New Study Finds You May Be Living With More Than 500 Kinds Of Bugs
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The findings of a new study might just make your skin crawl.
But the researchers say there's nothing to be frightened or grossed out about.
This new study, conducted by entomologists in North Carolina, finds that there may be more than 500 kinds of bugs living right there with you in your own home.
Sure, we're used to seeing the occasional spider crawling up the wall, or ant scuttle by, or a stinkbug or beetle annoyingly flying in the window, but the study shows there's so much more that remains unseen.
According to National Geographic, North Carolina State University entomologist Matt Bertone and his team conducted the study by visiting "50 free-standing houses" around the Raleigh area.
Out of more than 550 rooms where they collected samples, National Geographic says the researchers found just five of them were "totally bugless." And if you have arachnophobia, bad news, the researchers found spiders in every one of the homes they visited.
The study was published this month in the journal, "Peer J."
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National Geographic says this is the very first study that evaluates the diversity of arthropods, which is a large grouping that includes insects, spiders and the like, in homes in the United States.
The researchers, according to National Geographic, collected more than "10,000 specimens, representing over 300 families of arthropods, and conservatively 579 species."
And they only got the samples from places that were visible to the eye around the home.
That all equals one big – ewwwwww, gross!
But the researchers say there's no need to be frightened or disgusted about having these creepy crawlers in your home, the vast majority of them are harmless and they are "peacefully cohabitating with us."