By Jet Pest Control
•
03 Oct, 2022
Entomologists from the University of Kentucky's College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment discovered in a recent study that bed bugs produce large amounts of histamine, which may be harmful to humans. Histamine is a chemical compound produced by the human body that can cause inflammation and alert the immune system to potential threats. Allergic reactions with side effects such as rashes or respiratory problems are common reactions to histamine production. Excess histamine, particularly in patients with histamine intolerance, has been linked to health effects such as headaches, gastrointestinal issues, irregular heart rate, and asthma. The study was led by Dr. Sudip Gaire, a post-doctoral scholar in the UK Department of Entomology , and Dr. Zach DeVries, an assistant professor of entomology, and looked at histamine excretion levels of bed bugs across different life stages, populations, and lengths of time, as well as the effects of feeding on blood on the pests' histamine production levels. On the project, the UK-based team collaborated with scientists from North Carolina State University. A study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology recently revealed that bed bugs can produce large amounts of histamine, with a single bed bug producing more than 50 micrograms of histamine in just one week. In a hypothetical infestation of 1,000 bed bugs, researchers discovered that the bugs could produce up to 40 milligrams in a week. This amounts to more than 2 grams of histamine per year, not including natural population growth or larger infestations that occur frequently in the real world. “That’s an amount you can actually see, and we don’t see that with any other containment,” Dr. DeVries stated in the news post. “When we talk about pesticides, allergens, any other thing in our home that some invading organism is producing, it’s always on microscopic levels, not something where you could actually hold it in your hand.” Another significant finding was the role of bed bug diets in histamine production. The researchers compared histamine production in bed bugs fed three different diets: blood-fed, saline-fed, and starved. Researchers discovered that blood-fed bed bugs produced "significantly more" histamine than the other groups. “Blood is the primary factor for histamine production, but we don’t know how exactly they are producing the histamine,” Dr. Gaire said in the release. While bed bugs are a common problem in homes around the world, scientists generally do not consider them a major threat to human health, aside from their bites, because they do not carry any pathogens. The issue of high-level histamine production, on the other hand, raises a new potential risk from the pest. Scientists are unsure of the specific health effects of histamine produced outside of the human body, Dr. DeVries, Dr. Gaire, and their colleagues suspect that bed bugs' high level of histamine excretion may have negative clinical effects. The effects of such close, often direct, exposure to histamine, which is common in bed bug infestations, are also unknown, according to Dr. DeVries. “It’s not only the fact that they’re producing histamine, but they’re producing it right next to where you spend the most time, generally speaking, within our homes, which is in our beds or sleeping areas,” Dr. DeVries said. While Dr. DeVries and Dr. Gaire's study answered important questions, they believe more research is needed before sounding the alarm. Dr. DeVries, Dr. Gaire, and others in the UK entomology department plan to continue research on the topic, looking at things like histamine distribution, bed bug histamine production mechanisms, histamine clinical relevance, and mitigation strategies in homes. The study was funded by Dr. DeVries' 2019 National Institute of Health Director's Early Independence Award, which will fund similar future studies until 2024.