🌅 Bedbugs Were the First Human Pests

SOURCE

Miles et al. (2025)

WHAT TO KNOW

• Bedbugs—the notorious blood-feeding urban pests—originated some 100 million years ago during the age of the dinosaurs, initially feeding on an unknown host before moving predominantly to bat blood as the mammals arose roughly 50 million years later. Then, sometime around 245,000 years ago, some bedbugs developed a taste for early humans, and the species hasn’t looked back since.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The jump to early humans led to two genetically distinct bedbug lineages: one feeding on bats and another feeding on humans. A new study by researchers at Virginia Tech University analyzing the genomes of bat-feeding and human-feeding bedbugs found the bat-associated lineage has gradually declined over the past 60,000 years. The human-associated lineage began declining around the same time, however, populations spiked 13,000 years ago and again 7,000 years ago.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The researchers say the timeline makes bedbugs a strong contender to be the world’s first urban pest that relies solely on humans, predating the German cockroach, which formed a close relationship with humans around 2,000 years ago, and the black rat, which became close-knit around 5,000 years ago. The team believes the human-associated bedbugs were feeding on our early ancestors just as they began leaving caves and building permanent settlements, and, as human populations increased and cities expanded, so too did the populations of bed bugs.