Can Bed Bugs Make You Sick? Side Effects?
Worried if bedbugs will make you sick? Well, bed bug bites are very painful. 
You will have to wait a couple of minutes or even hours for it to subside.
The irritation caused by bed bug bite makes you scratch the part you are bitten severally which may cause scab. So, can bed bugs make you sick?
If you need a quick answer, NO, bed bug bites can’t make you or other humans sick. However, these bugs may cause discomfort, itchiness, allergy, or diseases like anemia.
In addition, bed bugs tend to torture humans psychologically and may trigger societal stigmatization. In fact, friends and family may stop visiting your house due to the fear that the bugs may hitchhike their clothes.
Let’s get into details!
Related: Bed Bug Predators
Details: Can Bed Bugs Make You Sick
First, bed bugs will bite and inject your blood with an anticoagulant saliva, which prevents clotting of blood. The immediate effect is an inflammation on your skin around the bite location. So, you’ll see small, reddish swollen skin with an itching effect.
1. Bed bug cause Anemia
If a large number of bed bugs attack you, it may lead to anaemia. Bed bugs bite severally and suck blood causing deficiency of red blood cell- this is has only been in few cases ever experienced. Some of symptoms of anemia include headache, shortness of breath, paleness, sleeplessness, fatigue, dizziness, leg cramps as well as abnormally fast heartbeat.
You may also suffer depression, insomnia, sleeplessness, stress and weakened immune system due to bed bug infestation.
Body rashes resulting from the allergic effect of bed bugs’ bites is an ugly appearance. They are very painful and scratching them may lead to further acceleration of the scabs from the bed bug bites. This occurrence is common, especially if you are allergic to bed bugs.
2. Bed bug bites cause allergic Reactions
Besides that bed bug bites will cause swelling, they may also trigger allergic reactions on most human. Such allergies are caused by histamine that is present in the bed bug’s saliva.
If you are allergic to be bugs, you’ll experience body swelling, sudden body rashes that are irritating and hence you will feel the urge to scratch them continuously. Other allergic reactions include sneezing, abdominal pain, fast purse rate, feeling warm or even a pale skin.
How do you treat an allergic reaction to bed bugs?
First, if you experience any of the above listed allergic reactions after a bed bug bite, seek immediate medical assistance. I’ve listed some first aid actions you can administer before getting to your physician for further examination.
- Clean with warm water.
- Apply anti-itch cream or antihistamine and corticosteroid creams on the bite section.- you can purchase these from pharmacy or chemist.
- Leave the part uncovered for the medication to work.
In case the reaction is rapid, I advise you rush to hospital or;
- Conduct an injection with either corticosteroid, antihistamine or epinephrine medicine immediatelly.
3. Can Bed Bugs Make You Tired?
Definitely! These insects are parasites that bites. They will feed on you, cause itching and discomfort.
Moreover, getting rid of bed bugs is not easy. You may be trying every time without succeeding; this is tiresome. Your effort to implement the preventive measures is even more tedious.
Also, the fact that bed bugs reproduce at a very high rate can be problematic. One bed bug can carry about 500 egg in its life. This post a challenge of huge multiplication.
In case you and your humans are invaded by bedbugs, this stresses you much as you think of possible solution.
4. Bed Bugs Cause Psychological Torture to Humans?
Just in case you have ever been bitten by a bed bug, if they are mentioned, you may feel affected in a way. This is because you fear experiencing the pain you went through the previous time.
You will even feel sick if you are living in the house infested by bed bugs. You may not even desire to fall asleep on that bed when you know they will attack you.
Some people face sleepless night due to fear of bed bug invasion even when sleep- even when sleep is really vital to human being. This effect is more for the case of children.
This torture may be more alarming especially when you try to kill them without success. Continuous lack of sleep may even lead to depression.
Related: Cockroaches Eat Bed Bugs?
4. Societal stigma associated with bed bug?
Research shows that people do not like bed bugs in their places. If people/friends happen to know your place is infested with bed bugs, they may tend to treat you preferentially. This may be by avoiding to inviting you to their place, keeping off your invitation, avoiding any contact that may lead to transfer of these insects.
You will agree with me that you will not be happy to find that people are talking about you in relation to bed bugs! This create stigma to you and even your children who may be victimized in the name of bed bugs.
At times, you may get depressed due to thoughts of bed bugs infestation. This may be pronounced to even your humans.
Can Bed Bugs Make a Baby Sick?
