I’m so sorry to hear this. I’ve had to deal with an acute reaction to mosquito bites, of all things.

Ack! I'm surprised it was purple, not red -- usually itching is associated with redness. Hope it will subside entirely soon.

Ouch. Could be that you have purpura, something ive recently noticed on my arms. I have one doozy of a purple spot on my arm, origin unknown.

Blood pools under the skin. Not quite the same as a black and blue mark. Yes, sadly sadly, an old age thing.

It could be that reactions to insect bites evolve with age - I know that allergies do because I have allergies now that I did not have when I was young.

When I lived in Texas, I would actively try to exterminate yellow jackets, but they are less of a problem in California, if we have them at all. What we do have that seems similar is very docile and not aggressive at all. I think they might be good pollinators here.

We had a problem with ants patrolling around our pool, and so Kevin and I searched where they were coming from and put out ant bait that got rid of them. They were fairly small ants, but they were aggressive, and their bites would hurt for two or three days, although with minimal redness and swelling. The new ant bait that Kevin bought appears to be very effective.

When fire ants invaded my father's farm in central Texas (I forget when, but it was a couple of decades ago, I think), he was not upset because he was using the land for pastures. He told me that the ants aerated the land and made the grass grow more vigorously, and therefore he did not have to plow the fields - thus the ants saved him some work. I hated the fire ants, although I never got bitten by them, since I spent very little time in Texas when they were there. They seemed to have left after spending only a few years there.

Thanks for your responses. Having seen the large, spreading reaction and the eventual resolution last summer, at least I haven't been worried about lasting damage. It's unsightly, but doesn't hurt. The itching lasted only about an hour. When I see my oncologist I'll ask if the multiple myeloma or any of my meds could contribute to this. In a few days, when the color has faded even at the site of the bite, I may be able to see jaw marks -- presuming it was a spider.

Lars -- It's interesting to know that even fire ants do some little good. I'd be concerned for the animals pastured on that land. Maybe their hides are too thick to be greatly bothered.

Ant bites are nasty business -- they spray some sort of acid when they bite. We don't have fire ants up here yet that I know of, but even those tiny little brown ants can do some damage. I've gotten hit twice where a swarm of them attacked my arm, they're on you in an instant if you disturb the nest; it's kind of amazing they can mobilize an army that fast. Both times I was left with painful red, swollen, oozing blistery skin from my wrist to my elbow for the better part of a week, it was miserable.

After reading here, I'm feeling lucky to have escaped with so little damage! I still can't find any jaw marks, but the purple looks like it will last another couple of days.

Yikes! so sorry for you.

I'll just chip in that I, too, am finding myself, as I age, with allergies and sensitivities that I never had before. Guar gum, pistachios, nutmeg, pineapple, and a frustrating condition called delayed pressure urticaria. A friend who is several years older started to have a rash reaction to just plain Eucerin. I thought Eucerin was about as inert as you can get....Still, purple patches on the skin sounds alarming!

are you on a blood thinner?

Yes, aspirin can cause you to bleed under the skin. One of the meds against my cancer can cause blood clots. I was told to take a baby aspirin daily. I cut back to twice weekly when I developed bleeding under the skin and when any little bump created a lasting bruise.

DH became allergic to an after shave he'd used for decades. It was the preservative in the product, along with the age-related decline of his natural immune responses. Many OTC liquids and creams (like Eucerin) contain preservatives. Some products now tout that they are "preservative free" for this very reason.