Were bed bugs the first urban pest insect? Genome-wide patterns of bed bug demography mirror global human expansion

Lindsay S. Miles, Brian C. Verrelli, Richard Adams, Yannick Z. Francioli, Daren C. Card, Ondřej Balvin, Todd A. Castoe and Warren Booth

Published: 28 May 2025

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0061

By Camille Block

This newly published paper, coauthored by one of our founders, Dr. Lindsay Miles, suggests that bed bugs followed early humans out of caves and parasitized individuals living in the very first city, making them possibly the first urban pest insect. In this study, the authors collected bed bug lineages associated with bats and humans from six sites in the Czech Republic. Using whole-genome sequencing, a very powerful type of next-generation sequencing, the authors were able to test whether the human-associated bed bug lineages followed similar demographic and population size trends observed in humans thousands of years ago. For example, when early humans migrated into cities, this event led to a significant population boom that had a lasting impact on the genome of all humans. If bed bugs relied on humans as a food source during this time, bed bugs would have experienced a similar population boom that corresponds with the creation of the first city.

Excitingly, this was the case! The authors found evidence of a population decline that can be theorized to be partially related to human-associated bed bug lineages being transported out of caves as humans began to lead more nomadic lifestyles. In addition, while the population of bat-associated bed bug lineages continued to decline, the human-associated lineages demonstrated significant population proliferation at the same time when human populations began to increase and the first cities began forming. The authors found evidence that bed bugs and humans have had a close relationship for at least 50,000 years. In other words, the relationship between bed bugs and humans can be traced back much further than other key urban species, such as German cockroaches, black rats, and house mice, suggesting that bed bugs might be the first urban pest! This paper serves as a poignant reminder that cities have always been teeming with life and that humans have been influencing even the smallest of species for tens of thousands of years.

If you are interested in learning more about research being completed on bed bugs, check out other recent papers published by Dr. Miles and her collaborators, such as Block et al. 2025, Journal of Medical Entomology, and ​Miles et al. 2025, Journal of Heredity.