Researchers Develop New Trap To Capture Bloodsucking Bed Bugs 141
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Bedbugs (Cimex lectularius) are small blood-sucking insects that can live in cracks and crevices in and around your bed and crawl out at night to bite your exposed skin and feed on your blood, just as mosquitoes do. Now BBC reports that researchers from the Rutgers University Department of Entomology have developed a new trap that has a 77% probability of capturing bed bugs, nearly three times as many bed bugs over 28 days (PDF), as the the Climbup insect interceptor trap, which the authors cite as the best monitor on the market. A better trap design can allow people to detect bed bugs while they are still in small numbers. 'If you have only 10 or 20 bugs in your apartment, it's very hard to see with your eyes,' says Lead author Narinderpal Singh. 'When people realize they have bed bugs they are often already in their thousands, or hundred thousands. It's relatively easy to eradicate the bed bugs when they are in small numbers, but when they are everywhere, it's very hard to eradicate them.' The device can be created at home very cheaply and consists of a plastic dog bowl that's been inverted, with the outer wall covered with a layer of dyed-black surgical tape. The researchers contend that higher walls make their trap more effective than the interceptor trap because it's harder for bugs to escape."
Ah bedbugs (Score:2, Interesting)
My landlord is so paranoid about getting them I have to initial three separate paragraphs in my lease stating "I will not bring used furniture into the house" "I will notify the landlord immediately if any bedbugs are detected" "I will take steps to ensure bedbugs do not enter the house."
Maybe they should figure out how to prevent them from reproducing instead of trapping a few examples of a menace that, as the summary notes, numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
Re:Sticky tape? (Score:4, Interesting)
You mean, yeast, sugar and water? Any supermarket. The article proves that CO2 cylinders are not better.
Fascinating setup (the building they chose, how they collected and nurtured the bed bugs, that they kept someone living in the apartment in the 4 weeks the experiment was run).
Re:Wow ... (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem was solved hundreds of years ago. Spreading bay leaves or kidney bean leaves [examiner.com] in the infested rooms traps all the bedbugs.
Re:Wow ... (Score:2, Interesting)
That has other issues, though - like how to use them on anything but flat floors, or how to get a large enough supply of fresh leaves to everyone all year (they don't work when dry).
Re:Ah bedbugs (Score:4, Interesting)
> Maybe they should figure out how to prevent them from reproducing instead of trapping a few
> examples of a menace that, as the summary notes, numbers in the hundreds of thousands.
I have occasionally wondered about using some variation on "phage therapy" for this. As I understand the protocols, the basic outline is:
1. Breed target organism (originally bacteria infecting a patient)
2. Sample natural water, and filter it with a ceramic filter to leave behind only phages as biological material.
3. Apply samples of phage water to target organisms, watch for signs of infection and death
4. If reliable agent is found, use dead targets to make more and isolate a workable phage
5. if reliable agent not found, goto step 2.
There are a lot of viruses out there.... I would bet something infects bedbugs and kills them effectively, and just needs a little help finding them.
Re:Wait, what? Be careful when you quote stats (Score:4, Interesting)
Mathematically speaking I would think that it's impossible that all bugs will get caught eventually, no ?
Night 0 : 100 bedbugs run around
Night 1 : 100 * .77 bugs get caught, 100 * .23 remain .23 ) * .77 bugs get caught, (100 * .23) *.23 remain ...
Night 2 : (100 *
Night n : 100 * (.23 ^ n) bugs remain...
So you'll get an asymptote that borders on catching them all, but not ever really... Especially as we're not taking into account that the remaining bugs will probably multiply...
But I agree that for 'whole numbers of bedbugs' n should be smallish... might make a nice spreadsheet/graph to figure out, especially if you add variables like how long it takes for them to reproduce etc ...
Funny, but glad (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder if the same design works for fleas. I understand fleas are also attracted to CO2, so the yeast + sugar water thing would likely improve results with fleas as well.
I'd been baiting my traps with an an aerosol can of CO2 produced by emissions from an SUV belching C02 into a Styrofoam container full of dry ice kept cool by an R-22 refrigeration system powered by my diesel generator.
Re:Glue traps didnt work? (Score:4, Interesting)
They might catch some, but bed bugs are attracted to CO2, heat, and various other chemicals. One of the linked articles actually mentions a story about a guy with an infestation who had put the legs of his bed in buckets of water to keep the bed bugs from crawling up the legs of the bed, as well as surrounding his bed with diatomaceous earth (which bed bugs typically won't cross, since it can clog the holes they breathe through), only to have the bed bugs crawl up onto the ceiling and then drop down on his bed from above, with the fecal trail going up the wall to prove that's what they were doing.
Really, the traps that they're creating are not designed to deal with an infestation. They're designed to alert you with a higher certainty to the presence of an infestation, since everything I've read seems to indicate that a bed bug infestation is not something that the typical consumer is capable of handling on their own.
Heat Kills All (Score:4, Interesting)
Having stayed in the Hilton (Union Square San Francisco) and coming home with bed bug welts and bites, I can I think I can explain a few things. First, once you see the (clustered) bites, it's too late. Those bites take days to show sometimes. Second, The hotel denies everything. Having been denied satisfaction I left the hotel, but did NOT return home right away fearing for the little fuckers are in my luggage.
I stopped at a coffee shop to internet surf. I found this guy's blog about his battle with bedbugs and how he had to remove ALL furniture from his house in his losing battle against the little bugs. This guy had traps setup, tracking migrations from room to room, sticky side up tape being the most effective. The other side note about the bugs, all sorts of chemicals may or may not work, and HEAT over TIME was the ONLY way to kill these things dead.
I stopped at a dry-cleaner and walked in with NO LUGGAGE and explained the situation I thought I was in. The cleaner said they could take most of my luggage, but not all. They brought out a bio-hazard bin and took my clothes for "special" treatment. I had to take my shoes, suitcase and a few other items home. I threw everything in a 170 degree electric oven for 4 hours each until clean. The car I drove home in, went out to the central valley and sat in the summer sun for 5 hours while I watched movies and drank coffee.
Long story short, use the internet to keep you home safe. HEAT over TIME will KILL the fuckers.
Re:Wow ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Please tell me where I can purchase fresh kidney bean leaves in Iowa, in January, and in large quantities.
Just because a solution exists does not mean it's practical, or even possible to implement.
The same place you get your zucchini from, most likely. Argentina or someplace like that. It's Summer down there.