For more than 50,000 years, bedbugs may have been disrupting human sleep. However, it was only when humans left caves and formed the first cities that their populations really took off.
A new study on the genetics of bedbugs found that they split into two lineages thousands of years ago – one targeting bats, and another targeting humans. The bat-associated lineage declined during the Ice Age, while the human-targeting lineage recovered and thrived as urban areas expanded.
The shift is believed to have occurred around 12,000 years ago, when humans built early cities such as Mesopotamia and began to boom in population. This coincided with a surge in bedbug infestations, making them one of the first human pests.
“The fact that modern humans moved out of caves about 60,000 years ago likely contributed to this shift,” said Warren Booth, an urban entomology professor. “There were bedbugs living in the caves with these humans, and when they moved out, a subset of the population went with them, reducing genetic diversity in the human-associated lineage.”
The study also found that bedbug populations declined significantly after the introduction of DDT, a pesticide used for pest control, but rebounded within five years. More recently, bedbug infestations have seen a dramatic 35% jump between 2022 and 2024.
As cities continue to grow and urbanization increases, understanding the evolution of pests like bedbugs is crucial in developing effective strategies to manage them.
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bedbugs-bites-rise-caves-b2760494.html