Do bed bugs spread disease?
They’re not injecting you with Ebola - but don’t relax. Bed bugs wreck your sleep, tank your sanity, and turn your bedroom into a war zone. Mental stress, anxiety, infection from scratching - that’s their calling card. You don’t get sick from the bite, you get sick from the nightmare.
That’s a common - and important - question. The short answer is: no, bed bugs are not known to spread diseases to humans. Unlike mosquitoes, ticks, or fleas, bed bugs don’t act as vectors that transmit pathogens from one person to another. What they do cause are itchy, sometimes painful bite reactions, allergic responses in sensitive individuals, and a tremendous amount of stress and lost sleep.
In scientific studies, bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) have been shown capable of carrying certain organisms in their bodies, but there’s no evidence that they transmit them during feeding. So while they won’t give you malaria or Lyme disease, the indirect health impact - anxiety, insomnia, secondary skin infections from scratching - is very real. That’s why controlling infestations quickly is so important.