BEDBUGS: Scientists are formulating a way to turn the pests' own chemicals against them.
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Bedbugs are notoriously difficult to kill. Human-created pesticides often fail to conquer the evasive bloodsuckers, but could a new chemical gleaned from the bugs themselves help?
Adding synthetic versions of the compound—a bedbug alarm pheromone—to a common nontoxic pest control agent nearly doubles the speed with which the agent kills, according to a study published last week in the Journal of Medical Entomology. Unlike their more attractive sex-drive chemical counterparts, natural alarm chemicals cause insects to scatter—in this case, right through a deadly dehydrating dust.
Fifty years after DDT largely eradicated the mini critters from developed countries, bedbugs are biting again. And this potent insecticide is no longer an option. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned nearly all uses in 1972 after concerns over its toxicity to humans and wildlife.
The EPA in April held its first-ever National Bedbug Summit, and in May the Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite Act of 2009 was introduced in Congress by representatives from North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Alaska. According to the bill's findings, "bedbug populations in the United States have increased by 500 percent in the past few years." And urban areas tend to be the hardest hit: More than 22,000 New Yorkers made bedbug-related calls to the city's help line in 2008, up from just over 10,500 in 2006. "Bedbugs are horrific. People call desperately crying," says New York City Council Member, Gail Brewer, who has helped launch the city's new Bedbug Advisory Board. "Everything we can come up with could help."
Desiccant dusts, which are also used to eradicate fleas, ticks and cockroaches, scratch up an insect's protective outer layer, causing their bodies to dry out. This result relies on them actually walking through the finely ground powder that is typically applied in cracks, crevices or the interior of a bed frame. Bedbugs, however, are generally lazy, congregating in tiny spaces for extended periods of time. "With the alarm pheromone, they get agitated and start running through this material," says Joshua Benoit, lead author of the study and a member of the Central Ohio Bed Bug Task Force.
In the study Benoit, a doctoral candidate in entomology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, and his colleagues tested combinations of desiccant dust and two bedbug alarm pheromone chemicals, first with the poppy seed–size bugs in petri dishes and then in a larger plastic container with a folded piece of paper. The latter test represented a more lifelike situation by offering the bedbugs a place to hide. In the end the most lethal potion included both pheromone components and the dust. Compared with the dust alone, the combination significantly sped up water loss and cut the time it took to kill the bugs by half. "If it normally takes the bugs one day to die," Benoit says, "they will die within 12 hours."
Although his results are encouraging, Benoit is clear the pheromones are not yet ready for the night shift. "I don't encourage people to start throwing these alarm pheromones all over the place," he says; the chemical components are not even available in the appropriate concentrations if someone wanted to mix their own, according to Benoit. (In any case, he notes the eventual price tag of the potion would be "minimal" given that only "minute" concentrations of the pheromone would be needed.) Benoit's main concern is that the alarm response could drive bedbugs into adjacent areas, simply spreading the problem. He suggests future tests in real apartment environments to ensure this doesn't happen.
Jocelyn Millar, who studies insect pheromones at the University of California, Riverside, likes the new approach. "It's a different way than just spraying toxic insecticides around," he says. Millar is concerned, however, about the "level of control"—the only treatment that will really work is one that kills 100 percent of the bedbugs—as well as with the alarm compound's pungent odor. "If you go into a hotel room that's been treated," he says, "you wouldn't be happy."
Benoit acknowledges the dire current situation in bedbug extermination. "The main problem is nothing is working. Or if it is working, it only works for awhile and then the bedbugs become resistant," he says. One of Benoit's colleagues, who is on the Central Ohio Bedbugs Task Force, tells him, "They are pretty much open to anything at this point."
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8 Comments
Add CommentI believe you incorrectly attributed your photo, which is by Lou Sorkin and Randy Mercurio of the American Museum of Natural history. The original is here, on Lou Sorkin's Flickr.com page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lou_bugs_pix/324779978/in/set-72157615326967164/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHe could test around here. I've got friends who have cleaned apartments and found bed bugs so thick that you would think they were carpet. When they find apts. like that they spraypaint "bedbugs" all over the furniture they throw on the curb.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisToni..Ive been fighting BB's for months.. started w/mattress covers and diamatateus earth. Then Bombs which seemed to work. Why do they say not to use the bombs? Then sealing cracks and filling holes was my next manuver, steaming the cracks in wood floors,,furniture,drawers then spraying Bedlam in them,and putting Diam.earth dust in too. I was going to bomb once a week til they're gone but now I'm afraid to. I'm also afraid to tell my landlord because I somehow got them. I can't afford an exterminator,so what do I do now?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBed bugger... I checked the photos and they are different... light reflections, left middle leg (right side in photo) different and left antenna is different... however, this does not invalidate your claim about the wrong source... could be just another photo taken a few minutes later.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisToni... if you live in an apt the chances are 99 to 1 that your neighbors have them too. Ask them and go to the super at the same time. Also, bedbugs are not anyone's fault. They are not like an STD. There is no shame. When I was a child, my family moved into an apt that was full of bedbugs... we all got bit the first night... we moved out the next day.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbedbugs are not poppy-seed sized!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthey start out very small and clear like the photo above, and grow to at least a third of an inch and dark red-brown.
if you are using diatomaceous earth, keep a few handy facts in mind.
use only food grade, freshwater d.e. the rest is too abrasive and may be hazardous. and don't breathe it, it's got to be bad for your lungs.
then, note that bedbugs will walk through a THIN layer of diatomaceous earth, and should die within a few days to a couple of weeks. i can't remember my sources but people online report using a squeeze bottle to puff a light coating under furniture and cushions, and into cracks and crannies under mattresses.
on that note, a thick layer repels them, and they will avoid it and not die. however, the repellent affect is necessary for the perimeter of your home and rooms, and for inside walls and cracks. you want containment to protect yourself and your neighbors, in case they are infesting your building. unfortunately in most conditions, you can assume they are.
diatomaceous earth only works if you put it everywhere and then meticulously clear the infestation from the rest of your belongings.
you can use bleach cleaners, rubbing alcohol, a very hot washer and dryer (with clothes, linens and curtains then bagged up in new, airtight plastic bags), a hard freeze for days to disinfect pillows, and daily vacuuming to clean belongings, floors and furniture (don't forget to empty the vacuum outside and seal it in airtight plastic in between.)
you could pick up a cheap dustbuster for every room at kmart to avoid spreading the problem. the most successful people seem to continue the process for months just in case.
pesticides don't usually work. if you can't clean something, seal it in AIRTIGHT plastic and don't open it for 15 months.
unfortunately these parasites are extremely well-adapted to us and to other mammals. they move fast and if you try to only repel them they will probably scatter and infest a wider area faster.
think like a bedbug. if conditions are right, they can reside anywhere in your home and walls. eggs in the spine of your kids' books? infesting the "homes" of local birds, bats, rats, pets? the internet is your best friend. read up on others' experiences and on the science, don't believe everything you read!, and be prepared to work hard at eradicating them.
p.s. one guy (on bedbugger.com i think) said he left his books in black plastic bags in the hot new york sun for a couple of weeks and thinks (key word?) they are bug-free
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThermonuclear weapons - liberally applied.
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