Blood Sucking Freaks!!!!!! Part 3 of 4

Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite…………or you will die???????

With all the chatter about bed bugs you would think these things carry the plague, but actually they do not transmit any disease to human hosts. This is pretty strange if you think about it, most human parasites that consume blood are vectors to some pretty nasty stuff. Mosquitoes transmit Malaria, Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, Dengue fever and Yellow fever and are responsible for over one million deaths worldwide per year! Ticks also carry devastating diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. If you want to get your 2011 Hypochondria a kick start see the CDC page on tick borne diseases. I feel itchy, and I might have a fever.

 Scientists don’t know why bedbugs don’t carry disease, though I am sure the National Institute of Health would give you money to find out. Hint, hint future grad students. And actually it could be a pretty interesting story; bedbugs have been co-evolving with us for thousands of years, just like mosquitos and ticks. So, why are they forces of pestilence and bedbugs aren’t?

                They may not carry any disease, but they can leave you covered in itchy red bumps and their shed exoskeletons can cause allergic reactions. Most clinicians agree that a lot of damage comes from the psychological trauma of being feasted on while you sleep. For a very emotionally damaging story about a bedbug infestation that will have you combing your mattress with a magnifying glass and tweezers Monk style, listen to This American Lice, oops, Life episode 361: Fear of Sleep. If you are still not examining every red bump on your body with enough bedbug fervor see the 2006 thriller “BUG”. Your neuroses will thank me.

After they die, blood-sucking insects are sorted according to thier ability as disease vectors.