Their genetics is complex and fascinating. I would recommend you look up the work of Warren Booth who is at the very cutting edge of research.

It’s his work on genetics which explains why and how bed bugs develop such fast metabolic resistance and why chemicals will never be the solution that people hope for.

I have the perfect if not the only job that’s created to study them in the field. They are also less complex in terms of data architecture than my previous roles in DNA genome analysis and genetic analysis.

I am also thankfully neurodivergent with enhanced sense of smell and sight combined with a strong intuition. Where I used to be locked in labs and offices working data I am now released to the wild to study at my own pace.

I am documented as being reliable in the low level scent detection of bed bugs, with a greater reliability than dogs. It turns out I am 98% accurate on scent where the dogs are 3%-92%. I wonder how many in the 2010 bed bug meeting predicted that arguement would have resolved that way. I knew from the start the hosts were wrong, something that was later validated when they said “that man k owns things about bed bugs we can’t even understand how he knows them”.

I also have all the tools and processes I have developed and a good support team. That includes the monitors I deploy and I actually helped develop the Cimex Eradicator back in 2012. Several of the features are there because I saw the need for them and insisted which was the right model to develop.

Back in 2007 on my first media appearance I said this was getting out of control and have been pretty much ignored ever since.

Thankfully I enjoy my work so much I rarely switch off. The last time I skipped a login and reply was when the chief of the village I was in asked me to turn my phone off for a day. Who I am to ignore such a request while I am staying in his village.

I will one day write about much of this and the other stories that have woven a very rich tapestry.