There are way more bugs in your home than you think

There are more bugs in your home than you think.

(Image credit: CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images)

published 19 January 2016

In a new study out Tuesday, researchers systematically examined 50 homes in Raleigh, North Carolina, and found something you definitely don't want to hear: Each dwelling had between 32 and 211 species of bugs.

"I hope this doesn't put fear in people's minds that they're being overrun or that they live in unclean homes," Matthew Bertone, the North Carolina State University lead study author, told The Atlantic. "People have been living with these animals for centuries. This is just something that is."

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Room to room, floor to ceiling, under shelves and behind knick-knacks, they grabbed every arthropod they could find using nothing more advanced than headlamps, forceps, nets, and aspirators for sucking up fast-moving ones. "And kneepads," says Bertone. “Those were the best pieces of research equipment we invested in." [The Atlantic]

If nothing else, take comfort in the fact that most of the bugs found weren't pests.

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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.