They’re pests that we all dread, and now a new study suggests that bedbugs have been terrorising homes for millions of years.
Researchers from the University of Sheffield have revealed that bedbugs evolved more than 100 million years ago - 50 million years earlier than previously thought.
In the study, the team compared the DNA of dozens of bedbug species.
Professor Mike Siva-Jothy, an author of the study, said: “To think that the pests that live in our beds today evolved more than 100 million years ago and were walking the earth side by side with dinosaurs, was a revelation.
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“It shows that the evolutionary history of bed bugs is far more complex than we previously thought.”
The DNA analysis revealed that bedbugs are much older than bats, which previous studies have assumed were the bugs’ first host.
While this means that bedbugs were around at the same time as the dinosaurs, the researchers highlight that further studies are needed to understand whether or not the bugs actually fed on their blood.
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Best of all, the findings could lead to new way to control bedbug infestations in the future.
Professor Siva-Jothy added: "These findings will help us better understand how bedbugs evolved the traits that make them effective pests - that will also help us find new ways of controlling them."
