The man who sleeps with thousands of bedbugs for science

He straps some of his 60,000 bugs to his arm and works while they suck his blood (Picture: SWNS) A scientist studies bed bugs by sleeping with thousands of them in a laboratory at the bottom of his garden. Entomologist Dr Richard Naylor, 45, breeds the insects to test pest control products from all over the world. During a ‘feeding day’ twice a week, he straps some of his 60,000 bugs to his arm and works while they suck his blood. He then sleeps with them on nights when he needs to test out new devices or repellents – in a self-contained two-bedroom suite in his garden. Dr Naylor has been bitten ‘millions and millions’ of times – and says he is now immune, but gets anaemia symptoms every now and again. Dr Naylor says he’s immune, but still takes part for science (Picture: SWNS) Dr Naylor, who lives in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, runs a not-for-profit business called the Bed Bug Foundation. And he says his wife doesn’t get jealous of his bed mates – as she is a former biology teacher who works in the business too. He said: ‘I don’t react to the bites anymore. Apparently it takes something like 40,000 bites to stop reacting to bed bugs. ”And that for me was more than a decade ago. So I haven’t reacted for a long time. Over time, your immune system just stops reacting to it. ‘For most people, it’s something like an angry mosquito bite, a bit more severe than a mosquito bite. But gradually it gets less and less, and I don’t get any swelling or inflammation anymore now.’ Dr Naylor, who has worked on bed bugs since 2001, has set up a lab in his garden with his wife Alexia. Naylor says he doesn’t ‘react’ to bed bug bites anymore. (Credits: Getty Images) They produce research into insects and conduct product trials for the pest management industry. Follow Metro on WhatsApp to be the first to get all the latest news Follow us to receive the latest news updates from Metro (Picture: Getty Images) Metro’s on Whatsapp! Join our community for breaking…