Fungus will make sure the bedbugs don’t bite

And don’t let the bedbugs bite, is no longer a harmless adage. In reality today, these bloodthirsty bugs infest thousands of homes. According to a team of Penn State entomologists, biopesticides – naturally occurring micro-organisms – might provide an answer to this pest problem.

    Bedbugs need blood meals for growth and development throughout their life cycle. Increased travel, widespread insecticide resistance and changes in management practices have caused a resurgence in those insects. Compounding the problem are concerns about the safety of using traditional chemicals in the domestic environment. According to Nina Jenkins, Beauveria bassiana – a natural fungus – could be used to control bedbugs. The study appears in the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology.
    In the study, the researchers used an airbrush sprayer to apply spore formulations to paper and cotton jersey. Then control surfaces, again paper and cotton jersey, were sprayed with blank oil only. The surfaces were allowed to dry at room temperature overnight. Three groups of 10 bedbugs were then exposed to one of the two surfaces for one hour. Afterward, they were placed on clean filter paper in a petri dish and monitored. The researchers found that all of the bedbugs exposed to the biopesticide became infected and died within five days.