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bed bugs
May 2009 
Bed Bugs - Idea for solution - Warm Carbon Dioxide Trap
Posted on Feb 21st, 2009
by 
ruth
ruth
Ever since I gave a medical talk on the resurgence of bed bugs, I have been trying to think of a solution to this looming global scourge.
Can someone out there please design and test the following:
All the literature says bed bugs are attracted to us while we sleep and that they find us by the carbon dioxide and warmth we emit.
So that is the answer right?
We need a little box/trap that emits the right levels of carbon dioxide and warmth to mimic humans (maybe slightly higher would really get them excited and work better) so that they are attracted to the trap and not to the sleepers. The trap would allow them in but not out and eventually over a year they would just depopulate themselves into the trap.
Simultaneously of course one might wish to scrub the bed and put each leg in a bucket of soapy water so that they could not feed on humans over the months it would take to deinfest.
But forget all this taking apart baseboards and throwing out furniture and pesticides because it is thankless and expensive: up to $300/room for professionals to come in. Our shelters and poor apartment dwellers cannot afford repetative costly deinfestation
Can someone out there please design and test the following:
All the literature says bed bugs are attracted to us while we sleep and that they find us by the carbon dioxide and warmth we emit.
So that is the answer right?
We need a little box/trap that emits the right levels of carbon dioxide and warmth to mimic humans (maybe slightly higher would really get them excited and work better) so that they are attracted to the trap and not to the sleepers. The trap would allow them in but not out and eventually over a year they would just depopulate themselves into the trap.
Simultaneously of course one might wish to scrub the bed and put each leg in a bucket of soapy water so that they could not feed on humans over the months it would take to deinfest.
But forget all this taking apart baseboards and throwing out furniture and pesticides because it is thankless and expensive: up to $300/room for professionals to come in. Our shelters and poor apartment dwellers cannot afford repetative costly deinfestation
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