Study reveals staggering number of animals we share our homes with

Humans in the U.S. share their homes with over 500 different types of arthropods such as insects, spiders, mites and centipedes, according to a study by researchers at North Carolina State University, the California Academy of Sciences, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

The data was gathered by visiting 50 homes in Raleigh, North Carolina. In each household, the researchers collected as many arthropods as they could find, whether the creatures were dead or alive.

According to the report issued in January of this year, "Across all 50 homes, the researchers identified no fewer than 579 different morphospecies of arthropod from 304 different families....The most commonly collected groups of arthropods in the homes were flies, spiders, beetles, ants and book lice."

Matt Bertone, an entomologist at North Carolina State University, noted, "We share our space with many different species, most of which are benign. The fact that you don't know they're there only highlights how little we interact with them."

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