Study Finds Old Timey Bedbug Bean Leaf Remedy Works
Posted on April 10, 2013
The New York Times reports that Eastern European housewives used to cover bedbug infested rooms with bean leaves at night. This simple technique - the Balkan bedbug remedy - resulted in leaves covered with bedbugs in the morning.
Scientists studied the technique and found that it works. The bean leaves have tiny hooks in them that cause the bedbugs to get trapped. The bedbugs tend to get more stuck in the tiny hooks (trichomes) in the bean leaves the more they try to escape. The scientists say in a release that they discovered bedbugs are "trapped within seconds of stepping on a leaf, their legs impaled by microscopic hooked hairs known botanically as trichomes."
Scientists at UC Irvine and the University of Kentucky are developing materials that mimic the geometry of the bean leaves. The research was published here in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
The synthetic surfaces so far are unable to stop bedbugs. The synthetic surfaces only temporarily stop bedbugs and do not stop them as effectively as bean leaves. The scientists say this suggests that crucial mechanics of the trichomes need to be better understand.
UC Irvine Entomologist Catherine Loudon, lead author of the paper, said in a statement, "Plants exhibit extraordinary abilities to entrap insects. Modern scientific techniques let us fabricate materials at a microscopic level, with the potential to 'not let the bedbugs bite' without pesticides."
Here is a video of a synthetic surface slowing a bedbug, but failing to stop it completely: