There was a time when bed bugs were a familiar annoyance in everyday life. We have centuries of references to bed bugs and their place in culture. After centuries of battling the bug, somewhere in the 1960s we won — or so we thought. It is easy enough to explain their disappearance as their inability to survive the combined assault from DDT, lindane and the host of new products that paraded through the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. I don’t think anyone was actually watching when they left, but we sure did notice after they were gone.

Speculation
Everybody has a theory on why the bed bugs have returned, but the bed bugs aren’t talking. Some say that world travel has brought them back to America, but we have had world travel since they left. Beyond that, the countries from which they are being brought in have seen a similar re-emergence.

Others have postulated that the changing use of pesticides has allowed them to return, but that does not explain the hideous level of resistance seen in some populations. For those who think it is because we no longer spray baseboards, I would point out that a return to baseboard spraying falls woefully short of successful — and some of the places where bed bugs abound are the places where baseboard spraying never did go away. There has to be a bigger picture that explains rise of bed bugs from decades of obscurity into a place of prominence.

The plot thickens with chickens
As it turns out, the bed bugs never really went away. They have been present in chicken houses in rural America without interruption, and there are reports that they afflicted the workers of the chicken houses. They were found in such staggering numbers there would have been a significant number of insects brought home by workers.

This begs the question, “Why didn’t they show up in the general population earlier?” Perhaps that answer will come as the research continues.

These chicken house bed bugs alone cannot account for the resurgence we have seen. We know this because many, if not most, of the populations we are dealing with show varying levels of resistance to pyrethroid insecticides. This would suggest that wherever these bugs came from, they had been exposed to hideous levels of pyrethroid insecticides for an extended period of time; that certainly does not describe the chicken house experience.

Harlan hears a who
In addition to the chicken houses, there was a small enclave of bed bugs living with Dr. Harold Harlan, a senior science associate for Kadix Systems and former senior entomologist for the National Pest Management Association. Intrigued by them since he had to deal with an infestation while stationed at Fort Dix in 1972, Harlan has kept a working colony in culture ever since. He has watched them, studied them, photographed them and bred them. With no other practical alternative, he fed them on himself — thus becoming part of the process. For decades, it was just a curiosity for most and the eccentric Harlan and his bed bug colony. No one had bed bugs, nor cared much as the insect fell into obscurity in the American urban pest management experience.

But in this case, a scientific curiosity turned in to significant research commodity. When bed bugs re-emerged in the late 1990s, there were few colonies from which to draw specimens for research…but Harlan had them. In the universities where research was just beginning to germinate, they needed live insects for basic experiments and benchmarks for susceptible strains — and Harlan was happy to help.

Research begins anew
In the last few years, the research has been proceeding in earnest. Studies are in progress regarding basic biology, resistance, attraction and repellence, and genetics. As you read the studies and hear the terms “Harlan strain” or “Fort Dix strain,” think of Dr. Harold Harlan faithfully keeping his bed bugs all those years. His advice and insights served to nurture at least in some small way, many of the research efforts in academia today.

The research is beginning to bear fruit, and we are learning much about bed bugs and their control from the efforts of dedicated and talented researchers. As this information enters the urban pest management arena and is incorporated into control strategies, bed bug control becomes a little more predictable. A wonderful resource for information regarding bed bugs is the Bed Bug Handbook by Larry Pinto, Rick Cooper and Sandy Kraft. With more information coming out every month, the bed bug saga has many chapters to go.