Bedbugs are one of humanity’s pests that have clung on through the centuries of improvements in cleaning and home care. Many homeowners feel obligated to spend hundreds of dollars on bedbug removal. But could there be a way for consumers to prevent bedbugs from sucking the blood out of their bank accounts?
According to researchers from the University of Florida, it’s not only possible, but a necessary addition to the options consumers have for fighting bed bugs. “Having low cost bedbug control is a must,” said Roberto M. Pereira, one of the study’s authors, who says that when it comes to their device, “it’s not even a dollar.”
The trap the UF entomologists have devised consists, basically, of two plastic containers. One rests within the other, creating a “moat.” The researchers used tape around the edges of the larger container, and vertical strips to the inner container. Baby powder can be sprinkled in the outer bowl. The device is placed beneath bedposts.
The tape allows the bed bugs to climb into the containers, where they become trapped. The tape is only on one side of the inner container, and one side of the outer container, meaning that the bugs fall into the outer container and have no way of climbing out again. Bedbugs then either die from lack of food, or can be killed using soapy water.
Although bedbugs are not considered a public health threat, they are, according to Pereira, increasing in number and homeowners should take heed of simple ways to eradicate them before they become a problem too big to contain with a few plastic containers. Already, one out of every five Americans either has encountered a bug themselves, or knows someone who has.