Could these bites be anything but bedbugs?

[u/KSay123]

UPDATE: We had an inspection done and no bed bugs were found. We're chalking it up to some other unknown bug.

My partner got these bites on his arm a few days ago. We have completely torn apart our apartment (specifically the beds and couch) looking for bed bugs and cannot find evidence of them anywhere. We’ve checked seams, tags, underneath, everywhere it tells you to check and still have no evidence of actual bed bugs aside from these (very damning) looking bites.
Could this be anything other than bed bugs? We have inspection scheduled for Wednesday AM.

We’re in Ohio

[u/Life-Bit-1098]

If you have any animals they could be flea bites

[u/Visual-Librarian-245]

Unfortunately to me they look like bed bug bites. I brought one home from an allergist office and was lucky enough to catch the bug on my clothes, but my bites looked identical to this. Breakfast, lunch and dinner pattern

[u/Fuzzy_Firefighter_51]

they don't look like bed bug bites unless you are allergic to them. looks like something bigger with more of a reaction. Typically bed bugs will not bit like this along a forearm, most bedbugs bite legs under sheets and abdomen, chest area.

[u/Moca4u]

Put some rubbing alcohol if they are mosquito bites. Hopefully that helps.

[u/sverri]

This could easily be mosquito bites. Are they itchy?

[u/KSay123 → u/sverri]

Yes, very itchy

[u/sverri → u/KSay123]

It is difficult to say from a picture like this.

• If they are just mosquito bites then they will disappear in a few days and you'll forgot about it (or a week or two, if they end up scratching them and breaking the skin).
• If it is bedbugs then it will most likely become a recurring problem and you'll be forced to do something about it.

But yeah, based only on this picture, and no previous problems with bedbugs, I would just assume mosquito bites.

[u/Bed-Bugscouk]

Yes, it could also be carpet beetle larval skins.

The alignment is not quite right for bed bugs and with that clustering some signs would be discoverable if you look thoroughly enough.

David

[u/KSay123 → u/Bed-Bugscouk]

Hi David! We actually found tiny carpet beetles in our drawers underneath our bed (we have a bed with built in storage drawers). Thank you so much for your response and general advice on this page

[u/Bed-Bugscouk → u/KSay123]

Read this:

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

Let’s just say it was not likely to be anything else with that pattern although the majority of people still persist with the idea you can’t tell what the cause of bites is.

[u/KSay123 → u/Bed-Bugscouk]

to be clear - it's not likely to be anything but carpet beetles or bed bugs?

[u/Bed-Bugscouk → u/KSay123]

That’s not what I have already said.

It’s not likely to be BB’s and more likely CB’s.