Hair defence against bed bugs

摘要

Hirsute individuals are better able to sense blood-sucking bed bugs crawling on their skin than are their less hairy counterparts. Isabelle Dean and Michael Siva-Jothy at the University of Sheffield, UK, tested the ability of 29 volunteers to detect the presence of bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) on a shaved and an unshaved arm. The volunteers detected the insects more frequently with their unshaved arm than their shaved one, and unshaved arms with a greater density of hair were more sensitive to the insects. Hairier skin also upped the time bed bugs took to find a feeding location.