Latest news with #urbanpests
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Toronto's proposed rat attack plan faces 1st hurdle
A Toronto municipal committee is set to look over a newly-proposed rat control plan on Wednesday. Last month, city manager Paul Johnson unveiled his response to the city's growing rat problem — laying out a plan that pushes disparate city departments to work together and focuses on eliminating food and shelter for the rodents, rather than on exterminating them. "Efforts to 'eliminate' rats often result in reactive, short term fixes that miss the root causes. High-quality municipal service delivery is more impactful," says the plan. which came about after councillors requested it last year amid rising complaints from residents. "We're building more and construction shakes the ground, rats are released into neighbourhoods, and we need to figure out how to get ahead of it," said Davenport Coun. Alejandra Bravo at the time. If the economic and community development committee gives the green light, Johnson's plan will next go to city council for a final decision, before possibly being implemented next year. Rats on the rise Toronto residents and business have always had to do battle with rat infestations — with some sharing unpleasant photo evidence along the way — but there are clear signs the problem has been growing in recent years. In 2019, there were 940 property standards-related rodent service requests to the city. After a brief dip during the pandemic, those numbers had surged to 1,600 by 2023. A study early this year also tracked a growing rat population in Toronto and 10 other cities around the world, with the authors linking the population boom to climate change and calling for a "dedicated response team" in the besieged municipalities. A key part of the city's new rat response plan is the creation of a team that coordinates between the many city divisions that deal with rats — from parks and construction to municipal licensing and standards. Johnson says that will come at an initial cost of $351,000, in order to hire two new people. He's also asking council to pony up $150,000 annually to pay for "public communication and staff training related to rat management." The city's plan would also involve advising both private developers and Metrolinx-led transit projects on how to stop rats from moving into neighbouring properties when they're displaced by construction. Looping Metrolinx into the city's approach is something Toronto—Danforth Coun. Paula Fletcher has been vocal about. She said she's been hearing complaints from her constituents about rats showing up in areas near the Ontario Line construction. The city's proposed plan notes that it can't add rat-related conditions to either Metrolinx applications or private building permit applications, but says proactive advising "is an effective way to prevent infestations."
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists discover surprising cause for rapid increase in bedbug population: 'The bugs spread with them'
Scientists have discovered a surprising connection between the rise in civilizations and a subsequent increase in bedbug populations. Though they're not known to transmit diseases, the pests can contribute to sleep and mental health issues. As the Guardian reported, a new study by an international team of researchers found that bedbugs could likely be "the first urban pest insect," as their numbers exploded when humans began expanding across the globe and building cities. Dr. Warren Booth, an urban entomologist at Virginia Tech and a co-author of the research, said that when human settlements first emerged around 10,000 years ago, it created the ideal conditions for the blood-sucking parasites to thrive. "When we started to live in cities, we brought all these people together, and they all had their own bedbugs with them," Booth said. "And then, as civilisation spread across the world, the bugs spread with them to the point where they're now ubiquitous in human society." For the study, which was published in Biology Letters, the team compared the genetic material of 19 bedbugs from the Czech Republic and discovered that populations associated with both bats and humans — two common hosts for bedbugs — started declining in the midst of the last ice age, about 45,000 years ago. However, their populations experienced a "dramatic" rise around 8,000 years ago, shortly after humans migrated into big cities. While bedbugs are not generally considered to be harmful, they can cause discomfort and annoyance, especially if you're dealing with an infestation. Plus, some people experience minor symptoms, including itching and irritation, red, swollen bumps, and even allergic reactions that require treatment. Not to mention, knowing you have bedbugs crawling around your sheets can lead to insomnia and poor well-being. Having to replace bedding and potentially seek professional help to eradicate them is also a major hassle. However, the elephant in the room is that soaring bedbug numbers and the shifting climate have more to do with each other than you'd think. Warmer temperatures and higher humidity levels can accelerate bedbug life cycles and lead to more frequent reproduction. Additionally, a hotter climate provides the ideal conditions for pests to expand their ranges and colonize areas they previously could not survive in. Changes in the climate can also disrupt natural predators or competitors of bedbugs, further contributing to their successful reproduction. While bedbugs don't directly harm the planet, the need to control or eliminate them often involves the use of pesticides, which can damage ecosystems and hurt wildlife. In the grand scheme of things, bedbugs may be relatively harmless compared to other pests, but bugs such as mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas are contributing to an alarming rise in vector-borne illnesses — including malaria, Lyme disease, and typhus — around the globe. Do you worry about getting diseases from bug bites? Absolutely Only when I'm camping or hiking Not really Never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Prevention is the best cure, as they say, so regular cleaning and decluttering around your home will help keep the bedbugs at bay. If you have an infestation, make sure to thoroughly wash and dry bedding on high heat, use steam or heat treatments, or call for professional help if necessary. Keeping your home clean with natural cleaning products such as baking soda and vinegar is also a simple, affordable solution to prevent (or at least lessen) the likelihood of attracting bedbugs. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bed Bugs May Have Been The First Urban Pest to Ever Plague Humans
