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After years of study (and thousands of bites), researchers may have discovered how to get the bloodsucking pests under control.

Over-the-counter bedbug treatments, as a 2012 study discovered, are effectively worthless. Most of the time, they fail to reach the bugs, which are burrowed deep in the folds of mattresses and rugsand even when they do, many of the bloodsuckers have built up an immunity to common household insecticides.

So whats a person to do in the face of an infestation? Call an exterminator. Freak out. Fight, or give into, the urge to set fire to all belongings.

For the past five years, though, Regine Gries has done none of these things; instead, she has welcomed the bedbugsthousands of themonto her skin for a blood feast.

Gries, a biologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, has endured 18,000 bug bites in the quest to build a more effective bedbug remedyand as she and a team of researchers explain in a paper recently published in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, they believe theyve finally discovered the chemicals that will allow them to do just that.

Bed-Bug Madness: The Psychological Toll of the Blood Suckers

Bedbugs were considered more or less a non-problem through much of the later 20th century, kept at bay with strong pesticides. In recent years, though, bedbug infestationsand, consequently, bedbug hysteriahave made a comeback. (Scientists have also discovered that the bugs may carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, though they have yet to study their ability to spread the disease itself.)

To study the blood-suckers, Gries and her husband Gerhard, also a biologist at Simon Fraser, collected the feces and other material the bugs left after each blood meal. (Gries was chosen as guinea pig because, unlike most people, she developed only a small, itch-free rash in response to the bites.) The couple was able to successfully isolate a blend of pheromones that attracted the bedbugs, but only in the labwhen they tested the chemical in infested apartments, it had no effect.

Together with Robert Britton, a chemist at Simon Fraser, the researchers tried to figure out what their cocktail was missing. Eventually, they discovered that histaminethe same substance used in human immune responsesacted as a kind of knockout for bedbugs, causing arrestment on contact regardless of when theyd last eaten. Together with five pheromones that the team had isolated, they were able to create a two-part chemical trap, first luring the bugs and then freezing them in place.

As the researchers work to turn their discovery into a marketable tool, though, the research continuesmeaning the bedbugs stay alive, and stay hungry. Im not too thrilled about this, Gries said in a statement.

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A Better Bedbug Trap

Right now, there's only one surefire way to know if you've got bed bugs -- and it itches like crazy. By the time you notice the lines of red, itching, burning bites, the bugs could have been multiplying in your mattress for days or even weeks. But researchers in Canada have a plan to catch the critters early and make it easier to stop an infestation from spreading.

A team of biologists and chemists at Simon Fraser University have identified for the first time a chemical scent that will lure bed bugs out of furniture and into traps. They published their research on the attractive pheromones in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie.

"The biggest challenge in dealing with bed bugs is to detect the infestation at an early stage," said Gerhard Gries, one of the biologists who has spent years on the project. "This trap will help landlords, tenants, and pest-control professionals determine whether premises have a bed bug problem, so that they can treat it quickly. It will also be useful for monitoring the treatment's effectiveness."

Bed bugs were largely eradicated ages ago, but in the last decade they have reemerged in plague-like proportions around the world. Cities across the U.S. have seen infestations in homes, hotels, movie theaters and designer stores.

And once you've got bed bugs, they're very hard to get rid of -- but very easy to pass around. An effective trap could help control the spread.

"This isn't the first group to try to make a pheromone-laced bed bug trap, but it sounds like the SFU researchers have hit upon some promising compounds," said Brooke Borel, author of the upcoming book "Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World" (April 2015). "Still, a new trap -- no matter how well designed -- will not get rid of the bed bug problem. Traps are tools that let pest controllers know bed bugs are in a home, but that's about it. Traps won't clear a bed bug infestation. For actual treatments, we still have limited choices, and that will likely continue."

The SFU team has brought their fragrant cocktail to Contech, a Canadian manufacturer of eco-friendly pet and garden products. They hope to have a commercial lure ready for sale in 2015.

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Coming in 2015: The First Bed Bug Trap

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By giving blood weekly to her life partner's bug experiment, SFU scientist Regine Gries has all but given us the gift of freedom from bed bug torture.

Researchers from Simon Fraser University are hopeful they have discovered a way to get rid of bed bugs.

According to anew study,SFU biology professor Gerhard Gries and chemist Robert Britton have developed a pheromone to attract bed bugs into traps.

The bed bug pheromone consists of five volatile components that attract bed bugs combined with histamine, which signals safe shelter to the bug, causing them to stay put.

WATCH: Tips for dealing with bed bugs

At least one SFU researcher made a personal sacrifice in the name of science. Regine Gries, wife of lead researcher Gerhard Gries, suffered180,000 bed bug bites as part of the research. Shemay endure more bites as they work to finalize a commercial product.

Im not too thrilled about this, said Regine Gries, who is allergic to bug cites, in a statement, but knowing how much this technology will benefit so many people, its all worth it.

Once thought to be eradicated in developed nations, bed bugs have reappeared across Canada and around the globe.

Locally, bed bugs have been an ongoing problem in Vancouver and around B.C.In 2011, BC Housing spent nearly $750,000 dealing with bed bugs.

Read more:
SFU researchers invent first effective bed bug bait and trap

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