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Scientists Develop a Trap that Claims to Put a Bite on Bed BugsAccording to a recent article by the Star Tribune, scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Rothamsted Research are developing a bed bug trap that is baited with a smell these pest find irresistible, their own feces. BedBug Central weighs in on a possible challenge for this trap. Thursday January 19 2012 @ 04:45 PM Source:Star TribuneAccording to a recent article by the Star Tribune, scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Rothamsted Research are developing a bed bug trap that is baited with a smell these pest find irresistible, their own feces.
Bed bugs are attracted to the smell because they use it to navigate back to their “home” after a night of feeding.
In order to produce the smell, scientists analyzed chemicals given off by bed bug feces. The result, these scientists created a trap that would be about the size of a standard mousetrap with a sticky floor similar to flypaper.
“While it’s exciting that they identified the components of the bed bug aggregation pheromone, the tougher work may be still ahead,” said Jeffrey White, Technical Director of BedBug Central. “Developing a man-made form can be difficult and then stabilizing it so that they can get it into the hands of the end-user before it denatures may be even harder. Time will tell if we will see a viable commercial or retail product in the near future.”
According to the article, the new trap could be used to assess whether a hotel room or apartment is infested and also to kill the insects without using insecticide. The chemicals used as bait are currently a secret from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Rothamsted Research.
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