What's in my House?

This will sadly not be as good as the rat thread, but as the collective mind of TTH helped solve that one I thought I'd put you all to work here.

So my house is making me ill, or to be more precise, causing me to break out in hives/welts/itchy as fuck things on my arms/shoulders, legs and sides.

I've had this for about three months now on and off and after ruling out actual diseases/fad allergies one by one some extended time away from home due to work made me realise there's something within these four walls that's poisoning me. I originally thought last week that it was dust mites, so out went the old upholstery and the place was cleaned from top to bottom (including carpets being steam cleaned), but 5 days on from that and it's still happening with a fresh round of the above on my right shoulder and left arm today.

Some more googling suggests it might be mould, but I can neither see nor smell any signs of the stuff so I'm reaching the point of being genuinely stumped by this and it's making just living life a right pain in the arse, or an itch in the arm/leg/shoulder if you will.

So... any ideas?

Maybe you have worms?

Bed bugs.

Scruffy get.

Rats are back and they're pissing and shitting on and in your walls.

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Originally Posted by niko_cee

Maybe you have worms?

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Fucking hell, that looks utterly grim. :D

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Originally Posted by Shindig

Bed bugs.

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You can see those, right? I can't see anything.

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Originally Posted by Baz

Scruffy get.

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I do seem to be somewhat cursed by the scruffiness of others causing me grief.

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Originally Posted by Sir Andy Mahowry

Rats are back and they're pissing and shitting on and in your walls.

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As was demonstrated with the two rat debacles.

I read some shit about some guy being allergic to stuff that comes out of air freshener.

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Originally Posted by Yevrah

Fucking hell, that looks utterly grim. :D



You can see those, right? I can't see anything.



I do seem to be somewhat cursed by the scruffiness of others causing me grief.



As was demonstrated with the two rat debacles.

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Bed bugs can be seen but they hide. Check your mattress, especially all the cracks and crevices around the mattress. Plus the headboard.

I don't think it's bed bugs by your description because bed bugs will bite in a ladder pattern (3/4 bites running up your arms/legs/whatever) and the bites are incredibly itchy.

Bed bugs are right cunts and they're easy to identify, if you haven't spotted one for 3/4 months (sometimes they're brazen and will even come out whilst you're awake on the mattress) and the bites don't line up then you haven't got them.

Is your house poorly ventilated? Set up a dehumidifier in your most commonly used rooms and see what it draws in.

And give your bedding a good hot wash just to rule out mites.

I was sat in a traffic jam on the A127 earlier, with the stench of Barking still fresh in my nostrils, listing to this. Coincidence? I think not. RIP.

Everything I own has been washed at 60 degrees and I've not seen a single bed bug despite looking for them, so I don't think it's them or mites. Which is a shame in a way as had it been I'd have sorted it.

I still have mice. I'd just gave up trying to find where they're getting in and bought more traps, but now something is eating the mice in the traps :uhoh:

Go to the doctor?

What did you do to rule out allergies?

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Originally Posted by Giggles

I still have mice. I'd just gave up trying to find where they're getting in and bought more traps, but now something is eating the mice in the traps :uhoh:

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Buy some ferret traps.

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Originally Posted by Giggles

I still have mice. I'd just gave up trying to find where they're getting in and bought more traps, but now something is eating the mice in the traps :uhoh:

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Still mice I would think, they aren't picky. My mother, an otherwise intelligent woman, said to me today without a hint of irony that 'something was getting into the garage and eating all the rat poison'.

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Originally Posted by Boydy

Go to the doctor?

What did you do to rule out allergies?

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Went to the doctors a few weeks ago and they gave me some antibiotics which did nothing, since ascertaining it's something in my house I've booked another appointment but that isn't until the week after next as I didn't like to say it was an emergency to get a quicker one as it manifestly isn't.

Bar hayfever and only then in Oxford I've never had an allergy in my life. A life that's included eating all manner of different food from across the globe and regularly changing my washing powder as I just buy whatever the cheapest bulk buy one is. I'm obviously allergic to something here, but it's specifically only here as when I'm away with work for a prolonged period of time it clears up and no new spots develop. Which took a while to work out, admittedly.

