Bed Bug Bites vs Mosquito Bites: How to Tell What Actually Bit You

Most of the time you can't tell bed bug bites vs mosquito bites just by looking at your skin. Both leave itchy red bumps, and everybody reacts a little differently. What gives it away is everything around the bites: when they showed up, where you'd been, and what's hiding in the seams of your mattress. Bites that keep appearing after you sleep in the same bed, with rusty little spots on the sheets, point to bed bugs. Bites after an evening on the lanai or down by the canal point to mosquitoes, or in South Florida, to no-see-ums.

Bed bug bites vs mosquito bites: the three clues

Clue 1: When did the bites show up?

• You wake up with new ones, and it keeps happening night after night in the same bed or on the same couch. That's the pattern bed bugs leave.
• They showed up during or right after time outside, especially around dawn or dusk. That's mosquitoes or no-see-ums.
• They appeared after a trip, a cruise or a hotel stay. Bed bugs ride home in luggage. Our post on bed bugs after a cruise walks through unpacking.

Clue 2: Where were you, and where are the bites?

Bed bugs feed on skin that's exposed while you sleep: arms, shoulders, neck, face. The bites often come in a line or a small cluster. Mosquitoes go after whatever you left uncovered outside, often ankles and legs if you were sitting on the patio. No-see-um bites tend to show up in bunches on the skin that was out in the open, like the hairline, neck and arms.

Clue 3: What's in the bed?

This is the clue that settles it. Strip the bed in good light and look at:

• the seams and piping of the mattress and box spring
• the tag and the corners
• the joints of the headboard and the bed frame
• the edge of the carpet or baseboard right behind the bed

You're looking for small rust-colored or dark spots, shed skins, tiny pale eggs, or the bugs themselves, which are flat and about the size of an apple seed. Our signs of bed bugs page shows what each one looks like. Mosquitoes and no-see-ums don't leave anything in your bed.

No-see-ums, the South Florida wild card

If you live near the Intracoastal, a canal or anywhere with mangroves, no-see-ums deserve a place on the suspect list. They're tiny enough that most people never see the one that bit them, which is how they got the name. They're worst on still, humid evenings, and they can get through the standard screen on most lanais. That last part catches a lot of people off guard: "We were inside the screen, how did we get eaten alive?" Our post on no-see-ums on the lanai gets into that, and the no-see-ums library page is honest about what treatment can and can't do, since they breed off your property.

What to do before anyone treats anything

• Don't spray the mattress or set off a fogger. If it's bed bugs, it can scatter them into other rooms. If it isn't, you've treated the wrong thing.
• Don't drag the mattress to the curb yet. Ask us first.
• Write down when and where the bites happen, and take photos of anything you find in the bed.
• Book the FREE inspection. That's how you find out for sure.