Mortein

Most bed bugs feed on their hosts while they are asleep. The host supplies them with blood in a painless way, never knowing it is happening. People who have become sensitive to bed bug bites - their saliva - have lesions similar to mosquito or flea bites. Most humans will think they have been bitten by some insect, such as a mosquito, and never realize who the true culprit was. After bedbugs bite, they can hide in a number of out-of-sight places including behind loose wallpaper, electrical switch plates, seams of mattresses and other similar places.

Bedbugs were believed to be eradicated 50 years ago in many countries; but are now re-appearing at an alarming rate. Some believe it's just an issue of awareness having decreased. And now they're invading more than just houses and hotels; latching on to furniture, suitcases, or any number of comfortable surfaces, they've started moving into airplanes, schools, movie theaters, hospitals, and more.

But panic isn't - as it rarely is - the answer. Bedbugs aren't known to carry diseases like other vermin, although they can be a painful nuisance and costly to exterminate, they are not life-threatening.