'They don't bother me at all': The man who chooses to sleep with bedbugs for science

A scientist has chosen to sleep with bedbugs for the past five years - and says the bites "don't bother him at all".

Entomologist Dr Richard Naylor breeds thousands of bedbugs to test pest control products from all over the world and allows himself to be the test subject.

On a "feeding day", which happens around twice a week, he straps some of his 50-60,000 bugs to his arm and gets on with his work. He then sleeps with them on nights when he needs to test out new devices or repellents.

"I must have been bitten millions of times by now, so I stopped reacting a long time ago. I get a red patch on my arm after the bugs have fed, but it disappears after about half an hour," he said.

Naylor explained that he needed to sleep with the bugs to test if new sprays and repellents worked.

"If there is no-one sleeping in a bed, the bedbugs just sleep, they just go on standby. And so I can't test anything in the test bedrooms without there being a host in there," he added.

Naylor runs a not-for-profit called the Bed Bug Foundation and has a research laboratory set up in a self-contained two-bedroom suite in his garden in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.

He breeds the bugs and sends them all over the world, often to canine detection teams who help hotels spot infestations.

Naylor also uses the insects to help businesses test products before they come to market.

Bedbugs have become resistant to modern insecticide sprays, which makes them very difficult to kill and having an infestation can have long-lasting effects, according to Naylor.

"I don't know of any other pest that has the same level of emotional and psychological impact on people.

"It can leave people with lasting PTSD-type symptoms," he added.

Naylor said it could be difficult to deal with infestations and he advised anyone who suspected they had one to contact a professional.

"A key sign you have bedbugs is the inky black spots the bugs leave behind, often in the shape of an x.

"They don't hide in the bedding, they want to hide nearby in a little dark crevice. It would probably be somewhere down the back of the bed or around zips and the piping around the edge of a mattress," he said.

The Bed Bug Foundation gives the following advice to anyone who suspects they may have bad bugs:

• Declutter around the bed (helps you to spot bedbugs that try to run away)

• Remove bedding and other soft furnishings and put in bin bags for washing

• Inspect the mattress and bed frame, especially near the head of the bed

• Use silica dust and vacuum thoroughly

• Fit bed isolation devices to stop the bedbugs coming back

Ade Williams, lead pharmacist at Bedminster Pharmacy in Bristol, said bedbug bites tended to be clustered in a group, or be spread out in a line.

"Outside of the immense discomfort they cause by itching, they don't usually carry any health risks", he said.

However, Williams advised people to try not to itch bites as they could become infected, and said antihistamine tablets and emollient creams could help.

The NHS says a severe allergic reaction to bedbugs is possible, external but rare.

It advises putting something cool, like a clean, damp cloth, on the affected area to help with the itching and any swelling and to keep the affected area clean.