (I doubt they're latrodecti - I've never found one with any sort of red mark) in corners, and the occassional encounter with a wolf/jumping/sac/etc. spider roaming around. Any sort of insect that could be causing these bites has no real food source besides me, and should have been toast long ago due to all the spiders. The only creatures that manage to outbreed the spiders and usually make it into the house are roaches, earwigs, and a variety of standard-looking beetles. There were some flies earlier in the summer, and some unusually small winged insects that have been landing on light sources recently, but besides that nothing unusual.

Aside from all the resident spiders, the irregularity and size of the bites makes me discount chiggers, fleas. It doesn't look like any picture of lyme disease I've seen. I kindof doubt it's an earwig pinch, but I don't ever recall seeing one.

It is possible that it could have been a minor Loxosceles bite. Keep an eye on it and tell us how it ends up.

Alex S.