The bed bug population in the world is increasing. A reason why bed bugs are increasing worldwide may be because they are evolving with thicker skin which makes them harder to kill using common pesticides. At this rate, these parasites could be completely resistant to insecticides in the near future.

Bed bug infestation is a nasty and time-consuming constraint. While bed bugs don't really spread disease and their bites don't really hurt, they can be hard to get rid of when they overrun home and offices. With their evolving thick skin, experts say that the resistant bugs may need 1,000 times more concentrated insecticides to get rid of them. The study published in PLOS ONE was done by researchers of University of Sydney.

"The new findings reveal that one way bed bugs beat insecticides is by developing a thicker 'skin'," David Lilly of University of Sydney said in a press release. "Bed bugs, like all insects, are covered by an exoskeleton called a cuticle."


They were able to analyze their findings by comparing the cuticles of bed bugs with varying resistance to the same pesticides. Newsweek reports that bed bugs are increasingly becoming more resistant to pyrethroid insecticide. The researchers are hopeful that their study will determine why bed bug insecticides don't really work anymore.

"If we understand the biological mechanisms bed bugs use to beat insecticides, we may be able to spot a chink in their armour that we can exploit with new strategies," Lilly explained.

The study also reveals that there may be other ways to solve bed bug infestation other than using pesticides. What do you think of the news of bed bugs becoming more resistant to pesticides? Do you think we should use other extermination methods? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

Topics University of sydney