All people are affected. No racial or ethnic predisposition is known. No sexual preference is known in bedbug attacks. No age predisposition is known. The bites often occur at night, since bedbugs are nocturnal, with peak activity just before dawn.
Bedbugs are resourceful and opportunistic insects.
In one well-documented daytime outbreak, its victims were all women who rode a particular English tram. Each lady had a peculiar band of erythema studded with bullae on the back of both calves. Visual searching of beds for bedbugs may be useful. It may be more efficient to survey the corners of bednets and mattresses. Bedbugs produce a peculiar pungent odor familiar to building inspectors and tenement dwellers.