Watch: Malaysian Scientists Recruit Bed Bugs As Crime Scene Detectives

From a speck of blood, investigators may be able to piece together the full profile of an offender.

Transcript

00:00Bedbugs often spark itchy scares around the world but Malaysian scientists have

00:09discovered how the much loathed creepy-crawlies can be turned into

00:13unlikely crime-busting allies. A team from the Science University of Malaysia in

00:18northern Penang has found that tropical blood-sucking bedbugs can retain human

00:24DNA for up to 45 days after snacking on human prey.

00:30This makes the tiny critters who love to lurk in headboard cracks, mattress seams

00:35and pillow covers ideal evidence resources when it comes to pinpointing

00:39suspects at crime scenes. From a speck of blood, police investigators may one day

00:45be able to piece together the full profile of an offender if the critters are

00:49present at a crime scene. Analysing the insects could reveal gender, eye color, hair

00:57and skin color, says entomologist Abdul Hafiz Abdul Majid.

01:02Bedbugs we call it as the, how do we call it, the musuh dalam selimut, what's it

01:08called in English? The enemy in the bed. Yes, but as an enemy in the bed, actually it

01:17can be as a spy. I think it can be used as a tool. Based on our research with the

01:22with the STR marker, it can give the basic phenotypic profiling, the hair color, eye

01:28color and skin color. And then the STR marker gives you male and gender or the, I mean it

01:33can discriminate the person, male, female and also the hair color and eyes, actually.

01:38In a laboratory tucked deep inside USM's School of Biological Sciences, Hafiz and post-doctoral

01:44researcher Lim Lee have spent nearly half a decade studying tropical bedbugs. The bloodsuckers,

01:51scientific name Cymex hemipteris, are the most common species found in Malaysia and the tropics.

01:59The bugs are reared in containers under a laboratory bench, each wrapped in black plastic to mimic

02:05conditions the insects thrive in. Hafiz says they place folded pieces of paper inside the

02:11small containers so the bedbugs have something to climb on. Unlike mosquitoes and flies, bedbugs

02:18cannot fly and once they have fed, they become engorged and can't move around that much.

02:24So that's what makes it unique because why it can be used as forensic tools because it's there,

02:29it doesn't move around to other places. So you can say that it's perfect use for the

02:33forensic tools compared to mosquito that fly around, flying away, mean flying away.

02:3945 days is the ample, that mean that only within 45 days after the bedbugs fit somebody.

02:44So if after that, it cannot be used that much. So at least it gives you some time frame within 45 days

02:50for that particular investigation using bedbugs as ambulance.

02:56Researchers found DNA extracted from bedbugs that had fed on human blood could recover basic

03:02phenotypic profiling, a person's observable traits as well as gender for up to 45 days.

03:09Back in the lab, researcher Lim did not hesitate to demonstrate a feeding session, even joking

03:16that she had been a willing victim for science.

03:19Most of the people study on mosquitoes because they are vectors but not much is on a tropical bedbugs.

03:27That's how we start doing that. And also because the researchers, PCO will try to find ways to try to control them.

03:37So we also, yeah, that's also what interests us to study about them.

03:44Like how we find a new way to control them because of their resistance and maybe because of their characteristic,

03:52we also can find out what they can use for other purposes.

03:57Lim insisted that the inconspicuous bugs are misunderstood creatures and do not spread diseases,

04:04even though their bite leaves an itchy rash that can last for weeks.