Bed bug sex, bed bug sex, bed bug sex. People just cannot stop talking about bed bug sex.
Occasionally, people write about bed bugs’ effect on human sex, for example, this article from GQ.
But mostly, people just want to talk about traumatic insemination.
How horrid it is! How inhuman!
And the latest source of bed bug sex education? Nova.
(Here’s the video on the PBS/Nova site, with a transcript.)
I won’t begrudge people their fascination with the creepiest facts about bed bugs, but I am a bit troubled by the creative designs Nova placed on the bed bug models (or, shall we say, porn stars?)
I understand the intention is to have males and females easily distinguished by the viewer, but come on, Nova!
Aren’t you trying to educate people about science?
Obviously, you need some kind of marker added to a realistic bed bug image to help most viewers distinguish male and female, which isn’t always easy.
I’m just saying, there might be a more educational way to do it — one which maintains the look of bed bugs — rather than adding an artistic pattern to the entire surface of the bed bug.
These Nova male bed bugs look like gentlemen dressed for an outing. And of course, they most certainly are not gentlemen! That’s the point, isn’t it?
And bed bug education should be on everyone’s minds. After all, we still have a lot of people out there who don’t know what bed bugs look like, and the educational effort isn’t always helped by popular media.
The Green Porno episode on bed bug sex remains, hands down, the weirdest bed bug-related item I’ve ever seen, hands down, just as it was back in 2010. So much so that, of course, I must embed it here again.
(You can also view it on YouTube.)
Kudos to Smithsonian for drawing our attention back to this National Geographic video showing actual bed bugs mating (warning: graphic images — not for those in the throes of a bed bug infestation):
(You can also view it on YouTube.)
Note: If you are among those fascinated by traumatic insemination, then you may be interested in listening to the Breaking Bio podcasters talking with Bed Bug Sexpert Mike Siva-Jothy.
