A SPECIAL REPORT: PESTS

AFFLICTED: Having bugs is bad enough, but imagining it is worse. Delusional parasitosis--the belief that your body is insect-infested--is common enough that county pest control workers have a formal procedure for dealing with it. . . . “It’s usually older women who have been traumatized,” says one worker. “Quite bizarre behavior patterns result. They’ll have houses sprayed repeatedly, shave their heads, bathe in kerosene, sell their homes cheap, time after time.” . . . Workers steer them toward psychiatric help.