Humans were letting the bed bugs bite long before beds existed, and while they do live on other species, we're the main reason this notorious parasite is still going strong. In fact, bed bugs might have been the first pest to plague our cities – earlier than the black rat, for instance, which joined us in urban life about 15,000 years ago, and even the German cockroach, which only got the memo about 2,100 years ago. Researchers think the blood-sucking pests – Cimex lectularius – first jumped from their bat hosts onto a passing human some 50,000 years ago, a move which would change the course of the insect species forever. Human bed bugs, it turns out, have boomed since the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago. But it's a different story for those populations that continued living on bats. "Initially with both populations, we saw a general decline that is consistent with the Last Glacial Maximum; the bat-associated lineage never bounced back, and it is still decreasing in size," says entomologist Lindsay Miles, from Virginia Tech. "The really exciting part is that the human-associated lineage did recover and their effective population increased." The researchers were able to track this evolution because the human bed bugs have a much narrower genetic diversity, since only a few 'founders' probably came with us when we abandoned life in caves. But our move into cities around 12,000 years ago is what really kicked off the human bed bug boom. This was only briefly interrupted when DDT was invented in the 1940s. Populations crashed, humans slept sweetly, and then five years later, the bed bugs were back. Since then, bed bugs have travelled around the world with us, and even become resistant to our pesticides. For now, it seems, bed bugs are here to stay. It's been a long-term relationship, after all. The research is published in Biology Letters. Your Brain Wrinkles Are Way More Important Than We Ever Realized Something Strange Happens to Your Eyes When You're Sexually Aroused 2-Year-Old Prodigy Joins 'High IQ' Club Mensa as Youngest Member Ever
The Independent
29-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Scientists identify key shift that led to huge rise in bedbugs
Bedbugs may have been interrupting human sleep for more than 50,000 years, but it was only when humans left caves and formed the first cities that their populations really boomed, according to a new study. The research, published in science journal Biology Letters, looked at the genetics of bedbugs and found that they split into two lineages thousands of years ago – one that stayed on bats, and one that targeted humans. By the Ice Age both populations were in general decline, with the bat-associated lineage never bouncing back, but the urban bedbugs recovered and began to thrive as human settlements expanded into cities. As humans built early cities, such as Mesopotamia, around 12,000 years ago and their populations started to boom, so too did the populations of the tiny parasitic insects feasting on human skin – making the species one of the first human pests. 'That makes sense because modern humans moved out of caves about 60,000 years ago,' said Warren Booth, the Joseph R. and Mary W. Wilson Urban Entomology associate professor. "There were bedbugs living in the caves with these humans, and when they moved out they took a subset of the population with them so there's less genetic diversity in that human-associated lineage." "What will be interesting is to look at what's happening in the last 100 to 120 years," Prof Booth told science website "Bed bugs were pretty common in the old world, but once DDT [dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane] was introduced for pest control, populations crashed. They were thought to have been essentially eradicated, but within five years they started reappearing and were resisting the pesticide." Bedbug infestations saw a dramatic 35 per cent jump between 2022 and 2024, while cockroach removal visits rose by 13 per cent over the same period.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Bedbug numbers soared when humans left caves and moved to cities, scientists find
Bedbugs may have been interrupting human sleep for more than 50,000 years, but it was only when humans left caves and formed the first cities that their populations really boomed, according to a new study. The research, published in science journal Biology Letters, looked at the genetics of bedbugs and found that they split into two lineages thousands of years ago – one that stayed on bats, and one that targeted humans. By the Ice Age both populations were in general decline, with the bat-associated lineage never bouncing back, but the urban bedbugs recovered and began to thrive as human settlements expanded into cities. As humans built early cities, such as Mesopotamia, around 12,000 years ago and their populations started to boom, so too did the populations of the tiny parasitic insects feasting on human skin – making the species one of the first human pests. 'That makes sense because modern humans moved out of caves about 60,000 years ago,' said Warren Booth, the Joseph R. and Mary W. Wilson Urban Entomology associate professor. "There were bedbugs living in the caves with these humans, and when they moved out they took a subset of the population with them so there's less genetic diversity in that human-associated lineage." "What will be interesting is to look at what's happening in the last 100 to 120 years," Prof Booth told science website "Bed bugs were pretty common in the old world, but once DDT [dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane] was introduced for pest control, populations crashed. They were thought to have been essentially eradicated, but within five years they started reappearing and were resisting the pesticide." Bedbug infestations saw a dramatic 35 per cent jump between 2022 and 2024, while cockroach removal visits rose by 13 per cent over the same period.
