Control Of Bed Bugs (Heteroptera: Cimicidae) With Diatomaceous Earth Loaded Tape

Bed bug infestations are most likely to establish close to human resting and sleeping area. We took advantage of the stereotyped feeding behaviour of bed bugs and developed a diatomaceous earth (DE) loaded tape, Nattaro Safe (NS), to be installed between bed bug harbourage and feeding place. DE absorbs the waxy epicuticle leading to desiccation and death of the insect. We show that bed bugs continuously exposed to DE die within 2 to 4 days. In a bed room situation bed bugs only get exposed to DE each time they pass through the DE loaded tape. We tested this in laboratory simulations where adults and nymphs passed through DE tape, were fed, and passed through the tape again and control tests without DE were performed. After 7 days 97% of adults and nymphs died. Seven and 10 days later the remaining adults and nymphs died. A few eggs were laid and hatched in the boxes with DE treated adults, but the nymphs only survived shortly. We conclude that repeated brief exposures to the DE loaded tape is able to shorten the bed bug life cycle by killing adults before they lay eggs or killing nymphs soon after they hatch.