In writing that survives, bed bugs mostly stand for misery, crowded living and the loss of a peaceful night, not for luck or spiritual messages. They appear in ancient Greek comedy and natural history, Roman medicine, an 18th-century London pest controller’s book and a 20th-century Soviet play. Having them today says nothing about you or your home.
Reviewed by James Rhoades, Owner, ThermoPest · Last reviewed 15 October 2026
Bed bugs have shared our beds for thousands of years, so it’s no surprise they turn up in old books and sayings. This guide sticks to what you can check for yourself: each example below names the work or source it comes from. Where a claim about folklore couldn’t be traced to a source, we’ve left it out.
What do bed bugs symbolise?
Looking across the sources below, bed bugs are used in a handful of consistent ways. None of them is mystical. They reflect what it’s actually like to live with bed bugs.
- Sleepless misery: a character who can’t rest because something is biting them in the dark.
- Crowded or poor living conditions: lodgings, inns and shared beds, where bugs spread easily.
- Something old that won’t go away: a pest that keeps coming back, however much people try.
- Something to cure or sell: from Roman remedies made from the bugs themselves to early London trades that promised to get rid of them.
For a wider look at how bed bugs have followed people through history, see our article on the history of bed bugs in human society.
How old are bed bugs in human history?
Very old. Archaeologists Eva Panagiotakopulu and Paul Buckland, writing in the journal Antiquity in 1999, reported bed bug remains from Tell el-Amarna in Egypt and concluded that bed bugs have troubled people for at least 3,550 years. That’s long before any of the written sources below.
Bed Bugs in Ancient Greek Writing
Aristophanes’ The Clouds
One of the earliest jokes about bed bugs is in Aristophanes’ comedy The Clouds, first staged in Athens in 423 BC. Socrates tells the old Athenian Strepsiades to lie on a couch and think. Instead he complains that the “cursed Corinthians” are biting him from every corner of the bed. The joke is a pun: the Corinthians were allies of Sparta, Athens’ enemy at the time, and the opening of their name in Greek sounds like the Greek word for bug, as the notes to the Elpenor translation explain. Bed bugs here are a comic picture of a sleepless, miserable night.
Aristotle’s History of Animals
The philosopher Aristotle (4th century BC) wrote about bed bugs in Book V of his History of Animals. In D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s English translation, he lists bugs with lice and fleas as insects that live on the juices of living flesh, and says bugs “are generated from the moisture of living animals”. Like many writers of his time, he believed some small creatures appeared spontaneously rather than hatching from eggs. We now know bed bugs hatch from eggs laid by adult females.
Old Greek Bedside Charms
Early Greek philosophers are said to have advised hanging a hare’s or stag’s feet at the foot of the bed to keep bed bugs away, and that others suggested setting a vessel of cold water under the bed while travelling. These are among the oldest recorded bed bug “remedies”. There’s no evidence they work.
Bed Bugs in Roman Medicine: Pliny the Elder
The Roman writer Pliny the Elder, in Book 29 of his Natural History (first published around AD 77), describes bugs being used as medicine. Among the uses he reports are treating snake venom, especially from asps, as a fumigation to make leeches let go, and for lethargy and night fevers. Pliny himself dismisses some of the other claimed cures as unfounded. The ancient Egyptians, too, were said to drink a bed bug mixture as a cure for snakebite.
None of this has any medical basis. It does show how familiar bed bugs were: people had them close enough to hand to try them as medicine.
Bed Bugs in Early Modern London
When did bed bugs reach England?
Bed bugs were first reported in England in 1583, though they were probably there earlier. Tiffin and Son of London, formed in 1690, is often named as one of the most famous early businesses set up to get rid of bed bugs.
John Southall’s A Treatise of Buggs (1730)
The best-known early English book on bed bugs is John Southall’s A Treatise of Buggs, printed in London in 1730. Southall worked from Southwark and described himself as the maker of a “Nonpareil Liquor” for destroying bugs. His book mixes observation with sales:
- He believed bugs were first noticed in London after the Great Fire, in new houses built with imported fir timber, and that ships kept bringing them in.
- He says he learned the recipe for his liquor in Jamaica in 1726 from an elderly man who had been enslaved and later freed, and began his bug-destroying trade after returning to London in 1727.
- He never published the ingredients. It has been suggested it may have been made from quassia wood, a tropical tree.
- The book ends with his prices for treating beds and rooms, which makes it part science and part advert.
The Public Domain Review describes it as the first scientific study of bed bugs. Southall’s timber theory is his own opinion, not settled history, since bed bugs were recorded in England before the Great Fire.
