For example, one of the main reasons that bacteria became resistant to many antibiotics, was in part because of the incomplete antibiotic regimens ("I felt better so I didn't take all the medicine"), which then allowed the bacteria which survived to develop immunities and were later excreted into the environment. As well as the overuse of antibiotics in the general environment (antibacterial soaps, and the like).
However, the new approach now being investigated (See-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVfmUfr8VPA">Bonnie Bassler: The secret, social lives of bacteria) seeks to understand the methods that bacteria use to overwhelm our immune systems. They do so successfully through a process called
"Quorum-Sensing." In other words, they never attack until they have sufficient numbers in our bodies -- and they figure out how many are present by talking to each other "chemically." So the key to controlling bacteria may be best approached by interrupting their communication's networks. And so I suspect that if we could set aside the chemical sledgehammers that we've gotten so used to employing and try to understand the chemical physiology of bedbugs and how they find their meals -- or in how they find each other in order to reproduce, then we would very likely find an effective and "non-poisonous" means of controlling them.
And towards that end, I remember reading of a couple of studies which sought to determine novel ways to control mosquitoes infecting people with West Nile fever and Malaria. One study looked at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5132587/Flies-engage-in-chemical-warfare-to-control-mates-sex-drive.html">how female fruit flies control males from seeking sex when there's too much competition around. Another study sought to expand upon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Iwzrp8aRA">homosexual behaviors observed in male fruit flies in the absence of the correct type of pheromones. Obviously if either of these approaches worked, there would be no offspring and a significant reduction in the bedbug population would follow.
So although I realize that the "smart approach" would be novel for us - not killing and blowing things up directly -- we might actually discover how to control these pests and maybe others that are even more harmful. But then we'd likely have to tell Monsanto and DuPont to take their planet-killing chemicals and go fuck off somewhere, now wouldn't we???
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- Hmmmm. Well, it was just an idle thought......