Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Hello, this is Ben with Ben’s pest control. And this time for another episode of the Ben’s Pest Control podcast. Today’s episode is a little different. Today we’re doing an episode on delusional parasitosis. And I hope I’m saying that last word correctly. But after having done pest control for 27 years in the state of Florida, every once in a while we we get a call and the customer believes that they are getting attacked, usually bitten by insects, and they believe that they have bites and they are suffering. And we will go out and we will take a look and and we will not be able to find signs of any kind of bugs. But as always, we try to take their situation very, very seriously because anybody getting bitten is not in a happy place. And I’m going to share a couple of stories today that that I myself have experienced. And I’m going to start with one that happened here less than a month ago, we got a call from a gentleman and his wife said, My husband’s getting bitten, we have no idea by what we you please come out and take a look and give us an estimate on treating the house. So I went out and I met with the people and I started by inspecting the house. On the outside, I inspected the house on the inside. And there are lots of different pests that people aren’t even necessarily aware of that we have here that can cause issues for for people. And there are things like bird mites, of course you have fleas, you have ticks, you have spiders, you have bedbugs, you you’ve got a whole bunch of different things that can bite people and cause issues. So So we take took a very close look at the house. And after reviewing the house I went through and I didn’t find any signs of bugs that I could find. And I talked to the to the couple and they had had two other companies and both of the companies had been employed and sprayed for some time inside outside, all around the house. And according to them, nothing was getting better. And we we spent a lot of time inspecting the areas where the gentleman sat mostly. And one of the spots, of course was where he slept. He had a desk that he worked at that was in his office and we we inspected his chair, his desk area, and we just could not find anything. So after talking to the gentleman for a while, he would say you know, I’d have this bite, and I would see this bug on me. And I asked him I said Well, have you ever collected one? And they’re like, well, we had one once in a jar, but we gave it to the guy and he said it was nothing. I said, Well, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to try to collect a sample of the insect for me. Because he would he would claim he’d get bitten on his leg, let’s say. And he would go to scratch it and the bug would would crawl up his leg. And a lot of times he would claim it would climb towards his groin. And it was like, you know, most bugs that bite people, if they feel like they’re coming under attack, the last thing they want to do is move closer or into a situation where where they’re going to get squashed or, or popped, whatever the situation is. So it was very, very strange. And he would show me marks on his legs, but I couldn’t honestly tell if it was situations where he thought he was getting bit. And he scratched it so hard that maybe he you know, scratched himself. And that was the spot where it was bleeding. So it was very difficult. But after this inspection, one way or another, we just didn’t find anything. And we finally had to resolve it to the point where I didn’t want to sell him a treatment when I didn’t know what he was having. So we left it at we need to get a sample of whatever is biting you so we can figure out what this is so we can move forward. That was case number one, and that wasn’t that long ago. A couple years back, I had a lady and she called up and she again said she was getting bitten, and that the bugs were on her. And so we went out to take a look at her house and and we inspected the whole structure. And when we were done, I mean we couldn’t find anything.
And so
she said to us, she said no, no, there’s bugs. There’s bugs there on me right now and in her case, she would pull back her sleep And she would point her skin and be like, do you see it? It’s what we got on my skin. And I’m like, sorry, ma’am, I don’t see anything. And no matter what she was extremely frustrated, and, and the people who have this, I mean, in their minds, they firmly believe, I mean, they’re convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that they are getting eaten by something. And it is really sad to see. So with her, I mean, she was determined they were literally crawling right under her skin. And she tried to scratch them out, she tried whatever she could to stop this from happening. And usually, in my experience, going back to just the general situation, I find that a lot of people who have this are usually older, they, they may have had some bad situation in their lives where they just maybe re had a bad run in with insects. But it’s almost like a nightmare to them. And, and I don’t dismiss it lightly. I mean, I usually start by telling people, you know, you might want to double check and see a dermatologist. Normally, dermatologists will have some idea if they can find bites on you. And they might be able to say, Well, this is what we think is biting you. So a lot of times I will, I will direct people to start with a dermatologist, they can take a real close look at the skin. And I had a co worker who had something I don’t remember what he said, I believe he said it was almost like a mite. And he went to the dermatologist and they gave him an ointment to put on his skin. And it did finally clear up. So I mean, there, there are things out there that have been around that can also give people that, that sense of itchy, I’m losing my mind, something’s eating me alive. So I mean, we we take it very seriously. And and we hope that if you have a loved one who’s telling you they’re getting bitten, you know that you consider calling somebody and and just having it inspected to try to make sure, I would caution you that if you yourself aren’t seeing any of the insects, that sometimes companies will just try to sell you a treatment in hopes that it’s going to clear up. But that is not always a guarantee, especially if you’re not seeing anything. So you want to just make sure that hopefully before they start any kind of treatment program, that you feel comfortable that what they’re going to do is actually going to address the problem that they believe you have. So don’t hesitate to call us if you’re looking for a free inspection. Also, you know, obviously try to help your loved one as much as you can get them the help they need. So that way, you know they can get this problem taken care of hopefully before they scratch themselves terribly and hurt themselves. So as always, at Ben’s pest control. Remember we offer a free consultation with a 58 point inspection. Our goal is that you are 100% happy and we have a money back guarantee plus an additional $25 for your time in trouble if if we don’t make you happy. So if you want the free inspection, the free estimate please give us a call at 772-878-1972 Thank you and have a great day.
