Why is it so hard to get rid of bed bugs? 

Bedbugs are the kind of houseguests no one wants. They hide during the day, then creep out at night to find you by following your body heat, the carbon dioxide you breathe, and your scent. Once they land on you, they use their needle-like mouths to inject a mix of proteins that stop your blood from clotting and keep you from feeling the bite. Then they feed. Some people don’t even react, while others are left with itchy red welts that last for weeks.

They might be small, but bedbugs are incredibly stubborn. They can live for months without feeding, squeeze into the tiniest cracks, and survive in furniture, clothes, and luggage. And they are social in a weird way. They pile together in groups called refugia, use chemical signals to warn each other about danger, and even leave trails of poop to help others find their way back to safety.

We nearly wiped them out in the 1940s using DDT, but after it was banned in the 70s, they slowly made a comeback. Thanks to global travel and pesticide resistance, they are now harder to kill than ever. The good news? They still can’t survive extreme heat, and a vacuum cleaner is still one of your best weapons.

Funny enough, back in 1834, a British Navy ship had such a bad bedbug problem that the crew ended up relying on cockroaches to eat them. The ship’s surgeon actually called the cockroach a “most valuable insect.” Imagine being so desperate you root for cockroaches.

Source: TED-Ed (2023). Why bedbugs are so hard to get rid of [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1WZ9Bnx4io