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(Describer) Titles: KQED. PBS. Different sizes of an oval-shaped insect run over a surface with gray and black marks on it. Title: Deep Look.

(Describer) One crawls up a wooden post.

(narrator) Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the-- Okay, you know where this is going.

(Describer) It crawls over a sheet. Title: Bed bug. Cimex (symex) lectularius.

Lured in by our breath, bed bugs come for us when we're most vulnerable. In dreamland, we're oblivious to bed bug chow time. You won't even feel it. It's a quick meal, just a few minutes, but it's a filling one.

(Describer) A bed bug pulls its proboscis (pro-boss-kiss) from skin, then moves on

Stuffed with blood, it scurries to a nearby cranny, the seam of your mattress or behind a baseboard.

(Describer) One crawls between wood and carpet. Two of them climb on top of each other.

There, they get to work, growing their families, until you get--

(Describer) Pointing to tiny bugs, title: nymphs.

(Describer) An adult crawls around them, with egg casings nearby. The spots from earlier are fecal spots.

You can recognize them by their signature work of art, these tiny splotches. It's digested blood they leave behind. In the 1950s, we made bed bugs retreat with DDT,

(Describer) A man sprays.

but some became resistant. And now, they're back.

(Describer) As a bed beg drinks, its body gets bigger and more rounded.

We help them spread in our clothes or luggage when we travel around. You can kill them with other insecticides or heat, but their game of hide and seek makes it tricky. It turns out there might be another way to stop them in their tracks.

(Describer) A bug walks on a leaf.

Watch this. It's just taking a stroll and... gotcha. Its foot is stuck. This bean leaf can incapacitate the bloodsuckers.

(Describer) It tugs at its leg.

People in the Balkans discovered that years ago and would spread the leaves around their beds as a trap. The leaf's surface is covered in these tiny hooked hairs called trichomes.

(Describer) Shown through a microscope, they have green hooks that come to a point.

(Describer) They hang onto a bed bug's leg.

They pierce right through the bedbugs feet, impaling their soft joints.

(Describer) In a microscopic view, the pointy hook pokes through the foot.

Many bean plants, like kidney and green beans, developed the hooks to defend against aphids and other plant-eating pests.

(Describer) Another bed bug gets stuck.

But it just so happens to work on our bloodthirsty pest too.

(Describer) It tugs at its foot.

(Describer) A woman works in a greenhouse.

Biologist and engineer Catherine Loudon is trying to copy the plant at the University of California, Irvine.

(Describer) She studies leaves.

She's creating a synthetic material that can pierce bed bug feet just like bean leaves do.

(Describer) A bug crawls over a white leaf.

It's not quite as effective as a real bean leaf, but she's working on it.

(Describer) A foot gets stuck. It pulls at it.

(Describer) Another bed bug crawls over a sheet.

In the meantime, bedbugs are still a step ahead, so keep an eye out. Spot them early, and maybe you can get them before they get you.

(Describer) As bed bugs drink, titles: Producer/Writer: Gabriela Quiros Cinematographer: Josh Cassidy Narrator/Writer: Lauren Sommer Original Music: Seth Samuel Editors/Motion Graphics: Gabriela Quiros, Kia Simon A KQED Production Copyright 2019 KQED Inc. Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

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