How bed bugs ‘dodge insecticides’

14 March 2013 Last updated at 11:41 ET By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service

Bed bugs use a range of tactics to render insecticides useless, a study suggests.

Infestations are on the rise around the world, but the pests are growing resistant to some chemicals.

Now scientists have found 14 genes associated with a number of biological changes.

These include the development of a thicker skin that stops poisons from penetrating, and mutations that prevent toxins from hitting the nervous system.

Bed bugs are employing more than one mechanism of resistance to avoid insecticide toxicity

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also suggests that some of the bugs are producing higher levels of enzymes that help to metabolise insecticides more quickly.

Others genes are associated with proteins that interfere with the way the deadly chemicals are carried around the bed bugs' bodies.

Subba Palli, professor entomology from the University of Kentucky in the US and an author of the study, said that the hardy insects were using a combination of these molecular tricks.

"Some used four different mechanisms, some three and so on," he explained.

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How bed bugs 'dodge insecticides'