Comments on: Bed bugs, chickens and DNA: a Q&A with Dr. James Austin

By: DDT resistance: once more, with tables and sources « New York vs Bed Bugs

DDT resistance: once more, with tables and sources « New York vs Bed Bugs — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:07:15 +0000

[…] a March 2008 Bedbugger interview, Texas A & M research scientist James W. Austin noted the continued resistance to DDT: While […]

By: Bedbugs, DDT « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub

Bedbugs, DDT « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:54:28 +0000

[…] In comments, Bug Girl suggests we look at the blog of Bedbugger, and especially this interview with an entomologist. Take a look — the expert, Dr. James W. Austin of Texas A&M, says bedbugs are about […]

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:50:04 +0000

Dr. Austin,

Thanks so much for your comments!

In addition to the remarks readers posted above, many additional readers wrote to thank us for this interview. We really appreciate your participating so generously with your time!

By: hopelessnomo

hopelessnomo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:24:11 +0000

Thank you so much for checking in on us, Dr. Austin.

By: James Austin

James Austin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:03:02 +0000

I was actually looking for some other information and took a moment to read some of the chatter about this interview and thought to add a short comment. For clarification…bed bugs likely use other passeriformes (wild indigenous birds such as sparrows, starlings, robins, etc.) as either intermediate hosts when galliformes (chickens and turkeys) are unavailable (removed from poultry houses for production and meat harvesting), and they are phoretically transferred from nests (on birds) adjacent to or residing on poultry facilities (to other locations)…a common occurrence and entirely validated by the observance of bed bugs in their respective nests and our investigations using genera specific molecular markers. You have to remember that the poultry facilities in question are for the growth of meat, where chickens reside for significant times without movement out of the houses (often in excess of 230 days). When they (the wild birds) fly to urban areas or make nests on homes and apartments they accidentally transfer bed bugs to these locations. This has been demonstrated with many cimicid species around the world (on bats too!) including eagles and other falconiformes. It would take considerable time to develop large populations after a sweeping application of DDT followed by various synthetic organic insecticides that followed, especially the organochlorines. The identity of these bugs, like all the other studies mentioned, were corroborated morphologically and genetically leaving no doubt about what insects we are talking about here. I hope this clears up some of your confusion. BTW…researchers in Europe get most if not all of their bed bugs for research from the same types of poultry facilities in eastern Europe and the Middle East, so this problem is not unique to the USA. I hope this helps inform you more.

By: Bugologist

Bugologist — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:17:59 +0000

I happen to agree with you lieutenantdan, how exactly does a mass migration of bed bugs go from chicken coups to homes? It’s not like all of us are chicken breeders.

I think it’s reasonable to think that a large population of bed bugs, or cimicids (have they been id’d to be lectularis?), have been present in chicken breeding/harvesting facilities for many years, but how does that contribute to a resurgence in human population? Could a few farmers take a few back to their houses, sure, start the whole worldwide firestorm, I doubt it.

Then again, if I missed something, someone please clue me in.

Either way, great interview and article. It’s fun to see some hardcore science on the site.

By: lieutenantdan

lieutenantdan — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Great reporting.

If bed bugs for the last fifty years have been hanging around chicken coupes than why all of a sudden this big epidemic? Maybe I missed that in the story.

By: Winston O. Buggy

Winston O. Buggy — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:47:52 +0000

Kudos on the interview, perhaps more folks can understand the complexities of control and variables. And hopefully it will dispel the DDT fantasy that if only all would be well.

By: hopelessnomo

hopelessnomo — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:49:11 +0000

Thank you all for your comments. Dr. Austin was indeed very kind.

Thanks, lil, for that link. I suspect bedbugs in large-scale poultry facilities will not be a priority. And all sites of significant infestation should definitely be a control priority.

Yes, Doug, DDT is so last century!

But our interest is piqued on the trap stuff, huh?

James is referring to the glue trap and activated hand warmer technique that Sean shared with us. You can read about it here. And Nobugs noted an interesting mention in the recent WSJ article.

Finally, Nobugs totally wrote the best question!

All the best…

By: Doug Summers MS

Doug Summers MS — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:15:01 +0000

Thanks, Nomo
I have been looking forward to hearing more about the results of Dr. Austin’s research.

Finding that 100% of the bed bug specimens from disjoint populations were resistant to DDT confirms the view that DDT was a primary factor in the near eradication of bed bugs from households in the US sixty years ago. This revelation should also help settle the debate about the merits of bringing DDT back to the marketplace

I wonder if we could use Bed Bug Dogs and DNA markers to trace the migration path of bed bugs from the poultry facilities into our urban areas. I would love to participate in that kind of research.

Establishing the role of poultry operations in the resurgence of bed bugs globally suggests that another important vector (chicken farming) should be targeted for pest control.