🛏️🩸BEHIND THE SCENES: FILMING BED BUGS🛏️🩸
Added 2025-04-04 22:34:18 +0000 UTC
Gabriela Quirós Talks About Being Bitten by Bed Bugs!
“Josh filmed my arm being bitten by bed bugs at Sierra Research Laboratories in Modesto, California,” Gabriela explains. “It’s a private company that keeps colonies of small pests, such as flies, ants and bed bugs. Companies interested in registering an insecticide or other treatment against a pest can hire the lab to test its efficacy.”
“We have filmed several videos with the help of Sierra Research Labs over the years – the one on bed bugs, which I produced in 2019, was the first,” says Gabriela. “The company’s founder, entomologist Bill Donahue, invited us to film on site in Modesto. His staff wrangled the bed bugs for us, placing one at a time on my arm using entomology tweezers called forceps, which you can see in the photo above. Most importantly, staff kept track of the bed bugs to make sure none went home with us!”
“Since bed bugs normally feed at night and we wanted to film during the day, staff made sure the bed bugs were hungry by withholding food from them for a few days. Normally, they feed on lab rats or mice once a week. They need one blood meal to grow to the next life stage. With this preparation, we had no trouble getting bed bugs, both young nymphs and adults, to feed on my arm. They filled up in about five minutes,” says Gabriela. “Bill, the lab’s owner, had warned me that some people don’t develop welts right away, but instead get them two weeks later. That’s when mine appeared, itchy and red. For most people, welts appear one to three days after they’ve been bitten.”
“Why let bed bugs bite me?” asks Gabriela. “As a filmmaker I think my arm makes a nice backdrop – hairy, but not too hairy – and I was able to stay still so that Josh could film them in close-up. It was very important for me that bed bugs aren’t known to transmit diseases and that these were raised in a lab.”
“I learned some useful tips from my reporting, which I put in practice now whenever I travel,” Gabriela shares. “To reduce your chances of bringing home bed bugs from a hotel, pull back the sheet at the head of the bed and check the seams on the top and bottom of the mattress and the box spring for the telltale brown splotches that bed bugs leave behind. You’ll see them in our video. Also keep your suitcase zipped up and place it on a metal luggage rack – bed bugs have a hard time climbing up smooth surfaces like metal.”
If you haven't checked out our new special video about the bizarre biology and unique survival skills of bed bugs and four other household pests, watch '5 of the Grossest House Pests We’ve Ever Filmed' here.
