Regine Gries and her husband, Gerhard are both biologists at Simon Fraiser University in Vancouver British Columbia. They took on a research project to find out how to attract and repel the parasite.
Their research led them to study how bedbugs communicate through the use of pheromones or chemical patterns. Gerhard Gries claims to be a “specialist in chemical communication among insects.” Gerhard was able to identify the bloodsucker’s own chemical signals so that he might replicate them for use in traps.
In order to study the parasites, they needed to be kept alive. This is where Regine stepped in, volunteering to be the host. Luckily, she is slightly immune to the bite of bedbugs, only getting a small rash. Her husband, on the other hand, has a severe reaction to bedbug bites.
While Regine suffered for five years, sustaining 180,000 bites, the rewards certainly offset the suffering they caused, especially for the thousands of people who deal with bedbug infestations. Dr. Gerhard Gries was able to isolate five specific odor emissions given off by bedbugs. He found an odor emission used when there is a food source, and another odor emission used to denote danger.
According to Entomology Today, the secret to the success of their research was a histamine, a molecule with some unusual properties, and difficult to detect using traditional methods. The histamine gives off a “safe haven” signal, and surprisingly, bedbugs were found to congregate around it even when they had not recently fed on human blood.
The Wall Street Journal reports that in experiments in bedbug infested apartments in Vancouver, ten cents worth of the chemical sucked hundreds of bedbugs into the traps. The couple hope to get the chemical commercialized soon, but they do explain that in severe infestations, a professional will still be needed to rid a home of bedbugs.
The prevalence of bed bug infestations worldwide has become an epidemic. Although the parasite is not a major spreader of disease, it does carry the parasite associated with Chagas’ disease in Latin America. The worst thing about bedbugs is that they drive people crazy.
