Fluker Farms AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE! Filthy

Originally Posted by April Homich

Those are bedbug bites - it's especially easy to tell with the way they're clustered.

My daughter had an allergic reaction to carpet beetle larvae hairs and it resulted in welts similar to those pictures.

We immediately thought bed bugs, but the exterminator checked and found the carpet beetle larvae in a wool blanket. No sign of bed bugs. They actually used a bed bug sniffing dog!

The rest of us did not show any symptoms. Allergist said that some people react violently, some mildly, some don't react at all.

Said same thing about bed bugs. It is not uncommon for one person to show bites and another person none. All depends on sensitivity.

Just so we are clear, the wool blanket in question was a pendleton that we all use on the sofa.......

http://www.bed-bugs.co.uk/carpetbeetleinformation.pdf

Originally Posted by Skiploder

My daughter had an allergic reaction to carpet beetle larvae hairs and it resulted in welts similar to those pictures.

We immediately thought bed bugs, but the exterminator checked and found the carpet beetle larvae in a wool blanket. No sign of bed bugs. They actually used a bed bug sniffing dog!

The rest of us did not show any symptoms. Allergist said that some people react violently, some mildly, some don't react at all.

Said same thing about bed bugs. It is not uncommon for one person to show bites and another person none. All depends on sensitivity.

That is good info.
So, while unlikely, it is possible for the beetles to cause this sort of reaction.
The other thing that should be considered is the species of the beetle; were those that caused your reaction the same that her girl may have been exposed to? (the ones from Fluker's?)
The last consideration that would confirm or rule them out is a simple allergy test: hold a larvae and adult beetle against the skin to see if there is a reaction (similar to an allergy test of a new sunscreen; applied to a small area of the arm to test).
If there is a reaction, then yes, it was the beetles; if not, something else is in play here. Just to be clear, there is no way of telling what did it by looking at the bite, so saying it is definitely this or that would still be speculation. The next logical culprits could be fleas or bedbugs, but it could have been something else entirely.

Had Fluker's ever been contacted regarding this? If so, what did they say about the beetles?

FWIW I have seen people react like this to crickets themselves before. Anything can cause an allergy. Very sorry this happened to her, and I can understand being upset. However, objectively, I don't feel it is reasonable to expect any supplier of any live organism to avoid allergies in all cases. My daughter had a nearly identical reaction to bean beetles of all things.

Also, IMO, these are not spider bites at all. Benadryl is your best friend right now, neosporin helped my girl too.

Dermestid cleaning beetles are used by all cricket producers. It's common to occasionally get the larvae in shipments. I can't see the adult beetles being responsible for the 'bites" as they simply don't bite. And a scratch would show up as a scratch not a welt from a bite..and you'd have to work pretty darn hard to even get a scratch from a beetle as their legs are a bit on the fragile side.

I'm more inclined to think maybe spider (possibly scorpion if you are in that range for them) based on the 'pain' complaint. It's possible it could even mosquitoes. My nephew is quite sensitive to certain types of mosquitoes and if nailed by those types he welts up big time and they last for several days.. almost to the point of thinking something else like a spider bit him that's how big the welts are and how long they last. My dad is the same way. They don't really bother me - chiggers, ticks, certain types of paper wasps are my buggy allergens.