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Originally Posted by Giggles

I still have mice. I'd just gave up trying to find where they're getting in and bought more traps, but now something is eating the mice in the traps :uhoh:

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Disco's beaten me to it, but it'll definitely be other mice. Rats will even gnaw a limb off to get out of a trap.

Haven't heard too much commotion at least. I've 7 bait boxes around the perimeter and another 4 in the sheds that I have to fill fortnightly (slugs love that shit too). Joys of living between a river and a bog.

Can't think what yours would be when you've done the bedding on a hot wash.

Indeed. It's perplexing.

Have you bought any new clothes that haven't been washed yet? A dressing gown, blanket, coat or something that you only throw on occasionally?

I remember reading about a kid that got a new dress and came up in a nasty rash because it wasn't washed before they wore it and it had some nasty chemicals in it.

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Originally Posted by Spikey M

Have you bought any new clothes that haven't been washed yet? A dressing gown, blanket, coat or something that you only throw on occasionally?

I remember reading about a kid that got a new dress and came up in a nasty rash because it wasn't washed before they wore it and it had some nasty chemicals in it.

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Nope, definitely not that.

The only time this has happened to me it was new bedding I hadn't washed before putting it on the bed. Was a chemical or something.

You've checked the sofa fabric or whatever else you sit on? Cleared the duvet nest?

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Originally Posted by Boydy

Go to the doctor?

What did you do to rule out allergies?

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Get on my app Harvey, you riddled cunt.

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Originally Posted by Yevrah

Went to the doctors a few weeks ago and they gave me some antibiotics which did nothing, since ascertaining it's something in my house I've booked another appointment but that isn't until the week after next as I didn't like to say it was an emergency to get a quicker one as it manifestly isn't.

Bar hayfever and only then in Oxford I've never had an allergy in my life. A life that's included eating all manner of different food from across the globe and regularly changing my washing powder as I just buy whatever the cheapest bulk buy one is. I'm obviously allergic to something here, but it's specifically only here as when I'm away with work for a prolonged period of time it clears up and no new spots develop. Which took a while to work out, admittedly.

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Change your washing powder back to whatever you were using prior to the issue, Phineas Fogg.

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Originally Posted by Lofty

Change your washing powder back to whatever you were using prior to the issue, Phineas Fogg.

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I'm in my forties, I've used every type of washing powder going, multiple times, before any of this kicked off, it is absolutely not that.

The hotels I'm staying in when away with work (and this clears up) aren't washing my clothes while I'm there either.

It's coeliac disease, mate. Get to your GP.

Have you been tested for rabies?

Maybe you have scabies.
@Yevrah

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Originally Posted by Yevrah

I'm in my forties, I've used every type of washing powder going, multiple times, before any of this kicked off, it is absolutely not that.

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Forgot to respond to this but I didn't experience hayfever until I was in my mid 30s, life's a bitch, you can just become allergic to something one day unfortunately.

Nah, ruled that out pretty quickly on the basis I haven't given it to anyone else and the reaction didn't look like that.

As for an update, it's some form of mite though, I'm as certain as one can be without actually seeing the bastards (which is also why it isn't bed bugs). I only managed to establish this by getting rid of all of my soft furnishings and whatever was causing it has now stopped. An expensive ballache that's for sure and I'm now living like a first year student and will be until I'm certain it's safe to get new furniture in. I'm planning to move this year though as I'll be pretty close to, if not fully, mortgage free if I do, which given interest rates seems like a no brainer, so it may mean I don't bother replacing it.

@ niko.

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Originally Posted by Lofty

Forgot to respond to this but I didn't experience hayfever until I was in my mid 30s, life's a bitch, you can just become allergic to something one day unfortunately.

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Thankfully it wasn't the start of allergies. Well, unless being allergic to some form of microscopic organism counts.

It does. Pussy.