As panicked headlines around the world will testify, bed bugs have made a big comeback. While it’s fair to say the widely loathed pests never went away — they are easily transmitted from one person or household to another, and notoriously difficult to get rid of — experts say that over the past few decades bed bugs have become increasingly resistant to the insecticides generally used to kill them. The result has been a major resurgence of bed bug infestations around the world, made worse by economic inequality and the lack of consistent public health policy to address the issue.
Aimée Code, the pesticide program director at the invertebrate advocacy group The Xerces Society, wants you to know something about bed bugs: They should not ruin your impression of other insects.
