The Bedbug Keeper: Scientist Kept Colony of Pests for Decades
Entomologist has kept bedbug colony for decades to study.
Sept. 10, 2010 -- To most people, the thought of inviting a few thousand bedbugs to feed on their arms and legs is cringe-worthy.
But most people aren't Harold Harlan.
Harlan, a retired military medical entomologist, first became fascinated back in the 1970s with the insects that are now the scourge of a growing number of American cities.
"They were biting some military people at the time, and they were such an oddity that I thought I would save a bunch before pest control eliminated them so I could learn more about them," said Harlan.
Harlan recalls the small, reddish-brown parasites as being very rare back then. He collected a few hundred of them and learned how to maintain them. Over the years, his colony has grown to a few thousand bedbugs, and to keep them alive and well, he feeds them human blood -- his own.
"I have them in jars and let them feed for about a half hour. There are always a few that don't feed," said Harlan. He said he lets them out on his leg every few days.
Bedbugs were virtually eradicated back in the 1950s, so Harlan's colony was just about the only one of its kind.
Harlan quietly studied his bugs until the late 1990s, when bedbugs began to spread again, mostly in big cities. Those creepy-crawlers were creepy-crawling their way to becoming a long-term problem.
That's when pest control experts and scientists started calling him.
"Because they were so rare, it was hard to find specimens to study. After it became known that I had a population that was never exposed to chemicals, university research and private laboratories wanted some of my bedbugs to compare susceptibilitiy to pesticides," he said.
"I think I helped some of these people accommodate more quickly to what they need to know and do to help control bedbugs," said Harlan. "I pointed them to literature, I shared images and shared observations."
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