Bed Bugs: Oldest Human Pest – New Research
- Bed bugs, tenacious urban pests, have thrived alongside humans for 60,000 years, since first hitching a ride from bats to Neanderthals.
- A Virginia Tech team, led by Lindsay Miles and Warren Booth, compared the genomes of human-associated and bat-associated bed bug lineages.
- Miles, a postdoctoral fellow, explained that examining changes in the effective population size reveals insights into the bed bugs' past.The study highlights the ancient symbiotic relationship between humans...
Discover how bed bugs have plagued humans for 60,000 years, hitching a ride from bats to early humans and mirroring human expansion. A new study reveals the fascinating evolutionary journey of these tenacious urban pests, linking their population growth directly to human demographic patterns. Researchers compared the genomes of human-associated and bat-associated lineages, uncovering a unique symbiotic relationship. This study, published in Biology Letters, may help predict pest and disease spread in growing cities. The human-linked bed bug lineage experienced exponential population growth alongside the establishment of large human settlements. The research offers insights into the impact of DDT and the progress of insecticide resistance through identifying a gene mutation. News Directory 3 covers the latest advancements in urban entomology. What does the next 100 to 120 years hold for bed bugs?
Bed Bug Evolution Mirrors Human Expansion, Study Finds
Updated May 29, 2024
Bed bugs, tenacious urban pests, have thrived alongside humans for 60,000 years, since first hitching a ride from bats to Neanderthals. In contrast, bed bugs that remained with bats have seen their populations dwindle since the last ice age.
A Virginia Tech team, led by Lindsay Miles and Warren Booth, compared the genomes of human-associated and bat-associated bed bug lineages. Their research, published in Biology Letters, suggests the human-linked lineage mirrors human demographic patterns, marking them as possibly the first true urban pest.
Miles, a postdoctoral fellow, explained that examining changes in the effective population size reveals insights into the bed bugs’ past.The study highlights the ancient symbiotic relationship between humans and bed bugs, which could inform models predicting pest and disease spread amid urban expansion. By linking human expansion to the rise of urban pests, researchers aim to pinpoint traits that co-evolved in both humans and pests.
Miles noted that while both bed bug populations initially declined during the last glacial maximum, only the human-associated lineage recovered, increasing in size alongside the early establishment of large human settlements around 12,000 years ago.
Booth, an urban entomology professor, added that humans carried a subset of cave-dwelling bed bugs when they moved out of caves around 60,000 years ago, resulting in less genetic diversity in the human-associated lineage. As human communities and cities grew, this bed bug lineage experienced exponential population growth.
“That makes sense as modern humans moved out of caves about 60,000 years ago,” Booth said. ”There were bed bugs living in the caves with thes humans, and when they moved out they took a subset of the population with them so there’s less genetic diversity in that human-associated lineage.”
The genome data provides a foundation for further study of this 245,000-year-old lineage split. Researchers are now focusing on the evolutionary changes in the human-associated lineage compared to the bat-associated lineage, notably in recent times.
Booth highlighted the impact of DDT on bed bug populations, noting their resurgence and resistance to the pesticide within five years of it’s introduction. Booth, Miles, and graduate student Camille Block previously identified a gene mutation potentially contributing to insecticide resistance and are further investigating the genomic evolution of bed bugs and its relevance to this resistance.
”What will be engaging is to look at what’s happening in the last 100 to 120 years,” said Booth. “Bed bugs were pretty common in the old world, but once DDT [dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane] was introduced for pest control, populations crashed. They were thought to have been essentially eradicated,but within five years they started reappearing and were resisting the pesticide.”
Booth emphasized the importance of “following the science,” made possible by the Joseph R. and Mary W. Wilson endowment, which supports his faculty position and allows him to investigate insecticide resistance and species spread using historical and present-day samples.
What’s next
Future research will focus on the last 100 to 120 years to understand the genomic evolution of bed bugs and their increasing resistance to insecticides, providing insights into managing these persistent urban pests.