Bed bug infestations exploded over the past 15 years or so, opening a relatively new market for all kinds of products. There are bed bug traps, so-called all-natural sprays, mattress encasements- thousands of options of varying worth. There are also chemical insecticides, including both over-the-counter and professional grade products. The most common class of insecticides used on bed bugs are pyrethtroids, a synthetic version of an ancient remedy made from crushed chrysanthemums… The bugs that were on the treated fabric for 10 minutes were significantly less likely to feed compared to those that sat on it for one minute, and when they did feed it was a significantly smaller amount of blood (there was no difference in the control set). And out of the females that sat for 10 minutes on the ActiveGuard, only one out of 52 laid any eggs… But here’s the caveat. Exposing a population of insects to sublethal amounts of insecticide may be akin to stopping an antibiotic treatment too early, which leads to drug-resistant bacteria. “Exposing bed bugs regularly to sublethal concentrations could promote greater levels of resistance,” says Rick Cooper, an entomologist at Rutgers University.
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