Just like mosquitoes, black flies or any other biting insect, if bed bugs are present, they will bite me. Put me in a bed with even a single bed bug in it and I will get bitten. I have no idea why, either as I'm regularly cold to the touch and bed bugs are drawn to human warmth.

I got involved with bed bugs about 15 years ago. A guy I was dating at the time picked them up from this family he was renting a room from. I had given him my old futon to use and it got infested when he lived there. I never stayed with him when he lived with the family (unrelated to bed bugs), so it wasn't until he got his own place that we noticed anything. Once he got an apartment on his own, I started staying over. Everytime I slept there, I woke up with many bites. He never got a single one. At the time, there was NOTHING about bed bugs in the news or anything, so we had no idea what was going on. At first, we assumed it was mosquitos, actually...but since my ankles were prime target areas and always under the covers, we ruled that out. I would stay with him for a weekend and then head home (I lived 5+ hours away). I never got bitten at home. This went on for a couple of months (maybe 4 or 5 weekend visits total) before we figured out that it was bedbugs. I forget how we put two and two together, but we eventually did. We tossed out the futon, washed all his sheets and vacuumed the apartment. That's it. No fumigating. No washing his entire wardrobe. No going through his roommates stuff either. We did notice that some idiot took the futon out of the trash before the truck came by...stupid. That'll teach them not to do that again!

I guess if we weren't prepared to throw out the futon, getting rid of them might have been harder to do, but really, it was no big deal. And like I said, 4 or 5 weekends of travel back and forth between his place and mine (with a bag and a dog) and I never got them at home. I know this because I never once got a bite in my own bed (still use that matress to this day).

Maybe bed bugs are different now, but I just don't get all the panic. Bedbugs live off human blood, so it's not like they will spread throughout your house. They want you, so they will reside in a place where it's easy to get to you. Why in the world would they go into someone's closet or even into the carpet unless someone is sleeping/laying on it? Clothing that you are wearing? Sure. Sheets? Sure. Beds? Of course - and even into drapes or pillows or headboards that are in very close proximity to where humans sleep. But why would they hop into a random suitcase?

Maybe I'm naieve, but the panic seems super overblown to me and like I said, I've basically had them before.