By Sean Coughlan
BBC News education correspondent
The ability of bed bugs to return so quickly after human attempts to get rid of them has been explained by University of Sheffield researchers.
Genetic analysis has shown that a single pregnant bed bug that escapes detection can be responsible for an entire infestation, rapidly producing generations of offspring.
It could create a colony of thousands of bed bugs, feeding on a single human.
The study was based on London, which has seen a resurgence in bed bugs.
A DNA study showed that colonies of bed bugs in a house or hotel could all come from a common ancestor or a handful of female bed bugs.
The rapid expansion in numbers could take place over a matter of weeks - at which point there is usually human intervention to destroy the bugs.
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