The Return of the Bedbugs: They Won t Go Away

Thanks to ScienceAlert for support: https://www.sciencealert.com/ and to TED-Ed for hosting Henry in their awesome New York City office while he did the drawings for this video! Hardy bed bugs have reinvaded cities around the world. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Cimex lectularius: is a species of Cimicidae (bed bugs). Its primary hosts are humans, and it is one of the world s major "nuisance pests". Both male and female Cimex lectularius feed on humans. - Traumatic insemination: also known as hypodermic insemination, is the mating practice in some species of invertebrates in which the male pierces the female s abdomen with his aedeagus and injects his sperm through the wound into her abdominal cavity (hemocoel). - Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane: commonly known as DDT, is a chemical compound originally developed as an insecticide. DDT was used in the second half of World War II to limit the spread of the insect-borne diseases malaria and typhus among civilians and troops. Due to its environmental impacts it was banned in the United States for agricultural uses in 1972. A worldwide ban on agricultural use has been in effect since 2004. - Pesticide resistance: describes the decreased susceptibility of a pest population to a pesticide that was previously effective at controlling the pest. Pest species evolve pesticide resistance via natural selection: the most resistant specimens survive and pass on their acquired heritable changes traits to their offspring. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth - Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Created by Henry Reich, with Alex Reich, Peter Reich, Rose Eveleth, Emily Elert, and John Guittar Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Biology and Behavior: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pesticides/pdffiles/bb-biology1.pdf http://www.falw.vu.nl/nl/Images/siva%202006_tcm19-30750.pdf Bedbug History: http://entsoc.org/PDF/2011/AE-Potter-spring2011.pdf http://www.icup.org.uk/reports%5CICUP911.pdf Insecticides and Resistance: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2537818/pdf/bullwho00516-0089.pdf http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/09/08/conservatives-blame-environmentalists-for-bedbugs.html Treatment: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef636.asp