Bed bugs can individually and collectively cause a number of health effects including skin rashes, psychological effects and allergic symptoms. 

Bed bug bites and related conditions have been on the rise since the 1980s-1990s.  The exact causes of this resurgence remain unclear; it is variously ascribed to greater foreign travel, more frequent exchange of second-hand furnishings among homes, a greater focus on control of other pests resulting in neglect of bed bug countermeasures and increasing resistance to pesticides.

Bed bugs are easy to spot: you don't need a magnifying glass or sophisticated detection equipment, just the naked eye.  They are wingless insects, about the same size and color as an apple seed and as well as the bed, they like to hide in suitcases, boxes.

They are quite elusive.  You will probably have to take off the mattress to look for them in the slats or baseboard of the bedframe, or look around the nooks and crannies of the headboard and in the seams and tucks of mattresses and mattress covers and inside duvets and pillows.  They also like to hide in switch plates, upholstery, cracked and broken plaster, skirting boards, picture frames, wallpaper and furniture crevices.

They come out at night, enticed by the increased levels of carbon dioxide that occur when we are asleep, and they suck our blood, leaving itchy bites. As they tuck into their bloody meal, their pale brown flattish bodies become fatter and darker and then, replete, they waddle back to their little abodes.

Once an infestation sets in, they can lay up to 300 eggs in two months and they can survive up to a year without a blood feed.  Also, an infestation quickly spreads to other nearby rooms and apartments.