Treatment, including dismantling furniture and ripping up rugs, is expensive. Rather than actively hunting for bugs, hotels and landlords often deny having them.
Many people are not alert enough. (Both Cooper and Goddard said they routinely pull apart beds and even headboards when they check into hotels. Goddard keeps his luggage in the bathroom. Cooper heat-treats his when he gets home.)
Some people over-react, even developing delusional parasitosis, the illusion that bugs are crawling on them.
“People call me all the time, losing their minds, like it’s a curse from God,” Miller said.
The reasonable course, Goddard said, is to recognize that we are, in effect, back in the 1920s “Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” era. People should be aware, but not panicky.
However, he added, “I don’t even know what to say about them being in theaters. That’s kind of spooky.”
Well, he was asked — can you feel them bite?
“No,” he said. “If I put them on my arm and close my eyes, I never feel them. But I once got my children to put them on my face, and I did. Maybe there are more nerve endings.”
Why in the world, he was asked, would he ask kids to do that?
“Oh, you know,” he said. “Bug people are crazy.”
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