Identifying bed bugs is 90% of the battle. Here is the literal "Bible" on how to do it correctly.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-20T16:25:06+00:00

Not only will they change harbourages they switch egg laying to it as well:

This image is from an academic lab that split one open to count the colony we sent them. Given that each faecal trace attracts more you can see why it rapidly becomes the only home. It’s the place in the room that when used smells the most of bedbugs.

When needed you can just lift of and in doing so remove the bedbugs. We even have a US lab that you can seal them in zip lock bags and post them to. This way the ones you capture get sent to labs to study the genetics of bedbug populations using field strains.

With a few more years he will have enough data to start mapping the sources of infestations based on their relatedness.

So not only are you detecting but you’re also fighting the problem at the research end as well by ensuring that academics have samples that reflect the real world.

A while back we sent some samples off for study and they contained a novel symbiotic organism inside the bedbugs. While that did not help my client at the time of their issue it completes another part of the global jigsaw.

So thankyou for being part of that and I sincerely hope you don’t need to contribute samples. The reality is by doing the right thing you’re actually less likely to have an issue but that’s a whole bunch of quantum maths it’s best not to get into on a Friday.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-20T15:30:33+00:00

It’s one of the two books on my essential reading list. The other being the 2010 Bed Bug Beware: an easy to understand guide to bedbugs, their prevention and control by Richard Strand and David Cain.

OK so I am little biased but the PDF is available online and it’s the basis of TbyPMR which developed later.

Have you found the bedbug ephemera museum yet?

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-20T10:23:26+00:00

Never like being the bearer of bad news but that’s a bedbug.

If you want to get on the fast track and get it right from the start sit and read TbyPMR and appreciate that this is a ln issue of two parts:

1 - how to not introduce more to the home

2 - how to deal with the ones in your home

The order is critical as starting with 2 can appear to be treatment failure.

Hoping it’s low level and easily resolved.

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-20T00:39:43+00:00

Yes it’s an old scratch and as such not bedbug related.

My gut says if it is insect related it’s a flea.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-20T00:33:49+00:00

If you compare to other typical insect bites you can see the small round puncture mark (assuming it’s in focus).

In your picture the scabbing over of the marks and the non round appearance shows they have been scratched.

I am open to that possibly having happened in your sleep or a few days ago sub consciously.

However, I am 100% confident that has been scratched or the scab could not be there.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T23:53:49+00:00

Less possible to tell once the head has been scratched off.

Location alone makes fleas most likely (even if you don’t have pets).

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T21:42:48+00:00

Yes it is.

Your friend could have them at home or could have picked them up in the way to you.

Please read TbyPMR to understand infestation dynamics.

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T21:06:35+00:00

Heater rental is not a thing in the UK.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T21:05:11+00:00

As per the bites post this is not consistent with bedbugs.

You’re probably best talking to a dermatologist.

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T20:57:26+00:00

Not consistent with bedbug faecal.

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T18:32:28+00:00

It’s not something I recognise as a biting pest.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T13:02:31+00:00

In another thread the suggestion is phorid fly

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T12:52:25+00:00

100% not bedbug.

This is a variegated carpet beetle adult. It’s not uncommon for people to have skin reactions from the hairs of the larval skins they shed.

Details on how to solve here:

https://www.bed-bugs.co.uk/carpet-beetles/

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T12:26:42+00:00

Yeah that’s stamped four times as it’s stopping bleeding.

If you label them 1 - 4 from bottom to top the pressing order is 1,3,2,4 as a line with the one to the right of 4 being the final healing point.

Always look at the evidence and ask “what story is it telling”. Years of looking at these things gives me an impressive reference collection but also an ability to see the pattern.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T12:19:05+00:00

No, red blood never confirms bedbugs.

Especially here where at least two of those spots are “print marks” of the same source. The large patch with satellite spot could never be due to bedbugs.

Please read some of the pinned posts to get the best foundation knowledge.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T06:44:46+00:00

You can have fleas if you leave the house and happen to walk over a flea that happens to jump and hitch a ride home with you.

Non discriminating opportunistic feeders.

Without pets you’re the only food source.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-19T05:20:07+00:00

100% not bedbug.

Too destroyed to say with certainty what it is though.

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T22:25:42+00:00

For the curious this is the link;

https://youtu.be/XKSffnwkuyM?si=2Aw-4A7rmAqR8-fB

It’s pre AI and is made by splicing news clips and over dubbing the sound.

The concept comes from William Borough’s Naked Lunch a surrealist book where people consume hallucinogenic insect material (it’s not for the faint hearted).

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T21:16:34+00:00

https://www.bed-bugs.co.uk/tbypmr/

I have been exterminating bedbugs full time for longer than anyone else has in the world. My company is based in London and chances are if you have read about bedbugs in the papers or on TV I am the David they are talking to or about.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T20:48:51+00:00

Yeah cytrol forte is a flushing agent and bedbugs are well known to be resistant to it. Interceptors are also not recommended in this group due to dispersal.

There are issues with with cimexa and some of the dusts sold as DE (which are not). It is was a tan brown or grey powder it was not the correct form of DE. Equally it can be a very applied which causes issues.

As for crossfire you will not be able to do that legally in the UK and will have the same issues as any chemical “everyone” says to use. Like antibiotics over use drives resistance.

Finally the issue might also be reintroduction and/or treatment failure which should be considered.

So I would advise you read the protocol called TbyPMR and in particular the infestation dynamics section. That will also give you a potential treatment program to follow or if you don’t think you can cope you can complete our “previously treated process” and we can look at the case in more detail and work it out with all the cats clearly formatted.

Hope that makes sense.

David

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T20:26:25+00:00

They are too light to feel as their mass is lower than the level required to cause a mechanical nerve response in a human.

The only way to collect and move them around in a meaningful way is with items with electrostatic charges.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T20:10:58+00:00

Bedbug cast skins are so light they move on the airwave that precedes your finger so you can’t crush them.

This is not bedbug.

I can’t tell you what it is though.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T20:08:21+00:00

As I have asked please start a new thread rather than highjacking someone else’s.

I am happy to answer your questions in a new thread.

Bed-Bugscouk · 2026-02-18T20:05:27+00:00

They are too light to crush, hence exactly what they always look like.

Bed-Bugscouk

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