is that right?mosquitos have wings, and cockroaches don't suck blood.

My theory on why bedbugs took so long to come back after nearly being eliminated by DDT, is that they have somewhat of a disadvantage in spreading in relation to other pests that rebounded so much more quickly after DDT.

Bedbugs don't jump, they don't fly, they feed primarily on human blood, and they crawl very slowly. Compare to cockroaches that can crawl very quickly (3mph) and some fly and eat pretty much whatever food they find, and mosquitoes that can fly from place to place sucking blood. I also read bedbugs are mostly active at night which means its harder for them to be transfer from host to host in the daytime.

My other pet theory has to do with the rise of hipster activities like dumpster diving and freeganism, but that theory isn't really scientific, although I do wonder why Brooklyn has the most bedbug complaints in the 5 boroughs...

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even the NIH said they are not known to transmit sicknesses.note the did not say out right they do not transmit.some claim that bedbugs are to blame for the spread of leprosy, Q-fever, oriental sores and brucellosis, these cases are rare and poorly documented.when bed bugs were around prior to WWII

no one really studied them in detail.they do carry sickness that is known but to date there is no info if they can transmit them that is why scientist are now doing these studies.it will be up to the public to bring to light if they get sick after being bitten by the little pests .

yeah I saw one entomologist saying before 2001 the only bedbugs he saw were ones in plate glass. Pretty crazy.

Bed Bugs have had tens or even hundreds of thousands of years to evolve along side their human hosts. It is clearly in their evolutionary favor to NOT transmit disease, because that could mean killing their hosts - leaving them without any blood to suck.

BBs that could kill pathogens in human blood would be more likely to survive and reproduce because their food supply would not be interrupted.

Doesn't explain their reappearance.

Cockroaches, ants, spiders, mites and centipedes all are natural predators to bedbugs. I'd like to see some of those crazy enviros put a few of those 'natural remedies' in their carbon-neutral households!

oh don't worry -- it's probably just one of them biblical revelation lamentation thingies:

"And out of the smoke [bedbugs] came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads (huh? wtf?). They were not given power to kill them, but only to t*orture them for five months (are 5 months like 5 years to the christian god?). And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them (ok, i think that's being a little over-dramatic, even by my standards.)."

100% correct

"Really dumb headline, the idea of the experiment was to see if the bedbugs could transmit HIV/AIDS to humans"

Moron

Michael F. Potter said, “I’d like to take some of these groups and lock them in an apartment building full of bugs and see what they say then."

I LOVE the way you think, please be sure to include bloomberg in that group.

If we include Bloomberg, we’ll have to throw a few tourists and rich people in there with him. That’s the only way he’ll admit there’s a problem.

Huh, the DDT thing is a myth? It seemed so reasonable! As I guess the best urban legends are.

The actual viris has never been isolated... So there testing for something thats not there - agian..

 Please don't be stupid. Of course the HIV virus has been isolated. It has never been grown in culture...because no virus can be grown that way - you're thinking of germs (bacteria).

Really dumb headline, the idea of the experiment was to see if the bedbugs could transmit HIV/AIDS to humans. Luckily the answer is no. It's time to panic if the virus DOESN'T die inside the bedbug, and it could spread it. But it can't so, no panic! Don't write dopey headlines!

With regards to DDT, NY Times is really comparing apples to oranges. Aren't bedbugs vs. mosquitos and cockroaches different bugs with different habits, lifecycles, behaviors, anatomy and responses to chemicals?

For instance and I'm not a scientist here but here's 2 things I can think of, mosquitos have wings, and cockroaches don't suck blood.

If it works, we should go back to DDT.  It is not indoor spraying of DDT that caused the environmental problems that the book Silent Spring addressed, and not even Rachel Carson argued for the total abolition of using DDT.  That was the result of a moral panic.

What caused environmental problems was the indiscriminate outdoor use of DDT, such as spraying it on lakes, ponds and rivers.  Indoor use of DDT is nearly harmless to adult males, and non-pregnant women.  It probably should be used only with caution if children or potential children are involved.

The solution to potentially dangerous chemicals is not to go nuts and just ban them completely, but to use them only in rational ways.

It's also possible that bedbugs were already developing resistance to DDT at the time we stopped using it, because they didn't just suddenly come back the moment we stopped using it.  But we shouldn't make decisions like this based on hysteria.

Also, it's not like it's hard to synthesize DDT, either.  If these morons in the government won't authorize it, we can go "Breaking Bad" and do it ourselves easily enough.

Agreed. Bad headline, worse writing.

Was just reading about bedbugs' natural enemies, unfortunately every single one of them are pests as well! Cockroaches, ants, spiders, mites and centipedes all are natural predators to bedbugs. I'd like to see some of those crazy enviros put a few of those 'natural remedies' in their carbon-neutral households!

And then we'll get a jaguar to take care of the anteaters...

Yes.