If your skin is exposed to carpet beetles they will likely bite you.
Carpet beetle rash vs bed bug bites.
They simply bite you while you sleep.
Bed bugs do not damage your belongings.
The result of carpet beetle bites will be tiny red rashes on your skin.
It started to go away over the past few days but the rash then started to spread onto my neck my lower back the center of my back and across my shoulders.
Carpet beetles can also leave red bumps on your skin but they aren t bites.
Bed bug bites are itchier and the carpet beetle s rash is more painful.
These rashes will often itch and may even create a burning sensation.
This saliva causes an allergic reaction in some people which registers as raised red welts that itch.
And i really hope you haven t.
If you search for bed bug signs and find no traces carpet beetles could be the pest especially if you are getting a number of bites every night.
Bed bugs feed on blood while carpet beetles feed on nectar pollen wool hair bristles feathers silk furs insect collections dried plants clothing and fabrics.
Check the area with a magnifying glass for the shed larval skins remembering that even a single carpet beetle skin could result in multiple bite like reactions due.
However there is another one called carpet beetle dermatitis which can cause you to have an itchy rash on the affected area of your skin.
Most doctors have trouble pinpointing exactly what causes someone s dermatitis.
Interestingly enough in nearly all of the cases where it is not a bed bug infestation we encounter carpet beetles instead or sometimes both pests.
Bed bugs bites are a lot more frequent than carpet beetle rash.
I started to think that they were bed bug bites but the exterminator found only carpet beetles.
However carpet beetles obviously cause carpet beetle dermatitis because that is where the name comes from.
Bed bugs actually create red itchy welts on the skin from biting you while the carpet beetle doesn t bite at all but causes a similar red itchy welt due to an allergic reaction from the prickly little hairs on the carpet beetle larvae pictured center.
The moral to this story is.
If only one person in the bed is getting bites or a rash it s more likely that you have.
Although it s hard to know the difference if you ve never experienced both.
Bed bug bites are actual bites.
The bug injects anesthetic and anticoagulant into your skin with its mouth to ensure a quick feeding that won t disturb your sleep.
However rashes from bed bugs are from bites while rashes from carpet beetles are from allergic reactions.
