People Microbes

Let the bedbugs bite

STEALING BLOOD  Three to 12 minutes is enough for Cimex lectularius to use its long piercing mouthparts (shown in a false-color image) for a stealthy blood heist.

Janice Haney Carr/CDC

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Harold Harlan has been feeding bedbugs, intentionally, on his own blood since 1973. He keeps pint or quart jars in his home containing at least 4,000 bugs. And now Harlan’s self-sacrifice is helping other researchers studying the recent resurgence of bedbugs in the United States and other parts of the world.