Posted on 04/12/2013 8:50:30 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Generations of Eastern European housewives doing battle against bedbugs spread bean leaves around the floor of an infested room at night. In the morning, the leaves would be covered with bedbugs that had somehow been trapped there. The leaves, and the pests, were collected and burned — by the pound, in extreme infestations.
Now a group of American scientists is studying this bedbug-leaf interaction, with an eye to replicating nature’s Roach Motel.
A study published Wednesday in The Journal of the Royal Society Interface details the scientists’ quest, including their discovery of how the bugs get hooked on the leaves, how the scientists have tried to recreate these hooks synthetically and how their artificial hooks have proved to be less successful than the biological ones.
At first glance, the whole notion seems far-fetched, said Catherine Loudon, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in bedbug locomotion.
“If someone had suggested to me that impaling insects with little tiny hooks would be a valid form of pest control, I wouldn’t have given it credence,” she said in an interview. “You can think of lots of reasons why it wouldn’t work. That’s why it’s so amazing.”
But even though there is no indication that the bean leaves and the bedbugs evolved to work together, the leaves are fiendishly clever in exploiting the insects’ anatomy. Like the armor covering knights in medieval times, the bedbug’s exoskeleton has thinner areas where its legs flex and its tiny claws protrude — like the spot where a greave, or piece of leg armor, ends.
“The areas where they appear to be pierceable,” Dr. Loudon said, “are not the legs themselves. It’s where they bend, where it’s thin. That’s where they get pierced.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Did it killem?
Interesting, but I imagine it would take a LOT of leaves to spread around just one floor in one room.
Not sure if it did or the pest control spraying did.
Apt mgmt got complains from others, too, so they finally got the pest control company to spray outside (lawns, tree areas, etc.).
I haven’t had an insect problem since. Pest control sprays inside each month and outside (lawns, etc) twice a year now.
Our beds have legs. Peasants sleep on floors and those low things. Our bedding is cleaned regularly. Peasants don’t clean their bedding (or their clothes, or themselves).
If you clean like your American mom did, you won’t have bedbugs.
There is a reason for these cultural habits.
Bugs can be a beach.
That’s why if I see spiders somewhere stashed away in my house, I leave them be.
Except for the Hobo spiders, which can hurt you in a big way.
I figure if a spider eats one bug a week, well, he paid his rent!!
A free pad to crash in, free grub... whatta deal!
Well said.
Thanks to opening the floodgates, we ALSO have more tuberculosis, LEPROSY and other third world maladies.
Good info here: www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp
Has good info on flea control and bed bug control. See also:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/04/biomimetic-bedbug-snare/alex Keenan
Kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) were raised from seeds (Johnny’s Seeds, Product 2554).
In Tennessee and Alabama, there is an old folk tale that where there are brown house tarantulas (the big brown fuzzy spiders) there are no roaches scurrying about. I tend to believe this one since inlaws used these spiders in their homes for pest control.
You know, might be worth a try to grow cukes and such in the thick of kidney beans.
I’m guessing the leaves are as attractive as others. I’ve never seen a bean leaf with so much as a gnat on it.
Jumpin'
Kidney bean leaves
A lot of five star hotels have had bed bug infestations, and they're some of the cleanest abodes known to man.
Bed bugs aren't attracted to dirt. They're attracted to warm blooded mammals, regardless of the environment. When they infest a home, they don't just inhabit mattresses, bedding, and upholstered furniture, they get into the walls, floors, ceilings, cabinetry, and even electrical boxes.
If a few of them sneak into your spotlessly clean home attached to a neighbor child's blanket, backpack, or clothing, they'll set up shop just like any other place.
Well I pay $50. every three months to treat my cat with “Resolution” directly on his skin. It works but I would prefer something I wouldn’t have to put on the cat.
Where does one get this “Fleabusters...and where did you spread it around? Is it dangerous if an animal eats it?
House centipedes have been known to enthusiastically eat bed bugs, a fact which endears them to me. If you see one, you might want to let it live, as it may be feasting on your bed bugs. But keep your distance, a disturbed house centipede can sting you.
How do you convince the bedbugs to crawl onto the leaves?
CO2 mug and powder trap
Orthoboric acid? Is that a specialty product?
That is what the ORTHO Company names boric acid so they can retail it at 5X-10X cost.
See, chemistry classes are saving $$ too.
Interesting, but I imagine it would take a LOT of leaves to spread around just one floor in one room.
Hooks=leaves
Loops=Bugs
Ain’t Mother Nature grand!
A lot of five star hotels have had bed bug infestations, and they’re some of the cleanest abodes known to man.
La linda mujer is laaaazy and pendejo.
ILLEGAL HOUSE KEEPERS
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