Brigham Young's Destruction of Bed-bugs in a New Jersey Inn

While staying at a house near Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1844, Brigham Young and George A. Smith were placed in a room infested with bed-bugs that had allegedly been there for 150 years. Finding they could not sleep because the bed-bugs followed them, Brigham Young lit a candle and, as the bugs approached, caught and burned them in the flame, allowing them to finish the night.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

Brother George A. and I staid over night with brother Atkinson, who lived in a very large frame house, said to have stood 150 years, which was so infested with bed-bugs that we could not sleep. Brother George A. Smith gave it as his legal opinion that there were bed-bugs there which had danced to the music at the battle of Trenton, as their heads were perfectly grey. We took our blankets and retreated to the further end of the room, and, as the bugs followed us, I lit a candle, and as they approached, caught them and burnt them in the candle, and thus spent the night.