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posted by Fnord666 on Friday March 24 2017, @05:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the please-let-the-bedbugs-die dept.

A fungal biopesticide that shows promise for the control of bed bugs is highly effective even against bed-bug populations that are insecticide resistant, according to research conducted by scientists at Penn State and North Carolina State universities.

The study suggests that Aprehend, a mycoinsecticide developed at Penn State, likely will provide an important new tool for managing bed-bug infestations, which have surged in recent years.

"Bed bugs were all but eradicated from the United States and other industrialized nations after World War II, likely due to the use of DDT and other broad-spectrum insecticides," said study co-author Nina Jenkins, senior research associate in entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State. "But in the last few decades, they have re-emerged globally as an important public-health pest."

The researchers noted that pyrethroid insecticides are a mainstay of bed bug control, but there is compelling evidence that many bed-bug populations have developed resistance. In addition, this resistance may lead to cross-resistance to other classes of insecticides.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 24 2017, @07:33PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday March 24 2017, @07:33PM (#483816)

    >any pest you needed that was not anaerobic/suspended animation capable in nature.

    There's a surprising number of those. Most of your crusty shelled insects can go for long periods with no air, and extremely long periods with just a little available oxygen. You'll find that the nitrogen generators used for filling car tires still leave a bit of oxygen in the output air, and you'll also find it hard to do a complete flush of most spaces that you can't pull a good vacuum on.

    https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+can+a+cockroach+live+without+air [google.com]

    http://www.atlascopco.com/nitrogenus/products/nitrogen_generators/membrane_nitrogen/ [atlascopco.com]

    Now, if your pests are living in a glass jar and you can seal the lid tight, sure... squirt in a few drops of alcohol, set it on fire, and close the lid - bye bye bugs.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
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