Bloke lets bedbugs chunk him all evening so he can ‘study their actions’
A boffin is letting bed bugs feast on him at night in a bid to find ways to stop the critters.
Pest expert Dr Richard Naylor has studied bed bugs for over two decades and runs a lab producing and researching them. And as part of his work he sleeps in a bed with dozens of the blood-sucking bugs to help pest management companies.
Dr Naylor, who runs the Cimex Store and The Bed Bug Foundation CIC with his wife Alexia, said: “Bed bugs are inherently difficult to study. Once discovered, most people want them eradicated immediately, so there is usually no time to conduct any kind of meaningful field trial.
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“Our test bedrooms allow us to simulate infestations and conduct controlled, replicated experiments. They look like normal bedrooms with double beds, bedside tables, carpets and a window with a blind.
(Image: bedbugfoundation.org)
“In one room, we have a wooden frame bed, and in the other, we have a divan style bed, which has been fitted with an encasement to prevent the bugs from getting inside.
“Over the past five years we have used this setup for testing traps, monitors, barrier tapes, bed isolation devices and insecticidal treatments.
“These bugs are given access to a human host (me) every week or so, to provide nourishment and to elicit the natural foraging and harbouring behaviour.”
Dr Naylor and his team then film the actions of the bugs during the night to help learn about their movements and testing various traps.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
He added”: If a trap is performing poorly, we can usually see from the videos whether bugs are avoiding traps altogether or if they are entering and subsequently escaping. Details like this help to inform product development.”
It comes as experts have warned of a harder-to-kill breed of bedbug might already be making its way around the UK and US.
Cimex hemipterus – or the tropical bed bug – was originally only found in hot countries near the equator – and is resistant to all available insecticides.
Experts fear these tropical bugs, which have already been found in France, could transmit dangerous diseases to humans.
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