Yes. Babies have mixed reactions on bed bugs’ bites. The itching pain instilled in them may cause them to generate fear unseen that my lead to depression.
Several bites on their bodies my cause skin rashes that takes long to heal.
You will notice that your baby experience difficulties in breathing and cries a lot- especially at night- due to these bed bug bites. Prolonged attack by bed bugs may make your baby suffer from anaemia, which may risk baby’s young life.
Signs of bed bugs in your place?
The following are some of indicators of bed bugs infestation in your home:
- Various stain spots on your bed sheets, mattress, clothing, bed framework that looks like rust. These spots are their waste that they excrete and they leave behind stains where they land and dry up.
- Bite marks on your skin.
- The musty odor produced by the bed bugs’ feces that fill the room-you can easily detect that when you cover yourself at night with beddings.
Bed bugs are small insects that you may at times not see with your naked eye. This offers them an advantage of penetrating and hiding in spaces such as
- Inside furniture closets.
- Behind windows and doors.
- Cracks on the wall or floor.
- Along the edges and seams of mattresses.
- Inside the boxes.
- Ceiling fixtures.
- Old clothes and luggage.
- Photo frames.
How to get rid of bed bugs?
To prevent bed bugs in your home, you can follow the following approaches:
- Ensure that you do thorough cleaning in your house.
- Check all possible hideouts like cracks, carpets, and furniture regularly.
- Avoid buying second hand furniture as this creates a loop for entry into your house. When you are purchasing house items like bed, select the design that makes it difficult for the bed bugs to climb such as metal or glass.
- Select material that makes bed bug nesting difficult.
- Have a regular schedule for house examination and cleaning from a bed bug professional.
- Ensure that you frequently wash your beddings with hot water especially if you detect any bed bug infestation. This helps kill any eggs or living bed bugs.
- Apply disinfectant where possible in your households.
Method 1: Use of pesticides.
Treat your house using available bed bugs pesticide. You can use any product with hydroprene, bifenthrin, permethrin or propoxur in it.
These products are manufacture with a purpose of killing different species of bed bugs that may thrive in your house. Chemical in them kills the bed bugs.
You will need to mix them with the suitable solvent and then spray in various bed bugs hideout. These pesticides are very toxic and may have side effect to users or environment. They should therefore be handled with care.
Method 2: Steam Fumigation
You will need to lock all openings in your house, detach all the furniture, drawers, clothing, bedding and anything that can withhold the bed bugs.
Connect the power source to the steam-generating machine to kill the bed bugs. Leave it to heat the room to temperature beyond which no bed bug can survive. This should take you not less than six hours for perfect working.
Home items that may be affected high steam temperature should be removed. Once the set time is over, give the room a two-hour settling time to original temperature. You can decide to open doors and windows for quick airflow.
This method is environmental friendly, as it does not cause pollution.
Related: Spiders Eat Bed Bugs?
Method 3: Vacuum
You will need to vacuum the whole house using vacuum cleaner of high performance. Vacuum all bedding, cracks, furniture, drawers, bookstores, clothing and any possible bed bug hideouts.
This method ensure that the vacuum sucks bed bugs and their eggs in those places. The vacuum machine is also fed with hot air from within that assist in immediate killing of the bed bugs once they are sucked.
You will be required to do this regularly so as to ensure that bed bugs left during the previous vacuum operation are destroyed.
This method may not execute killing completely, especially if you do not vacuum all bed bug hideouts, which may leave some behind. However, it is more suitable when you do not need to dispose your items.
Method 4: Disposal
In this method, you will need to dispose all infested items completely and replace with new ones. This ensures that they carry with them eggs and bed bugs thus getting rid of them.
This method is not highly recommendable as you may not be willing to dispose newly acquired items that have just been infested.
You can either Burn the bed bug infested items or leave them at a secure place away from your house. You and your humans should not get into use of any of these items after disposal so as to avoid any transfer of bed bugs.
Conclusion
Bed bugs do not make you sick. However, Bed bugs cause allergy, social stigma, psychological torture and itching from bites.
It is important to be cautious when killing bed bugs; employ the best method that suit your place best. Always educate your humans on how to deal with bed bug’s bites and allergies.
If you encounter allergic reactions from bed bug, be quick to seek medication. Prevention of bed bugs is the best way. In case your place is infested with bed bugs, kindly try the methods discussed above to treat them. Always observe precautions given.
