Bean Leaves Effective in Trapping Bedbugs

Bean leaves, with their microscopic hairs, are effective in trapping bedbugs, researchers have found. The study was inspired by a traditional remedy for bedbugs.

Researchers from UC Irvine and the University of Kentucky are now developing materials that would imitate the design on the leaves and catch bedbugs.

In recent years, the bedbug population has increased in the U.S. and although these bugs don't carry diseases, their bites can be nasty.

Bedbugs can hide between cushions, chair seams and curtains, and can live for a year without feeding on blood.

The current study was based on an old remedy that's used in Bulgaria, Serbia and other southeast European countries, where leaves are strewn on the floor around the bugs to capture them. These leaves are then collected in the morning and burned.

Extensive study on the leaves revealed that the bugs are trapped in the hair-like projections in the leaves known as trichomes. Researchers have now designed a material that resembles the trichomes, but the new material just slows down the bugs instead of stopping them. The team says that more research is needed to design a material that can copy the geometry of the leaves.

"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," said Catherine Loudon of UC Irvine and lead author of the study.

Although leaves can be used to trap bedbugs, they tend to dry quickly. A synthetic material, on the other hand, can be applied to various locations, researchers said.

"Nature is a hard act to follow, but the benefits could be enormous," Michael Potter of the University of Kentucky said in a news release. "Imagine if every bedbug inadvertently brought into a dwelling was captured before it had a chance to bite and multiply."

The study is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.