This just might be our itchiest episode yet, and for that we sincerely apologize. But it might also be one of our most fascinating and fun episodes yet, and for that we are proud. Whether or not you have personal experience with bedbugs, the mere mention of these vampiric critters is often enough to inspire skin-crawling horror in us all. But in this episode, we also make a case for their appreciation. How can you not admire (from a distance, of course), their incredible ability to go for months or even a year without feeding? Or that their saliva contains all kinds of proteins that slow blood clotting or dilate our blood vessels? Or that the ubiquity of these bugs during the Industrial Revolution drove massive changes in furniture design? From the biology of a bedbug bite to the impressively long history of these blood-feeding arthropods, we present the story of bedbugs in more detail than you ever knew you wanted (and trust us, you do).
| History | Biology |
| Borel, Brooke. Infested: how the bed bug infiltrated our bedrooms and took over the world. University of Chicago Press, 2015. | Doggett, S.L., Dwyer, D.E., Peñas, P.F. and Russell, R.C., 2012. Bed bugs: clinical relevance and control options. Clinical microbiology reviews, 25(1), pp.164-192. |
| Ashford, Richard W. “Parasites as indicators of human biology and evolution.” Journal of medical microbiology 49.9 (2000): 771-772. | Reinhardt, K. and Siva-Jothy, M.T., 2007. Biology of the bed bugs (Cimicidae). Annu. Rev. Entomol., 52, pp.351-374. |
| Bain, Allison. “Irritating intimates: the archaeoentomology of lice, fleas, and bedbugs.” Northeast Historical Archaeology 33.1 (2004): 8. | Doggett, S.L. and Russell, R., 2009. Bed bugs: What the GP needs to know. Australian family physician, 38(11), pp.880-884. |
| Balvín, Ondřej, et al. “Mitochondrial DNA and morphology show independent evolutionary histories of bedbug Cimex lectularius (Heteroptera: Cimicidae) on bats and humans.” Parasitology research 111 (2012): 457-469. | Goddard, J. and deshazo, R., 2009. Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) and clinical consequences of their bites. Jama, 301(13), pp.1358-1366. |
| Booth, Warren, et al. “Host association drives genetic divergence in the bed bug, Cimex lectularius.” Molecular Ecology 24.5 (2015): 980-992. | Delaunay, P., Blanc, V., Del Giudice, P., Levy-Bencheton, A., Chosidow, O., Marty, P. and Brouqui, P., 2011. Bedbugs and infectious diseases. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 52(2), pp.200-210. |
| Boynton, L. O. J. “The Bed-Bug and the ‘Age of Elegance’.” Furniture History 1 (1965): 15-31. | Parola, P. and Izri, A., 2020. Bedbugs. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(23), pp.2230-2237. |
| Doggett, Stephen L., and Chow-Yang Lee. “Historical and Contemporary Control Options Against Bed Bugs, Cimex spp.” Annual Review of Entomology 68 (2023): 169-190. | Giudice, D., 2011. Bedbugs and Infectious Diseases. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 52(2), p.200. |
| Panagiotakopulu, Eva, and Paul C. Buckland. “Cimex lectularius L., the common bed bug from Pharaonic Egypt.” Antiquity 73.282 (1999): 908-911. | Zorrilla-Vaca, A., 2014. Bedbugs and vector-borne diseases. Clinical Infectious Diseases: an Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 59(9), pp.1351-1352. |
| Potter, Michael F. “The history of bed bug management.” Am. Entomol 57 (2011): 14-25. | Salazar, R., Castillo-Neyra, R., Tustin, A.W., Borrini-Mayorí, K., Náquira, C. and Levy, M.Z., 2015. Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) as vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi. The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 92(2), p.331. |
| Potter, Michael F. “Bed bugs through history.” Advances in the biology and management of modern bed bugs (2018): 7-25. | Leulmi, H., Bitam, I., Berenger, J.M., Lepidi, H., Rolain, J.M., Almeras, L., Raoult, D. and Parola, P., 2015. Competence of Cimex lectularius bed bugs for the transmission of Bartonella quintana, the agent of trench fever. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 9(5), p.e0003789. |
| Roth, Steffen, et al. “Bedbugs evolved before their bat hosts and did not co-speciate with ancient humans.” Current Biology 29.11 (2019): 1847-1853. | El Hamzaoui, B., Laroche, M., Bechah, Y., Bérenger, J.M. and Parola, P., 2019. Testing the competence of Cimex lectularius bed bugs for the transmission of Borrelia recurrentis, the agent of relapsing fever. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 100(6), p.1407. |
| Marlatt, Charles Lester. The bedbug. Vol. 754. US Department of Agriculture, 1918. | Pietri, J.E., 2020. Case not closed: arguments for new studies of the interactions between bed bugs and human pathogens. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 103(2), p.619. |
| Usinger, Robert Leslie. “Monograph of Cimicidae (Hemiptera, Heteroptera).” (1966). | Doggett, S.L. and Lee, C.Y., 2023. Historical and Contemporary Control Options Against Bed Bugs, Cimex spp. Annual Review of Entomology, 68, pp.169-190. |
| Scarpino, S.V. and Althouse, B.M., 2019. Uncovering the hidden cost of bed bugs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(15), pp.7160-7162. |
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, you won’t pay a penny more, but we’ll get a small commission which helps us keep things running. Thanks!
