What are the effects might bedbugs have on people?

Answer 1

The effect of having bedbugs in your bed can be very different on different people. With some even with a severe bedbug infestation of their bed they may not observe any noticeable effect even though the bedbugs have had numerous meals off them while they are asleep. But with some other people having bedbugs in their bed can cause very bad skin rashes or conspicuous blisters which can be mistaken for scabies or shingles and be very painful. Most people are somewhere between these two extremes.

This variation is mainly because some people are allergic to the coagulant/anaesthetic chemical a bedbug injects into them before commencing its meal some are not. So while any person does not feel anything during the 5 minutes or so during the night while a bedbug is actually on them having its meal, and will very probably remain asleep, when the anaesthetic wears off it may then start to itch, perhaps maddeningly where the bedbug pierced their skin.This may cause an urge to scratch vigorously, either while still asleep or after waking, to try to obtain relief. In some extreme cases that may lead to skin poisoning particularly if they have dirty finger nails while scratching.

But with certain people, it can take many days after a bedbug has had a meal before the big very nasty looking red blisters appear with some people.There are other unpleasant effects caused to some people. Insomnia can be caused particularly if the person is aware his bed has a problem or other psychological damage to them. This can lead to many sleepless nights leading to fatigue, acute tiredness during the day perhaps causing him or her to make mistakes at work in the daytime or emotional problems like bad tempered outbursts.

Another effect of sleeping in an infested bed with a few people can be anaemia due to the bedbug's meal taking away oxygen carrying pigments from the human's bloodstream so leading to destruction of their red blood cells, and the consequences of that can be failure of normal maturation of their bone marrow and general feeling of weakness. But most victims of bedbugs, whether male or female, will not suffer these kind of effects and, as stated above, some never even realise they have bedbugs in their bed. Everybody is different.