For most people, the thought of bedbugs is enough to trigger an instant shudder.
But one scientist has spent the past five years deliberately sleeping alongside the insects—and says their bites no longer bother him.
Entomologist Dr Richard Naylor raises about 60,000 bedbugs to evaluate pest-control products from around the world. He has also volunteered himself as the products’ human test subject.
Twice a week, Dr Naylor gives the insects what he calls a “feeding day”. He secures some of the bugs to his arm, lets them bite him and carries on working while they feed.
When he needs to assess new devices or bedbug repellents, he also spends a night in a bed containing the insects.
‘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 said.
‘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.’
The researcher operates the non-profit Bed Bug Foundation from a two-bedroom suite in the garden of his home in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
Entomologist Dr Richard Naylor breeds about 60,000 bedbugs to assess pest-control products from around the world
Twice a week, Dr Naylor allows the bugs to feed on his arm and later sleeps with them to test products
The insects are kept inside the walls of the self-contained laboratory, where Dr Naylor helps companies evaluate products before they reach the market.
The bedbugs are also bred and shipped around the world, frequently to canine detection teams that help hotels identify infestations.
Dr Naylor told BBC News: ‘I don’t know of any other pest that has the same level of emotional and psychological impact on people.’
He said bedbug infestations can also leave some people experiencing symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.
His comments come as experts warn of a dramatic increase in infestations involving the notoriously resilient insects—an era some have dubbed “peak bedbug”.
Bedbugs have developed resistance to modern insecticide sprays, making established infestations particularly difficult to eliminate.
Pest-control firm Rentokil reported that confirmed bedbug activity in the UK rose by 44 per cent year on year between 2023 and 2025. JG Pest Control, meanwhile, said it had carried out more than 5,000 bedbug-related visits in the past 12 months.
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Recent outbreaks have affected hotels, trains and aircraft. Last month, six Southeastern services were cancelled after suspected bedbugs were found on trains travelling between Kent and London.
The cancellations came after two incidents the previous month in which bedbugs were discovered in drivers’ cabs operated by the same train company.
Dr Naylor confines the insects to his self-contained laboratory, where he helps companies test products before their market launch
A report in the Journal of Pest Science last month concluded that bedbugs carry different genetic signatures depending on where they’re from, allowing them not only to survive our efforts to eradicate them but to evolve and strengthen their resistance.
Their spread is also due to the frequency with which people travel around the country.
Bedbugs ‘hitchhike’, which means they cling to clothing and bags, Professor Logan explains. Hotels are hotbeds because of their large, transient population.
The same is true of trains, planes and hospitals. A Qantas flight was grounded in Rome earlier this month after the creatures were spotted scuttling around in economy.
‘But what we’re starting to see now is bedbugs also in places like offices, workplaces and pubs,’ said Professor Logan.
An infestation at The Guardian newspaper, reported last month, has resulted in staff being allowed to work remotely and given home bedbug ‘monitors’ – gadgets which lure bugs out of their hiding places with special chemical attractants.
In other offices in London, staff have refused to come in when colleagues have revealed they have infestations at home.
Rising temperatures may also be to blame. ‘Climate change is making it better for them and worse for us,’ Professor Logan says.
According to Martim Gois, co-founder and chief executive of hospitality company Valpas, Europe is ‘at peak bed bug’, with an unprecedented ‘surge’ in numbers observed in hotel rooms.
The tiny insects can hide in mattress seams, bed frames and upholstered furniture and are often transported into homes through luggage, clothing and unwashed second-hand clothes.
According to Hannah Shore, head of sleep science at leading bed retailer MattressOnline, bed bugs can quickly multiply if they are left untreated in ‘soft furnishings’ such as bedding, carpets and curtains.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘Bed bugs are most commonly found in beds due to the easy access to food (blood), but during the day, they walk around in search of food, which may take them further afield.
‘They often attach themselves to suitcases or climb into suitcases, meaning you then take them home with you and, if left untreated, they start a new colony there.’