Bed bugs boom tracked using DNA

11 July 2012 Last updated at 09:53 By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature, Ottawa, Canada

Biologist Toby Fountain is fascinated by bed bugs.

He was originally intrigued by their "traumatic" reproductive behaviour; males injecting sperm directly into females' abdomens.

But Toby is now leading a study to find out why the infamous insects have spread so much in the last decade.

He and his colleagues are using DNA fingerprinting techniques in an effort to track down the origin of the great bed bug boom.

He discussed his project at the First Joint Congress for Evolutionary Biology in Ottawa.

The global surge in bed bugs, Toby explained, was first documented just after the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"It's been getting more and more prevalent since then," says the scientist.

The cost of the spread has been exorbitant, although the exact figure is difficult to estimate, it has been placed in the tens of millions.

Primarily, this cost comes from law suits against hotels that are accused of being infested and leaving their guests badly bitten.

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Bed bugs boom tracked using DNA