As human associated bedbug species experienced a recent come-back, we started a project on population genetics of the common bedbug, Cimex lectularius, trying to identify the causes of the expansion. Among hundreds of sampled locations from central Europe, several were found to be infested with the tropical bedbug, C. hemipterus. Up to date, only few solitary cases connected with travels to areas of natural distribution of the tropical species were known across Europe. Only in Russian cities, it is known to often replace the common bedbug. The cases we report on from Slovakia and Czech Republic were made among people of social classes unlikely to be often travelling abroad, strongly suggesting spread within communities. We can thus say that a new human ectoparasite species established in central Europe.

Balvín, O., Sasínková, M., Martinů, J., Nazarizadeh, M., Bubová, T., Booth, W., Vargo, E. L., Štefka, J. (2021). Early evidence of establishment of the tropical bedbug (Cimex hemipterus) in Central Europe. Medical and Veterinary Entomology.

Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mve.12522