You've heard the warnings, but bedbugs are usually the last thing on your mind when your head hits the pillow. Well, here's the bad news -- not only are these pests real, their sucky reputation is well deserved. The good news is bed bugs don't transmit diseases, so their bites are merely unpleasant (and itchy).

This research article from the Ohio State entomology department explains everything you ever wanted to know about bed bugs, but were too sleepy to ask. Known as Cimex lectularius in scientific circles, they've been "documented as pests since the 17th century." Like all things annoying, these parasites often survive visits from the exterminator due to their ability to hide in bedding, clothes, and dark spaces.

So how did your bed become infected? You're a relatively clean person, right? This site from the aptly named Bug Clinic blames the problem (especially prevalent in hotels) on increased world travel. Bedbugs latch on to luggage and clothes and then make themselves at home in your bedroom and couch.

As for how to get rid of them -- an ounce of prevention is worth a gallon of insecticide. Seal up any cracks and be careful of buying secondhand stuff. If you're already itching, break out the flashlight and assess the problem. If the infestation is localized to one particular area, call the exterminator and hope for the best. These days, sleeping "tight" just isn't enough.

Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite? If only. The creepy critters have become such a nuisance here that the city council is mulling legislation that would establish a bedbug task force, ban the sale of used mattresses, train exterminators, and regulate mattress disposal. Just how infested is Gotham? According to the New York Daily News, there were 22,218 complaints to the city's 311 hotline about infestations of the blood-sucking hemipterans, a 34 percent jump since this time last year.

And the Big Apple is not alone in its battle against the bugs. In Chicago, the number of official complaints doubled from 900 to 1,650 during that same period, according to the Tribune. Boston already slaps warning stickers on discarded furniture and Cincinnati has its own bedbug task force. The bugs, which originally hailed from Europe, were nearly wiped out by DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) in the 1950s. But they have been making a comeback since the insecticide was banned in the U.S. in 1972, a decade after journalist Rachel Carson documented the chemical's damaging effects on humans and wildlife in her book Silent Spring.

"I'm petrified to turn the lights off at night," one discouraged New Yorker told Newsday this week. "I'm not getting proper sleep, I can't concentrate on work."

Contrary to their name, bedbugs do not only hang out in beds. They can be found in just about in nook and cranny and can survive for several months without a warm blood meal. The adults are reddish-brown, as about 0.2 inch (five millimeters) long, roughly the height of the numbers on a credit card, and resemble tiny cockroaches; when young, they're pale and about the size of a pinhead. They leave itchy red skin welts and cause endless grief for their victims. 

So what's the story on these pesky ectoparasites? Is there any surefire way to avoid them—or to get rid of them if they grace you with their vampiric presence?

To find out, we spoke with Louis Sorkin, an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History here, who sustains a personal colony of the bugs with his own blood.