Category Archives: Bed Bugs World

If you're dealing with a bedbug infestation but you don't want to bomb your home with nasty chemicals (that might not work anyway), you've got a new option. Researchers from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, have discovered a new, safe weapon against bedbugs that is a total game changer: A bedbug trap based on pheromones.

"This trap will help landlords, tenants, and pest-control professionals determine whether premises have a bedbug problem, so that they can treat it quickly," says Gerhard Gries, PhD, study author and professor of Animal Communication Ecology at Simon Fraser University. "It will also be useful for monitoring the treatment's effectiveness."

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What's astonishing is the researchers' dedication to the cause. Gerhard's wife and fellow researcher, Regine Gries, MSc, used her own arms every week for five years to feed over a thousand bedbugs so that they could continue their research. Regine was the host because she is surprisingly immune to the bites and only suffers from a slight rash rather than the insane itching and swelling that most people face.

(This writer personally had an encounter with bed bugs. Let's just say the bedbugs won.)

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Bedbug infestation is a serious concern, as these nasty biters are found everywhere including low-income housing, five-star hotels, movie theaters, libraries, and public transportation.

The researchers are currently working with Contech Enterprises Inc. to develop effective and affordable traps and infestation monitoring kits to be commercially available by next year. Contech is a Canada-based company that makes environmentally-friendly garden and agriculture products, such as insect lures and nontoxic animal repellants.

While the researchers develop a home product, Regine will continue to be buffet for the crawlers. "I'm not too thrilled about this," admits Regine, "but knowing how much this technology will benefit so many people, it's all worth it.

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After 180,000 bedbug bites and eight years of study, Simon Fraser University scientists say they have invented a new kind of bedbug bait and trap.

The trap, which will be available commercially next year, will workby emittinga set of chemical attractants, or pheromones, that lure the bedbugs into traps, and keep them there.

BiologistRegineGriesdiscovered the pheromonesafter acting as a hostfor more than a thousand bedbugsduring the research, which also involvedher husband, biology professorGerhardGries, SFUchemistRobertBrittonand a team of students.

"The biggest challenge in dealing with bedbugs is to detect the infestation at an early stage," saidGerhard Gries in a newsrelease on Monday.

"This trap will help landlords, tenants, and pest-control professionals determine whether premises have a bedbug problem, so that they can treat it quickly. It will also be useful for monitoring the treatments effectiveness."

In this undated photo, a common bedbug is engorged with blood after feeding on a human. (The Associated Press)

RegineGriesendured 180,000 bites from the team'sbedbug colony as part of the research, the release said, because she is immune to the bites, getting only a slight rash instead of the usual itching and swelling most people suffer.

Bedbugs are wingless pests that feed on humans as their preferred source of blood. The small, flat insects were all but wiped out after the Second World War but have returned with a vengeanceto Canadian homes, hotels and shelters.

The insects will bite all over a human body, favouring the face, neck, upper torso, arms and hands. Theycan go for weeks or months without feeding, depending on the temperature.

The Gries research began eight years ago, when theyinitially isolated a pheromone mix that attracted bedbugs in lab experiments, but not in bedbug-infested apartments.

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