Bedbug Bites: What Helps and When to See a GP: Southwark

Bites are the reason most people pick up the phone. They itch, they keep coming, and they are often the first sign anyone notices. They are also the least reliable sign, because people react to them so differently.

What the Bites Can Look Like

Some people come up in raised, itchy marks, sometimes in a line or a small cluster on skin that was uncovered in bed: arms, shoulders, neck and legs. Others get a mark that appears a day or more later. Some people have no reaction at all, which is why one partner can be bitten and the other not appear to be.

That variation means bites alone do not confirm bedbugs. Plenty of other things cause itchy marks. What confirms it is finding the insects, their shed skins or the dark spotting they leave on seams. Our guide to the early signs of bedbugs shows what to look for.

What Helps

Most bites settle on their own in time. In the meantime:

• Try not to scratch. Broken skin is what lets an infection in.
• Keep the area clean with soap and water.
• A cold compress can take the edge off the itching.
• Ask a pharmacist what they recommend for the itching or the swelling. They can suggest something suitable and tell you if you should see a GP instead.

Tell the pharmacist about anything else you are taking, and whether the person with the bites is a child, pregnant or has other conditions. Follow the instructions on whatever you are given.

When to See a GP

Make an appointment, or ask the pharmacist whether you need one, if:

• a bite looks infected — increasingly red, hot, swollen, painful or weeping
• you feel generally unwell, or have a raised temperature, after being bitten
• the bites are many, spreading, or not settling after a couple of weeks
• the itching is stopping you sleeping night after night
• a baby or young child has been bitten and you are worried
• you are simply worried about it — that is reason enough

When to Ring 999

A severe allergic reaction to insect bites is rare, but it is an emergency. Ring 999 straight away if someone has difficulty breathing, swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat, feels faint or dizzy, or becomes confused or collapses. Do not wait to see whether it passes.

The Part We Can Help With

No cream stops the next bite. The bites carry on for as long as the bedbugs are there, so dealing with the insects is the only thing that ends them. In a flat in a shared building that also means thinking about the neighbours, which our Southwark page covers.

While you wait for treatment, do not move to the sofa or to someone else's home to escape the bites. It usually spreads them to the new place, and they will be waiting when you come back. Chemical and heat treatment each have their own preparation; on the day, we tell you when you can go back into the room and what to do, and you should follow those instructions.

If the bites carry on well after treatment, tell us. It can mean survivors or re-introduction, and it can also mean the marks are not bedbug bites at all, in which case a GP is the right person to see.

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