Microfibre mesh creates bed bug booby trap

Material scientists at Stony Brook University have developed a web made up of extremely thin microfibres which can ensnare bed bugs and stop their nocturnal feasts on human blood.

The microfibres used are 50 times thinner than a human hair and are effective at entangling bed bugs and other insects. The technology is being commercialised by a company called Fibertrap which promotes non-toxic pest control methods.

The material was developed by researchers at Stony Brook's Centre for Advanced Technology in Sensor Materials. The nanotechnology results in entanglements that are millions of times more dense than woven products such as fabrics or carpets, according to lead researcher Miriam Rafailovich. The microfibres trap the bed bugs by attaching microfibres to their legs, preventing them from moving and therefore feeding and reproducing. The material is created using electrospinning, where an electrical charge is used to draw a very fine fibre out of a liquid.

The lab has tested the material with live bed bugs and termites. The microfibres are safe for humans and pets and don't rely on any pesticides or chemicals, which insects can grow resistant to.

Bed bugs are small, disc-shaped parasitic insects that feed on the blood of people and animals when they sleep. They are remarkably hardy and can survive a wide range of temperatures and atmospheric compositions. They can survive for five days at -10C but will die after 15 minutes at -26C. Meanwhle, at the other end of the temperature spectrum, they can survive temperatures of 45C, but will die at heats above 46C.

The bugs tend to hide during the day and emerge in the night, sometimes travelling up to 30 metres. The bites affect different people in different ways -- from creating tiny red dots to enormous welts.

Bed bugs have been proliferating in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia in the last few decades. In London alone, between 2000 and 2006, the number of pest control calls relating to bed bugs increased by an average of 28.5 percent per year. This is down to the creatures becoming resistant to pesticides and the increase in international travel.

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Microfibre mesh creates bed bug booby trap