Bedbugs Have Been Around For A Longer Time Than You May Think | Bed Bug Control

Bedbugs may seem like a modern problem, but these tiny critters have been around humans for thousands of years. According to the Journal of Medical Entomology, fossilized bedbugs have recently been found in a cave that was once inhabited by prehistoric humans. The fossilized bedbugs were dated to have existed during the late Pleistocene Epoch.

The bed bugs fossils that were found are known to researchers as cimicid insects. These types of bedbugs are no longer in existence, but they are considered ancient relatives of modern bedbugs. These fossils were unearthed at a site within the Five Mile Point Cave in Oregon where researchers believe humans lived around 13,500 years ago. This is the conclusion made by researchers from the University of Oregon. The researchers came to their conclusions by resorting to type of research known as “Paleoinsect Research”, which is a method of research that aims to analyze insect remains as accurately as possible. Three different species of ancient bedbugs were identified, and all three are believed to be members of the Cimex genus of insects.

According to Martin E. Adams, a co-author of the paper, these recently discovered bedbugs are different than the bedbugs that are making so many people’s lives miserable in these modern times. Instead these ancient bedbugs were bat parasites that only bothered humans on occasion. Some cimcid insects did eventually develop a taste for human blood thousands of years ago, but the bed bugs that were the focus of the study rarely did. These ancient cimcid bedbugs may have fed on humans when no other option was available, but luckily for our ancient ancestors, bed bugs were most likely not a problem at all. Researchers believe that many more types of bedbugs could be unearthed in the same region.

Do you think bedbugs did not bother our ancestors as much since our ancestors did not where much fabric?