“Sleep Tight, Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite”
The bedtime rhyme is probably the most familiar bed bug reference in English. According to The Phrase Finder (phrases.org.uk), “tight” here means soundly, the earliest record of “sleep tight” it gives is a diary from 1866, and the bedbug line was added later. It rejects the popular story that the phrase comes from tightening the ropes on old rope beds, because the phrase appears in print long after rope beds were common.
Bed Bugs in 20th-Century Literature
Vladimir Mayakovsky’s satirical play The Bedbug premiered in Moscow in 1929, directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold with music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Its main character, Prisypkin, is frozen on his wedding day and revived decades later in a tidy future society, where he is put on show in a zoo as a relic of the past. A bedbug frozen with him becomes his companion and gives the play its title. Here the bed bug stands for the old habits the new society thinks it has left behind.
Sources at a Glance
| Source | Date | How bed bugs appear |
|---|---|---|
| Remains found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt | Reported in Antiquity, 1999 | Evidence of bed bugs living with people at least 3,550 years ago |
| Aristophanes, The Clouds | 423 BC | A comic, sleepless night and a pun on “Corinthians” |
| Aristotle, History of Animals | 4th century BC | Natural history; thought to arise from animal moisture |
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History | About AD 77 | Supposed medicine for snake venom, fevers and more |
| John Southall, A Treatise of Buggs | 1730 | Early study and advert for a London bug-killing trade |
| Mayakovsky, The Bedbug | 1929 | Satire: a bed bug as a leftover from the old way of life |
Are bed bugs a sign of bad luck?
No. We couldn’t find a traceable folklore source that treats bed bugs as an omen of bad luck, and there’s no evidence they carry any spiritual meaning. The same goes for beliefs you may see online that bed bugs are caused by envy, witchcraft or unlucky astrology: we couldn’t trace a reliable source for any of them. Bed bugs arrive for practical reasons: they travel in luggage, clothing and second-hand furniture, and they can move between neighbouring flats. That’s why the NHS advises care with second-hand furniture and not bringing luggage or clothing indoors without checking it if you’ve been somewhere with bed bugs.
They’re also not a sign of a dirty home. The NHS says bed bugs are found in both clean and dirty places. Older writers often linked them with poverty because crowded lodgings made it easy for them to spread, not because cleanliness keeps them away. For more on how infestations start, see whether all beds have bed bugs.
What does it mean to dream about bed bugs?
Dream meanings are a matter of personal belief, and we’re pest specialists, so we won’t interpret them. One practical point, though: if you’re dreaming about bugs and waking up with itchy bites, it’s worth checking your bed. Look along mattress seams, the bed frame and headboard for live bugs, pale shed skins, small dark spots and tiny blood marks on the sheets.
From Folklore Remedies to Modern Treatment
Hare’s feet, bowls of water and secret liquors didn’t solve bed bug problems, and some modern shortcuts don’t either. Shop-bought foggers and bug bombs tend to scatter bed bugs into new hiding places rather than clear them. Bed bugs aren’t known to spread disease, as we explain in can bed bugs transmit diseases?, but they are hard to get rid of without professional help.
At ThermoPest our approach is heat-led, with targeted spray where it’s needed, to reach the cracks and seams where bugs and eggs hide. Return visits may be needed. Read how bed bug heat treatment works.
FAQs
What do bed bugs symbolise?
In literature, bed bugs usually stand for sleepless misery, crowded or poor living conditions, or an old problem that won’t go away. Aristophanes used them for a comic sleepless night in 423 BC, and Mayakovsky’s 1929 play The Bedbug used one to satirise habits left over from the past.
What is the spiritual meaning of bed bugs?
We couldn’t trace any reliable folklore source that gives bed bugs a spiritual meaning. Practically, having bed bugs means they were carried in, usually on luggage, clothing or second-hand furniture, or came from a neighbouring home. It isn’t a judgement on you or your household.
Are bed bugs bad luck?
No. There’s no evidence that bed bugs bring bad luck. They’re also not a sign of a dirty home: the NHS says they’re found in both clean and dirty places. Anyone can pick them up while travelling or from second-hand items.
Where does “don’t let the bedbugs bite” come from?
According to the Phrase Finder, “sleep tight” means sleep soundly and is recorded in a diary from 1866, with the bedbug line added later. The popular story about tightening rope beds is probably not true.
Did ancient people know about bed bugs?
Yes. Bed bug remains from Egypt have been dated to at least 3,550 years ago, and bed bugs appear in Aristophanes’ The Clouds (423 BC), Aristotle’s History of Animals and Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, where they were even suggested as medicine.
Found more than folklore in your bed?
If you’re waking up with bites or have spotted signs on the mattress, an inspection will confirm what you’re dealing with and where the bugs are hiding. ThermoPest is a member of the BPCA and NPTA, and our technicians arrive in unmarked vans.
