December 2018^ DISCOVER^55an egg case with a hole in it, the case
has likely birthed wasps rather than
roaches. And those wasps may be in
your house now, ying around and
entirely beneicial.
Along with those critters, another
natural pest control is Beauveria bassi-
ana, a fungus found in soils. A research
project has tested it on bed bugs.
If you spray the fungus on a surface
in your home, the spores sit waiting.
When a bed bug passes by, the spores
attach to the external layer of fats on
the bug’s exoskeleton, which the fun-
gus can then penetrate. Now inside
the body cavity, it kills the bed bug by
simultaneously clogging and poison-
ing its organs and starving its body of
key nutrients.
A PESKY FUTURE
Throughout history, humankind has
made choices to kill pests with ever
more powerful weapons. What will
happen if we continue this way?
The use of novel chemicals as
weapons favors the evolution
of ever more behaviorally and
chemically defended pathogens
and pests. They will be resistant,
but the rest of life, the broader
biodiversity, won’t be. We will
unknowingly trade a richness of
wild species — of butteries, bees,
ants, moths and the like — for a few
resistant life-forms.
The exoskeletons of those enduring
life-forms will be coated with barriers
that prevent toxins from entering their
bodies. Their individual cells will have
transporters that prevent toxins from
being absorbed. And the more homog-
enous and climate-controlled we make
our living spaces, the easier we make
indoor life for them.
Household pests will continue to be
nocturnal, active during the hours we
are not, the hours in which we fail to
pay attention (we kill pests when we
notice them). To some extent, this has
already happened.
During the time humans lived in
caves, bed bugs evolved from bat
bugs — diurnal critters that feast
on bats when they are sleeping. Bed
bugs, on the other hand, have become
nocturnal; they feast on us when we’re
sleeping. Many species of cockroaches
and rats have also become nocturnal.
Animals will also evolve to sneak
through smaller cracks. The more we
seal up our buildings, the smaller these
organisms will become.
If things continue as they have, thou-
sands of species of animals, each with
an interesting story and most with no
negative effect on us whatsoever, will begone. In their place will be a diminu-
tive group that hides from us. And as
soon as we leave a room or turn off the
lights, those little creatures will regroup
and reclaim our living space. We will be
surrounded by the consequences of our
actions — thousands of tiny, resistant,
evasive cockroaches, bed bugs, lice,
houseies and eas.^ DFrom the book NEVER HOME ALONE: From Microbes to Millipedes,
Camel Crickets, and Honey Bees, the Natural History of Where We
Live by Rob Dunn. © 2018 by Rob Dunn. Reprinted by permission
of Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of
Hachette Book Group, Inc. New York, N.Y. All rights reserved.