'Don't let the bed bugs bite' – but scientist Richard does!

THEY say 'Don't let the bed bugs bite'... but that's just what one scientist is doing in his research laboratory bedroom suite, located in the garden of his Wye Valley home.

Entomologist Dr Richard Naylor sleeps with up to 60,000 of them when he needs to test out new devices or repellents.

He also straps them on his arm and lets them nibble away while working at his Tidenham home near Chepstow – all in the cause of science.

"I must have been bitten millions of times by now, so I stopped reacting a long time ago.

"I get a red patch on my arm after the bugs have fed, but it disappears after about half an hour," he told BBC Points West.

"If there is no-one sleeping in a bed, the bedbugs just sleep, they just go on standby.

"And so I can't test anything in the test bedrooms without there being a host in there."

Amazingly, after years of 'hosting' the bugs, he says they "don't bother him at all".

Dr Naylor and his wife Alexia co-founded Cimex Store – a bed bug research, breeding, and product-testing facility – and collaborate on work through The Bed Bug Foundation CIC.

He says: "Our test bedrooms allow us to simulate infestations and conduct controlled, replicated experiments.

"They look like normal bedrooms with double beds, bedside tables, carpets and a window with a blind.

"In one room, we have a wooden frame bed, and in the other, we have a divan-style bed, which has been fitted with an encasement to prevent the bugs from getting inside.

"Pitfall traps across the doorways prevent bugs from escaping from the rooms and allow us to see what impact the treatment is having on dispersal, which is always important to consider.

"Over the past five years we have used this setup for testing traps, monitors, barrier tapes, bed isolation devices and insecticidal treatments.

“These bugs are given access to a human host (me) every week or so, to provide nourishment and to elicit the natural foraging and harbouring behaviour.”

Dr Naylor revealed that bed bugs evolved with cave-dwelling bats, and the transition to humans probably occurred while we were still living in caves, thousands of years ago.

Egyptian pharaohs, Romans and ancient Greeks were all plagued by bed bugs, but the first record here was not until 1583, when they are thought to have arrived on cargo ships.

Richard says a key sign you have bed bugs is the inky black spots they leave behind, often in the shape of an X.

"They don't hide in the bedding, they want to hide nearby in a little dark crevice," he says.

"It would probably be somewhere down the back of the bed or around zips and the piping around the edge of a mattress."

The Bed Bug Foundation's advice includes:

Declutter around the bed (helps you to spot bedbugs that try to run away);

Remove bedding and other soft furnishings and put in bin bags for washing;

Inspect the mattress and bed frame, especially near the head of the bed;

Use silica dust and vacuum thoroughly;

Fit bed isolation devices to stop the bedbugs coming back.