Terrifying: Bedbugs Have Evolved to Live With Mankind

[marmar]

via AlterNet:





Miller-McCune.com / By Rob Dunn

Terrifying: Bedbugs Have Evolved to Live With Mankind
The rise of bedbugs has followed the rise of mankind living indoors; their latest resurgence illustrates the survival of the fittest.

March 24, 2011 |


Bedbugs sure is evil, they don’t mean me no good. Yeah, bedbug sure is evil, they don’t mean me no good. Thinks he’s a woodpecker and I’m a chunk of wood.” — Bessie Smith (“Mean Old Bedbug Blues”)


Bedbugs are small and sneaky. Bedbugs do nasty things. Bedbugs are also becoming more common, a trend likely to expand and worsen this spring. But none of this is new, not really. The story of the bedbugs in our lives begins no less than 4,000 years ago. It is a kind of parable about the difference between what we want and what we make. We wanted a realm inside our houses, where we would always be happy and might live forever.

Instead, we made the bedbug, a modern chimera we seem unlikely to ever really escape.

It began innocently. Once we were like the birds. The rain fell on our naked shoulders. The sun beat down on our heads. There was no inside or outside. We built our nests of sticks and mud. Then we moved out of the trees. On the ground, the world was more dangerous. Leopards crouched in the darkness between resting spots, venomous snakes hid under leaves. We sought safety, shade and cover and found them all in caves.

Caves changed the world. In moving into caves, we invented the more constant conditions of the “indoors.” No matter that this particular indoors lacked an actual door, it was still the rough seed of what would come. It was the beginning of our efforts to make the place we lived “better” than everywhere else. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/culture/150370/terrifying%3A_bedbugs_have_evolved_to_live_with_mankind/

[MineralMan]

1. What do PETA members do when their living spaces

are infested with these little animals? That's the question of the day.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Turn them into pets?

Maybe they build tiny bedbug houses for them and feed them Bedbug Chow.

[MineralMan]

9. No, no! For PETA pets are slaves to humans.

I think the PETA members would just have to lie there and let the bedbugs feed on them. That's the only fair thing to do. Think of the animals!

[LiberalEsto]

10. I am unable to picture this without

ROFLMAO

:rofl: :spray:

Maybe they can dab themselves with barbecue sauce or something now and then, to give the bugs a special treat.

[MineralMan]

11. Nope. Barbecue sauce has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it.

That would be wrong. No, the PETA members will lie naked in their beds and let the bedbugs feed on them. It's their duty to the animal kingdom. Bless their hearts... :rofl:

[yellowcanine]

2. "Terrifying"? Not really. They are an annoyance but hardly terrifying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bug

There is the possibility of skin rashes and allergic reactions but terror is not a particularly adaptive response. Not as if they are flying airplanes into buildings or stalking you in a dark ally with a knife.

[hobbit709]

3. also the mites that live on your eyebrows.

[MilesColtrane]

12. Most of the cells in and on your body aren't even yours.

You are made of several trillion human cells, but inside you are over 100 trillion cells composed of more than 500 bacterial species, not to mention the viruses and fungi living on you.

You are actually a Human/Bacteria hybrid.

[robcon]

4. "Evolved to Live With Mankind"

So have mice, cockroaches, rats, dogs, cats and all other species who live near humans.

[LiberalEsto]

6. And, to a lesser extent, Republicans.

[Still Blue in PDX]

14. +1000

:toast:

[WatsonT]

7. Alot of animals have done that

even more so the smaller the organism we're talking about.

There are a few species that would certainly go extinct if we were to disappear.

[drm604]

8. Interesting part of that article.

It says that part of our problem may be that we've been so successful at eradicating other insects from our homes. Pharaoh ants, for example are very good at eating bedbugs, the carry them back to their nests, but at the first sign of ants we put out traps to eradicate them. Certain spiders also like to eat them.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

13. See, I Can Already Tell That This Entire Article Is A Lie

Because evolution is a myth. It should read, "Bedbugs were CREATED BY THE INVISIBLE MAN IN THE SKY to live with humans because He has nothing but infinite love for us."

Those aren't ugly, festering welts on your body. They're angel kisses.