It's still way too soon to recommend that people run out and buy alarm pheromones (which are synthesized for other purposes, including as food preservatives). Outside the confines of a plastic dish, getting bed bugs to run around like crazy is not necessarily a good thing, said Michael Potter, an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. Bed bugs are notoriously good at getting behind baseboards, inside walls, and into other cracks and crevices. "Some might run into the apartment next door," Potter said. "Some might run into inaccessible areas." In one recent incident in Columbus, Benoit said, bed bugs had infested 23 out of 24 units in an apartment building. Residents had to leave their homes for a week while the building was fumigated. Even then, there was no guarantee that the treatment killed all the bugs. The incident illustrates how important it is to continue learning more about the inner workings of these pests. "Any new work on bed bugs," Potter said, "is interesting work." Related Links: |
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