Combating bed bug resurgence through better detection and control strategies

Bed bugs resurged as an important public health pest in recent years in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. The increasing numbers of infestations pose serious financial burdens to the communities, affect people’s quality of life, and act as reservoirs for new infestations in our society. Low income communities suffer disproportionally much higher number of infestations than other communities. As high as 40% of the low income housing units were reported being infested with bed bugs in New Jersey. Lack of early detection and monitoring methods and tools, failure of resident cooperation, and ineffective control practices are major factors contributing to the increasing bed bug infestations. We designed and evaluated an innovative bed bug lure, a bed bug trap, and a proactive monitoring protocol for multi-unit dwellings. We also developed and evaluated a community-wide model bed bug management program. The bed bug lure improved the efficacy of bed bug monitors by 2.2 times. A new pitfall trap design was significantly more effective than the most effective passive monitor available in the market for bed bugs. A sugar-yeast mixture formula was developed as an inexpensive, safe, and convenient carbon dioxide source for attracting bed bugs. The proactive bed bug monitoring protocol revealed that greater than 70% of the bed bug infestations were not noticed by the residents or the building managers. A community-wide bed bug management program resulted in 95% elimination of the treated infestations and 87% reduction in infestation rate after 12 months. The program reduced pesticide usage by at least 90% compared to other chemical only bed bug management studies conducted in similar environments.