There are a LOT of "Bugs" in Your Home
A small group of entomologists from the NRC and UNSU in Raleigh are conducting a pretty amazing study of arthropods in people’s homes. I got a chance to join them for this week’s video, and was it ever an eye opener. As it turns out, it is not uncommon to find 100 species of bugs in any given house. The other major findings were that 1) every house has lice 2) almost every house also has carpet beetles and 3) the most diverse group of organisms in the house are flies! Here is the original study.
Since this original study, Michelle Trautwein and Misha Leong have continued their work to examine the bugs of all the continents. Here are the ones we’ve been to so far.
Bugs in Homes: San Francisco
Bugs in Homes: Sweden
Bugs in Homes: The Amazon
More Information About This Research
- The science article about this arthropod research
- National Geographic’s article on the Bugs in Homes Collected by Matt Bertone.
- Learn more about what these guys are doing at YourWildlife.org.
- See more pictures by insect photographer and entomologist Matt Bertone.
- Learn about the Citizen Science Research at the Nature Research Center in Raleigh.
- For information about the different groups of bugs, go to our Untamed Science Insect section:
- The New York Times: The Bugs in our Homes
- The Onions Coverage of the Bugs Story.
