Estranged companions: Bed bugs, biologies, and affective histories

Abstract

In recent decades, bed bugs have swept across wealthy industrialized nations. After near extirpation in North America and Northern Europe, the return of these insects has led to a significant level of public anxiety and cultural notoriety. Here, we undertake an analysis of human-bed bug relations in order to both better understand this contemporary resurgence and critically examine the concept of “companion species.” We argue for conceiving of bed bugs as “estranged companions,” and foreground the need to understand contemporary encounters between humans and the insects through distinct histories that have been shaped by the opening and closing of spaces between classed and racialized bodies and that have been dependent upon the development and deployment of particular technologies such as Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). Further, we argue that “estrangement” has wider conceptual purchase and contributes to a body of research that has countered a strain of scientism in theory that decenters “the human” by interrogating the relations between companion species, (bio)political interventions, and colonial histories. Estrangement contributes to this task by, first, foregrounding that relationships with all companion species are imbricated in situated histories and biopolitical regimes and, second, drawing attention to the differential ethico-political implications of these regimes.

Public and Media Interest In Bed Bugs- Europe 2023

“…Despite a lack of evidence that bed bug infestations arise from poor house-keeping and a lack of cleanliness, there is social stigmatism (Hollin and Giraud, 2022) and shame (Fung et al, 2021) associated with those who have the insect in their homes. However, the association of infestations with low income and socio-economic status (Fung et al, 2021;Ralph et al, 2012;Sutherland et al, 2020) are worrying factors for large cities.…”

Ladybugs: The (Natural) Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend? Enlisting Ladybugs into the War on Insect Pests

“…It is likely that many gardeners cannot tell the difference between the two, let alone the other hundreds of kinds they may find. In this sense, ladybugs are "estranged companions" (Hollin and Giraud 2021), with US cultural and chemical pest control trajectories leaving the legacy that gardeners are unable to know there are many different types of ladybugs in the garden, to know they don't need to buy them from across the country, or to know that most ladybugs exhibit the behaviors that get the harlequin ladybug labeled a nuisance (biting, smelling, etc.). Gardeners became estranged in part due to the history of using broad-spectrum chemical controls.…”