28-05-2025
Stone age bed bugs were humanity's first pests, scientists reveal
STONE Age people had a far more troublesome enemy than sabre-tooth tigers — bed bugs.
Their first settlements — like Fred Flinstone's fictional home of Bedrock — would have been crawling with the blood-suckers.
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Stone age people had a problem with bed bugs
Credit: Getty
The bugs' numbers exploded when humans moved out of caves, making them the first household pests, researchers say.
In the study, DNA analysis was used to trace back the species found in homes today to those feeding off cave dwellers.
Cimex lectularius was found to have had a 'close relationship' with humans for 50,000 years.
The team from Virginia Tech University in the US confirmed the bugs first lived on bats before some switched to Stone Age humans in caves.
But the population took off only 13,000 years ago — when people quit cave life and began farming and building settlements
While its numbers rocketed, the bat bed bug species fell away.
Researcher Dr Linsday Miles said: 'Both populations saw a general decline that is consistent with the last ice age.
'The bat-associated lineage never bounced back and it is still decreasing in size.
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'The really exciting part is that the human-associated lineage did recover and their population increased.'
The researchers say bed bugs, which live in furniture and bite to feed on blood, predate rats and even cockroaches as domestic pests.
Rats moved in to homes 2,000 years ago, and cockroaches 5,000 years ago.
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Blood sucking bed bugs were the first pest
Credit: AFP
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