Bed bug infestations are on the rise. While their bites aren’t dangerous, their presence can cause serious mental health issues. Victims of bed bugs report mental health symptoms like paranoia, obsessive behavior, nightmares, and anxiety, all of which are consistent with post-traumatic stress.

Besides bed bug bites, bed bugs could leave victims dealing with allergic reactions, skin infections, and embarrassing scars. However, recent reports point to exposure to bed bug infestations leading to brain aneurysms or strokes.

Background: In some individuals, psychological sequelae resulting from bed bug biting events include nightmares, flashbacks, hypervigilance (to keep the bugs away), insomnia, anxiety, avoidance behaviors, and personal dysfunction. These symptoms are suggestive of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

For most people, bed bug bites are not dangerous, as they do not spread disease-carrying bacteria. However, others might be suffering from itchy and painful bites, and allergies or infection in some cases. Constant itch may also result in sleep deprivation and severe conditions, require medical attention.

Do Not Panic Panic associated with bed bugs include throwing away all furniture, spraying general pesticides in the bedroom and/or refusing to travel to any place, by any means, at any time. Please do not panic! Panic can make the situation worse.

This is why bed bugs, as well as other insects and arachnids, also hate the following scents: mint, cinnamon, basil and citrus. (All of these contain linalool in them.) Sprinkling lavender oil or spraying lavender scent in areas where bed bugs are hiding is useful, but not too powerful on its own.

Bed bugs do not directly make humans sick. In most cases where humans have become ill after bed bug bites, the underlying cause was due to allergies, blood loss, or infection.

Bed bugs can indeed bite your genitals and the nearby region. They are not particularly attracted to that area, nor are they repelled by it. But this part of the body is harder to reach for the bed bugs, so it is uncommon to see bed bug bites down there.

Bed bugs are a type of insect that feed on human blood, usually at night. Their bites can result in a number of health impacts including skin rashes, psychological effects and allergic symptoms. Bed bug bites may lead to skin changes ranging from invisible, to small areas of redness, to prominent blisters.

Bed bugs can bite you on the legs, hands and arms , but are more likely to feed on your neck and head. One reason these bugs are so sneaky is that their bite doesn’t hurt, so an affected person doesn’t often notice until and unless they have a reaction.

Unfortunately, bed bug bites are more medically serious. Bites from bed bugs can cause lasting skin damage in the form of permanent scarring or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), a condition which is particularly pronounced in bite victims with darker skin tones.

Bed bugs are not known to spread disease . Bed bugs can be an annoyance because their presence may cause itching and loss of sleep. Sometimes the itching can lead to excessive scratching that can sometimes increase the chance of a secondary skin infection.