Worst bed bug infected cities across Britain MAPPED with creepy crawlies set to invade the UK – so, is YOUR area affected?
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Last month, reports of bed bugs spread, with social media filled with photos and videos of the blood-sucking insects.
Now, data has revealed which skin-crawling hotspots in the UK have the highest incidences.
Using Google search data, researchers from Merlin Environmental have identified which areas of the UK have the greatest bedbug problems relative to population size.
Of the UK’s 20 largest cities, four were deemed to have a ‘very high infestation’, with London taking top spot as Britain’s ‘bedbug capital’.
However, the results show that it is not only major cities that have the highest levels of infection.
Is your city on the list? This map reveals which of the 20 largest cities in the UK have the worst bedbug infestations relative to their population size
Following in Paris’s footsteps, London now appears to have been caught up in a bedbug boom as footage emerges of the vampires on the Tube and buses.
Which areas of the UK have the worst bedbug infestation rates?
The researchers examined Google search trends for the 12 months through January 2022 to see how often the terms “bed bugs” or “bed bug treatment” were searched.
These numbers were then divided by the number of people in the area to determine the percentage of the population included in the searches.
The analysis revealed that London had the highest number of searches per capita, with 266,400 searches, equivalent to 2.97 per cent of the population searching for bed bugs on Google.
Leicester came in second place, coming in behind with 2.95 per cent of population – a surprising result considering it is the 13th most populous city.
Manchester came in third place, with 2.8 percent of residents feeling forced to look for bed bugs.
Meanwhile, Wakefield residents will be relieved to discover that their city has the lowest rate of bedbug problems of any place the researchers examined, with just 0.46 percent of the population looking for bedbugs.
While an epidemic of blood-sucking insects may seem too bleak to be true, the situation in the UK represents a growing public health problem.
Name of the city or town | Search rate per aapita |
---|---|
Greater London | 2.97% |
Leicester | 2.95% |
Manchester | 2.82% |
Bristol | 2.67% |
Birmingham | 2.51% |
Glasgow | 2.49% |
Liverpool | 2.42% |
Newcastle upon Tyne | 2.36% |
Nottingham | 2.14% |
Edinburgh | 2.06% |
Leeds | 1.97% |
Sheffield | 1.81% |
Wolverhampton | 1.78% |
Belfast | 1.73% |
Coventry | 1.57% |
Plymouth | 1.46% |
Sunderland | 1.12% |
Bradford | 1.07% |
Cardiff | 0.61% |
Wakefield | 0.49% |
Are bed bugs a real problem in the UK?
This week, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said the possibility of bedbugs on the London Underground was a “real concern”.
Khan said he had been in contact with officials from Paris after the French capital was engulfed by a large-scale invasion.
A viral video appears to show bedbugs crawling down a passenger’s leg on London’s Victoria Line, while the insects have also been spotted on Manchester bus services.
Dr Richard Naylor, an etymologist from the Bed Bug Foundation, told MailOnline the recent spread of bedbugs is due to several different factors.
Bed bugs used to be more common. Dr. Naylor explained that in the 1930s almost every house in London had bed bugs.
However, after World War II, efforts were made to improve living conditions and numbers declined.
Bed bugs continued to grow rare until the late 1990s when their numbers worldwide began to increase rapidly.
Only the COVID-19 pandemic could briefly lower bedbug numbers as travel restrictions limited their spread.
Due to repeated exposure to pesticides, remaining bedbug populations have become highly resistant to the chemicals used to treat infestations
Dr Naylor told MailOnline: ‘There are multiple factors that contribute to the success of bedbugs. They thrive wherever human population density is high because this makes it easier for them to spread.
“In apartment buildings and sheltered apartment complexes, they can easily walk into corridors and under doors, gradually invading the entire building.”
The life cycle of bedbugs is highly dependent on temperature, which means that the warmer the temperature, the faster they spread.
“They benefit from good central heating and warm weather. The warmer they are, the more they feed and the faster they reproduce,” Dr Naylor added.
“Warmer weather resulting from climate change may exacerbate the bedbug problem.”
As central heating and warmer weather made life easier for bedbugs, the insects themselves adapted to become more difficult to remove.
Bedbugs are perfectly adapted to hiding in our homes because they need the warmth of central heating to reproduce and can hide in even the smallest cracks or crevices.
How to get rid of bed bugs
Bedbug infestations used to be treated with chemicals such as DDT, which has now been banned as it has been found to have caused the deaths of several British birds of prey.
Pest control now uses chemicals called pyrethroids to treat infections, however, bed bugs have become highly resistant to these chemicals.
Dr Naylor said: “When insecticide use is less than 100 per cent effective, the survivors tend to be the most resistant individuals in the population.
“If they escape and create new infections in the next apartment or hotel room, the resulting population will be the offspring of these more resistant individuals.”
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