May 22, 2014
Image Credit: CDC/ Harvard University, Dr. Gary Alpert; Dr. Harold Harlan; Richard Pollack. Photo Credit: Piotr Naskrecki
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online
Researchers from the University of Floridas Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have channeled their inner MacGyver and devised a cheap and easy way to deal with bedbugs using only common household items.
According to Jennifer Viegas of Discovery News, the items required to construct the ingenious new trap cost only about a dollar in all, and the new trap provides a nearly foolproof alternative to pesticides and bug bombs for dealing with the bloodsucking parasites that are typically found in mattresses and other bedding.
In order to determine whether or not your preferred place of slumber has been infested by bedbugs, the UF/IFAS team came up with a single interceptor trap built out of a pair of disposable plastic containers, glue and masking tape. Once assembled, they claim that the traps capture and collect bedbugs while they attempt to travel between people and the parasites preferred hiding places, Viegas added.
[ Watch the Video: How To Build Your Own Bed Bug Trap ]
The trap can be built in just four steps, though there is an optional fifth step. First, you need to cut four pieces of rough-surfaced tape, with each one being at least as long as the wall of the smaller container is tall. Next, you evenly space and firmly press all four pieces of tape vertically on the inside surface of that smaller container.
The tape allows the bugs to escape that container easily and fall into the space separating it and the larger container, thus trapping the bedbugs. For the third step, you need to wrap tape around the outside of the larger container from the base to its upper edge, allowing the parasites to have easy access to the trap.
After that, you have to glue the smaller container into the center of the larger containers bottom. While thats basically all you need to do, the UF/IFAS inventors note that the trap works best if you apply baby powder or another form of talc to the space between the walls of each container, so that its harder for the bedbugs to escape.
See more here:
New Bedbug Trap Offers Safe, Effective, Inexpensive Way To Deal With Parasites