Why Wealthy Homes Have More Bugs, Arthropods Than Poor Neighborhoods?

Bugs and other arthropods are believed to live in the wealthiest areas as opposed to the belief that poor neighborhoods would host more bugs. A study by a California Academy of Sciences researcher Misha Leong revealed that a bountiful vegetation fosters a thriving community of arthropods that can find their way into homes.

Leong said that wealthier homes have more types of arthropods, National Geographic reported. She explained that in affluent areas, residents are more likely to plant trees or shrubs not just in their own yards but in public spaces beyond. The vegetation of a neighborhood poses a big effect in the accumulation of bugs and other arthropods in one's place.

Arizona State University researcher Ann Kinzig suggests that continuity between yards might matter too, The Royal Society reported. She said that in rich neighborhoods, it is often that one yard looks much like the next. She added that in some poorer neighborhoods, yards are diverse with less emphasis on conformity, which may not be a good place for bugs or any other organism that needs more than one yard's worth of habitat.

Leong, on the other hand, admits that her study has some important limitations because she only had data for 50 homes, all of which were freestanding and found in middle-and higher-income neighborhoods. She said that her data does not represent a slice of the local demographics but her colleagues are now looking further afield. They also want to look at how the diversity of bugs and other arthropods vary with the presence of pets, carpets, the use of pesticides and the layouts of rooms.

Bugs were also previously studied by a team of researchers led by Matthew Bertone from North Carolina State University. According to it, common beliefs that house-bound arthropods are largely pests such as cockroaches and bugs are not true. In fact, Bertone's team found that such species were rare and outnumbered by benign species that just happened to be passing through. Leong then used the team's data to study more on arthropods.