Many New York City pest control experts can attest to the fact that bed bugs will spread like wildfire in a multi-unit dwelling if they are left to their own devices.  Before now, researchers were uncertain as to why bed bugs were able to spread so quickly, but results from a recent study by entomologists at North Carolina State University may hold the answers as to why bed bugs are able to thrive so well in this environment.

ABC Science reported on December 7, 2011 that inbreeding may be the secret to the bed bugs ability to multiply so quickly.  According to reports, a bed bug genetics study was presented at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting in Philadelphia by two entomologists from North Carolina State University this week.  Their research revealed that unlike most other types of creatures in existence, bed bugs were able to mate with their siblings and offspring without suffering the genetic deformities that other species suffer when inbreeding occurs.  Specifically, “a single mated female bedbug starts the infestation. She gives rise to offspring and those offspring mate with each other and with their mother,” said Coby Schal, one of the entomologists who led the study.  You may read the article here.

Researchers now believe that it is nearly impossible for different bed bug families to infest apartment buildings or other multi-unit type buildings when an infestation is present.  Instead it is now believed that when an infestation is present, those bed bugs all originate from one particular bed bug source.  The research completed proves that bed bugs not only survive, but they thrive as well.

As more information becomes wide-spread on this topic, it will likely become increasingly difficult for landlords to blame tenants for bed bug infestations in the United States because of this new information regarding their genetic link.