Gloucestershire entomologist tests bedbug treatments by letting insects feed on him
Entomologist Dr Richard Naylor has spent five years using himself as a host to test bedbug control products, allowing the insects to feed on his arm and sleeping with them when trials require it. His work matters as infestations are increasing and the bugs’ resistance to insecticides makes them harder to eradicate.
Naylor breeds about 60,000 bedbugs in a laboratory at his home in Gloucestershire, where his non-profit Bed Bug Foundation helps businesses test products before they reach the market. He says he is bitten twice a week and now has only a brief skin reaction. Rentokil reported a 44 per cent year-on-year rise in confirmed UK bedbug activity from 2023 to 2025; experts also point to travel, the insects’ ability to hitchhike and changing conditions as factors in their spread.
In short
- Researcher Richard Naylor uses himself to test bedbug products.
- He breeds around 60,000 bedbugs in his home laboratory.
- Confirmed UK activity rose 44 per cent from 2023 to 2025.
Explained simply
Bedbugs are small insects that live in and around places where people sleep, and feed on human blood. They can travel unnoticed in luggage or furniture, making infestations difficult to contain.
Dr Richard Naylor is an entomologist, a scientist who studies insects. At his Gloucestershire laboratory, he breeds bedbugs and tests products intended to control them through the non-profit Bed Bug Foundation.
The work matters because bedbugs have become harder to eradicate as some populations resist insecticides. Their spread is linked to factors including travel and their ability to hitchhike between places.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “In the name of science: How one researcher has chosen to sleep with BEDBUGS for the past five years – and straps some of the 60,000 he has bred on his arm to test if new sprays work”.