How Did Bed Bugs Start?
WouterBed bugs aren’t new – they’ve been around for millennia and may have originated in caves in the Middle East. In ancient Rome, they were known as Cimex. In the beginning, these insects only inhabited bats and eventually migrated to humans. It’s not entirely clear when they started to attack humans, but it seems likely that they were brought to us by bats – or a mate, who would bring them to humans.
In the early 20th century, Americans thought that they had gotten rid of bedbugs for good. This was after the first widespread bedbug outbreaks occurred. Fortunately, the pesticide DDT was discovered by Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Muller in 1939, and it was a huge success in eradicating the pest. DDT helped keep America bedbug-free for decades.
In the early twentieth century, around 1/3 of the residences in major American cities were infested with bed bugs. In some low-income neighborhoods, all residences were infested. The spread of bed bugs was largely due to several factors, including poor sanitation and overcrowding.
The origin of bed bugs is unclear, but a number of reasonable theories exist. One theory is that they originated in bats in the Middle East and were introduced to humans by humans. As humans moved to other parts of the world, bedbugs spread to new areas. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans wrote about their struggle with bedbugs.
