University Studies on Methods of Bedbug Extermination

Bedbugs are quickly becoming a big problem, and people and businesses are working hard to try to get rid of them. University studies in the United States are being done to try to find the best ways to get rid of bedbugs. These studies are allowing people to become more educated about bedbugs and how to prevent and exterminate them.

Ohio State University

• Bedbugs have not been studied extensively in the past, so when they began popping up everywhere, Ohio State University decided to conduct the first genetic study on bedbugs beginning in 2009. This study has been used to try to determine which methods will be more effective at eliminating the bugs and why they are growing in numbers. The study looked at the genetic makeup of the bugs and has determined that these bugs are genetically becoming resistant to many of the pesticides that are currently used to try to exterminate them.

Purdue University

• Purdue University, in conjunction with Rutgers, conducted a study using a 15-story apartment building. The apartments were inspected to determine bedbug infestations in early May 2007. A portion of the infested apartments was chosen for the study and bedbug remedies were applied to each apartment equally. Future inspections were made of the apartments at two-week intervals for a total of eight weeks, stretching to the end of June. Each time live bedbugs were found, another treatment was done. At the end of the study, it was concluded that most infestations require at least two applications, while some may require as many as four applications or even more.

University of Kentucky

• Scientists at the University of Kentucky followed the lead of those at Ohio State University to study mutations in bedbugs in late 2009. They collected more than 100 different bedbug populations from all over the country, determining their genetic makeup. About 88 percent of the studied bugs showed mutations that would potentially make them resistant to pesticides. Dr. Mike Potter, one of the researchers, thought that the resistance may have developed overseas where the use of these pesticides is common, or back in the 1940s and 1950s, when Americans used DDT on the bugs. The study showed that current pesticides are likely ineffective and new treatments must be created.

Virginia Tech

• Entomologists at Virginia Tech in 2005 began raising bedbugs in their labs to study them and try to find more effective methods of control and extermination. Virginia Tech is studying the effectiveness of the current treatments available for these bugs, while working to develop new methods of extermination. Some of the current treatments that have been tested were found to only kill about 50 percent of the bed bugs, even after 10 days of exposure. Many repellents were also found to be ineffective.