Bed Bugs: Stealth Vampires

Good night
Sleep tight
Don’t let the
Bed bugs bite

And if they do
Take your shoe
Beat them till
They’re black and blue.

I’ve been in denial for many months. Only in the past couple weeks have I confronted the reality that the large, welt-like clusters that have been popping up on my body after sleeping in various hotels while traveling , are not mosquito bites, but bed bug bites. Yes, bed bugs are back, and are in a bed near you.

I get bitten often by mosquitoes. I’ve been planning to write an article about them and how my blood must have a special quality that attracts mosquitoes since I meet so many people who never get bitten. I was going to write about how the mosquitoes in SE Asia are particularly violent, leaving big, long lasting bumps on me. A couple times over the months, the thought that some of the bites could be bedbugs had crossed my mind, but I soundly rejected the idea. Why? I’ve never seen a bedbug, and figured they be no more real than goblins under the bed. I was wrong.

Two weeks ago, in Singapore, I mentioned to a friend that mosquitoes there are particularly nasty. I showed her some of the THIRTY bites I had on my body. I showed her a group of 5 or 6 on my upper back, that were so big and hardened they looked like large marbles had been inserted under the skin. She said “they are probably bed bugs.”

I immediately countered with “No. They’re definitely mosquitoes.”

“Hmm, no, those don’t look like mosquito bites. They are bed bugs.”

“I don’t think so,” I stubbornly insisted.

I immediately went to the best and fastest source of all answers: Google. Sure enough, I found out that my symptoms were identical to many others with bed bug bites. Whereas mosquito bites itch and swell immediately, then dissipate over one to three days, bed bug bites can last a week and the reaction gets increasingly bigger over two or three days. Bed bug bites tend to be hard, like welts or knots, while mosquito bites are softer, almost tender. I couldn’t believe it—I had been in denial for so long. I had refused to believe that I could be a victim of bed bugs, but there, right on the internet, were hundreds of websites with hundreds of testimonials describing exactly what I had.

I learned some other interesting things about bed bugs along the way:

-Bed bugs can live for years without food. They stay dormant and awaken if they sense carbon dioxide (which basically mean they wake up when they sense a warm blooded animal).

-When bed bugs feed, they probe the skin wit two tubes. One tube is like a straw, sucking blood out, while the other tube is used to insert anaesthetic saliva to keep the victim from waking. This saliva can cause severe reactions.

-About half the victims of bed bug bites have no idea they were bitten. The other half have symptoms ranging from itchiness to death. At least one source said that those of us with reactions might have more drastic reactions with each subsequent “attack.” My own reactions have gotten worse. In fact, after having another bed bug episode in Bangkok a few days ago, one of my arms swelled up enormously. I’ve never had a reaction like it. It looked like someone hit my arm with a baseball bat. The swelling peaked about 24-48 hours after the attack, and has nearly returned to normal today, 72 hours from the attack.

-Some reactions don’t show up until a day after the bite, unlike most mosquito bites which itch immediately.

-Bed bugs eat blood and excrete blood. If your sheets have little spots of blood, you might have been attacked.

-Bed bugs have six legs and are visible to the human eye when adults. I’ve never seen one, even though I’ve had horrible nights this month where I’ve kept the lights on to avoid being bitten. I was that afraid.

-They mate by “traumatic insemination.”

-Bed bugs were essentially eliminated in the US for several decades, due to DDT. Only in the past 5-10 years has there been massive population growth, mainly because DDT is no longer allowed and the modern pesticides are quite simply ineffective against bed bugs. Now these little vampires can be found in hotels of all varieties, homes, even seats. They are transported by people traveling. The bugs might stick to clothing or  a suitcase and end up on a bedspread in a different state or country.

-Bed bugs like the dark. They hide under the bed during the day and at night they come out of hiding to eat.

-Bed bugs usually eat a few meals from a few spots. I’ve seen people refer to this as “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner,” because many of the bites will be in groups of three, sometimes even in a straight line. Researchers aren’t sure why they eat from a few locations, rather than just one.

Have you ever had bed bug bites? Are you sure or are you in denial? If you stay at a hotel and wake up with unusual bites, or a “rash,” consider that it might be bed bugs, especially if they are hard bumps in clusters, and stick around several days.