We are super creeped out right now. We've had a few mysterious, little bites appear on our wrists that itched like a bitch the first day and have stuck around for two or three weeks. They have consistently snuck up on us, occurring about a week apart and causing our night terrors to go medieval a few times, until we finally got ahold of ourselves somewhat, thankyouverymuch.

We hate to say their name because we said it hundreds of times as a child. Was that old, creepy-in-retrospect childhood rhyme some sort of siren song to these tenacious world travelers? It's like, "Sleep tight, don't let those tiny, practically extinct anachronisms bite! We don't really know what they are, but ha ha, don't let them bite!" And now look what we've done.

They're back with a vengeance. (Thanks in part to the banning of toxic pesticides.)

We're not sure we have them ourselves, but it seems pretty easy to get them now, especially when staying in hotels (and not being a very good housekeeper). They can tiptoe into your clothes/suitcase, and you unknowingly stow them away and transport them to yet another exotic location. (Maybe a delectable combination of Type O and AB, for example.) They can also be passed around via used furniture and clothing and can travel between multi-unit apartments.

Photo by animalvegetable, used under a Creative Commons license.

Feeling itchy? Find out more after the jump!

We know several people in our neighborhood who have had these pesky visitors, and they each had various levels of difficulty getting rid of them. A couple of friends just washed everything in hot water. [Update: Actually, we just confirmed that those friends did much, much more to get rid of them. They followed the directions step-by-step, washing everything that could be washed/dried on hot and bagging everything else, thoroughly cleaning and vacuuming their whole apartment, and even getting rid of a few items of furniture.] Another's landlord had the place professionally bombed a couple of times, which we had heard doesn't work -- but it did for him. And another friend actually moved to get away from the blood-sucking stalkers -- we think it was a combination of factors that prompted the move though.

We washed all of our bedding yesterday and used our new Extreme Wet/Dry Vac to suck out of our mattress/baseboards whatever bugs have been biting us at night. We also went to our doctor in hopes that she could identify the problem. She and the dermatologist verified that yep, those are insect bites. But of course, they weren't at liberty to tell us what kind of bites. Great, thanks, we wasted a good hour and a half and a $20 co-pay for nothing...

Hopefully, we don't really have them, and we will try our darnedest to keep it that way. When we check into our hotel this holiday season, we will be sure to check our beds closely for these unsavory critters, while keeping our suitcases tightly shut and our clothes nicely hung.

For more information, check out the Bedbugger FAQs, and be sure to check out this crazy Flickr Bed Bug Stream. (Luckily, we don't look like those poor people yet.) We never thought we'd find ourselves wishing we had fleas or scabies instead. Gross.