DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) For years, North Texas parents have put their children to bed saying Dont let the bed bugs bite. But that phrase, meant as a joke, has become a strange reality for many across the region.
Sandy Mayberry says her short home video taken at a recent camping trip proved to be scarier than any story she heard around the campfire.
After going to sleep, she felt something biting her.
They were bed bugs, and they were coming right out of her bunk bed. Bugs in your bed is pretty scary. When theyre in your pajamas, when theyre in your clothes, and theyre biting you, and you see the blood, and when youre smacking them, its just horrifying.
Mike Merchant is an entomologist at Texas A&Ms Agrilife Research & Extension Center in North Dallas, where he studies bed bugs. They feed on human blood. Theyve figured out a strategy where they can live places near where people sleep, and get their meals at night.
Despite his knowledge of bed bugs, he says a family member recently had a run-in with bed bugs. I think whats surprising is that even people that know a little about bed bugs, most of us dont really think its going to happen to us Its not a sanitation-related pest. You can live in the cleanest house and get a bed infestation.
In his relatives case, they had as many as 300 bed bugs on their mattress, sheets, and even on the wood below the mattress.
Merchant has a dozen of his own bed bugs he keeps at his lab. When the critters get hungry, he even willingly becomes their meal ticket. Its not the most pleasant thing in the world, but for science and education. Im willing to do it.
At the lab, theyre trying to find more effective ways to make bed bugs a thing of the past. They thought they eradicated the insects 50 years ago.
But it turns out more and more people here in North Texas are having a horrifying experience with bed bugs.
Read more:
North Texas’ Bed Bug Infestation Growing At Alarming Rate
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