You have heard the expression, right? It refers to old-fashioned beds, a simple wooden frame with a series of ropes tied from one side to the other, a hammock to support a mattress, likely a sack filled with straw. If the ropes became old or loose, support would sag and sleep would be disturbed, hence “sleeping tight.”  And the bedbugs? Anyone who has been bitten – your faithful author for one – will tell you how awful it is!

Bedbugs in history, music, and literature

Bedbug bites tend to appear in lines as the little monsters feast on your sleeping body and you awake to intensely itchy bright red marks; the history of bedbugs is similarly long and colourful. There are references in ancient Greek and Roman narratives, Aristophanes, the Greek playwright described them as "the bane of the sleepless." William Shakespeare used bedbugs as a metaphor in Much ado about nothing when Beatrice, describing unwanted affections, states: "I would not have your company at such a price, though there were no stronger a guard between us than a felt hat." In Hamlet, the titular character’s father, appearing as a ghost, describes Purgatory as a place "where the worm shall never die," which some believe referred to bedbugs.

In more recent times, Stephen Sondheim, in his musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, penned a song where the murderous haircutter sings about “vermin in the walls” and “the bugs that bite” when describing the poor neighbourhood, he lived in.

What are bedbugs?

Bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) are flat, red/brown insects with six legs and no wings and the size of an apple seed. Under a microscope they do not have the long piercing needle-like proboscis as one sees with mosquitoes, rather a scary-looking mouth that can bite and inject a mixture of saliva and a chemical to stop blood from clotting, which makes it easier to feast. They are obligate haematophagous creatures, meaning they must eat blood.

Bedbugs are nocturnal creatures and find a home in creases in soft furnishings, like mattresses or pillows, as well as in cracks in wooden furniture or along pipes entering spaces in a wall. They are devilishly adaptable, and one photo I saw shows a horde of them holed up in the foam covering a loudspeaker; Beatles on the radio? No, bedbugs in the radio.

When a warm person climbs into bed, that heat, and the carbon dioxide we emit, attracts them from their lairs and the feast commences. One bug signals chemically to others, and like hungry shoppers waiting for the department store doors to open at sale time, they pour out and dig in. Once they have fed, they shuffle their bloated bodies back into their hidey-holes and can go without food for days, weeks or even months!

Relentless bugs

Why are issues with bedbugs escalating? First, travel has become easier, and doubtless with financial pressures on the hospitality industry after Covid, there were cost-cutting measures which hit hotel bug surveillance programs. The use of DDT, a powerful pesticide, led to bedbugs, and other species, developing resistance. They can go without a meal for ages, withstand extreme heat and cold, live in an oxygen-free environment, are nocturnal so may be hard to see, and are expert travellers. They can hitchhike into your home in second hand furniture or soft goods or travel home after one became exposed during a hotel stay, and they sneak back in clothing, luggage or on your person.

Their body shape and tiny size allows them to hide in soft or hard furniture and they can spread through a hotel rapidly in dirty laundry, onto carpets and along pipes passing from room to room.  They have been found behind light switches, under TV’s and coffee makers and in spare pillows in the wardrobe. Anywhere and everywhere. The class of hotel or traveller is irrelevant – this is not a matter of being “dirty.”

Preventing Bedbug Bites

Prior to traveling to a hotel, check online for reports of bedbug infestations, and if you see such reports, consider staying elsewhere. Use hard-sided luggage and some recommend travelling with sealable plastic bags should any clothing become contaminated, although given that bedbugs can penetrate any tiny orifice, and seemingly live without oxygen, I am not sure how helpful this would be!

When you arrive in a hotel room, place bags on a hard surface then draw the curtains and using your phone as a flashlight, go on the hunt! Peel back the bedclothes and look along the seam at the edge of the mattress for bugs, discarded eggs, blood stains or poop (little black spots). Also look at curtain seams, pillows and anywhere else they may lurk as well as along any pipes entering the room – check out the photos so you know what you are looking for.  If you do see any, take photographs to show hotel management and local health authorities to help prevent others being bitten and infested.

Be wary of buying any cloth or other textiles from markets as these may harbour bugs. Some recommend sealing mattresses in one’s home in plastic casings and regular vacuuming, but I suppose that is intended to deal with bugs brought to your home by visitors.

Given this epidemic, I would hesitate to purchase any used furnishings, but if you do, inspect them very carefully and consider having them treated by a qualified pest control expert.

If one does bring bugs back to your abode, any clothes should be washed at the highest heat and dried in similar manner. Or discarded!

And what if you do get bitten?

Awaking with intensely itchy marks demands you check the bed as above so that you can document and report the matter. Take a hot shower and soap well, then either discard or bag your nightclothes. Check whether your other clothes may have been affected and if seemingly not, get dressed. Thus attired, you can go to a chemist shop (Pharmacy for our north American friends) or doctor and obtain a steroid cream and oral antihistamine tablets, but remember, they may make you drowsy so do not drive or operate any dangerous equipment. If these steps do not stop the itch, you may need an oral steroid dose pack for a few days; when your faithful correspondent was bitten, the pruritus (fancy medical word for itching) was so intense, I needed this, and it certainly helped.

Try to avoid scratching – easier than it sounds – as it can increase the urge to itch and lead to secondary infection requiring treatment with antibiotics for instance.

Thankfully, bedbugs do not seem to have the ability to transmit diseases like malaria, Lyme, or other nasty conditions, possibly because the bugs do not feed for long enough. One aspect of bedbug infestation that is not often discussed is the stigma associated with it which causes stress, anxiety, difficulty sleeping and sometimes, social isolation. This is not your fault, but if you are experiencing these feelings, please seek help and support.

Bugs and old wives’ tales

Wherever there is a cloud, there is someone offering not a silver lining, but a money lining, trying to cash in on the misfortune of others. As noted above, prevention is the best cure but if you or your house are subjected to the Invasion of the Bedbugs, please take the steps recommended above. Several remedies that get bandied about, are ineffective, may be dangerous and at best cause the problem to remain:

• Diatomaceous Earth: Otherwise known as “dinosaur dust” these silicates are the remains of diatoms, tiny creatures from long ago. They are spiky and thought to penetrate insects, dehydrating them in the process. However, bedbugs have a wax-like coat that makes diatomaceous earth ineffective and furthermore, the dust can get into human lungs and cause problems. Avoid this!

• Various scented oils: They smell nice, and we know that Citronella repels mosquitoes, but they are ineffective against bedbugs.

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• Others: I have seen sodium bicarbonate, vinegar, rubbing alcohol and various other household substances be celebrated as “cures” – some claiming to get rid of up to 90% of bugs! Forgive my cynicism, but after a tasty blood meal, a single female can lay 1 – 7 eggs per day for ten days. So, if you had 100 female bed bugs and wiped out 90 of them, taking the middle ground, the remaining ten bugs would lay 350 eggs in one day. Nope, sorry, doesn’t cut it. Call in the professionals and get rid of 100% of these nuisances! They will inspect, treat using sprays, dusts and baits and re-visit and re-treat as necessary. Get the comfort that working with a professional will bring!

Bedbugs are miniscule but when you have an army of them, they can do a lot of damage to your comfort, psyche, pocket, and sleep. So, remember, sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite!

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