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Dozens of essential oils-based products on the market claim to kill or repel insects, but a previous Rutgers University study showed that few actually work against bed bugs. Gondhalekar and Gaire analyzed 15 essential oil compounds that are present in various aromatic plants for their toxicity to bed bugs and their ability to disrupt the insects' nervous system function. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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All of the chemicals were effective when applied directly to the bed bugs, though the amount needed to kill them varied. Carvacrol, derived from oregano and thyme; thymol (thyme); citronellic acid (lemongrass); and eugenol (clove) were most effective.When tested as fumigants, thymol, carvacrol, linalool (common in basil) and camphor (camphor tree) were most effective. Four of the compounds did not kill bed bugs over a 24-hour period.
It took about 70,000 times more of the most effective compound to kill a bed bug by contact than a control synthetic insecticide. With fumigants, this difference was only 400 times. That doesn't mean plant essential oil compounds are ineffective, Gondhalekar said. Now that toxicity levels are known, effective products can be formulated.
Hmm, using enough essential oil could kill bedbugs, but will you then stick to your furniture?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday March 14 2019, @04:05AM (3 children)
The research confirmed that these cures are NOT woo. The term woo generally referrs to claims with no scientific evidence, especially when they are couched in pseudo-scientific terms.
When you have controlled experiments with quantitative measurement and sufficient documentation to reproduce, it's not woo.
I wouldn't say it HAS to be a good thing or that choosing a combination randomly is a good idea, but there is something to be said for using a substance where we have centuries worth of evidence for human safety.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by driverless on Thursday March 14 2019, @06:54AM (1 child)
It really depends on how you define woo-woo, but when the controlled-experiment results show that the very best essential oil used as a contact insecticide (the standard way to kill insects, think fly spray) was seventy thousand times less effective than a generic synthetic, then claiming that essential oils are useful as insecticides is woo-woo. Even the study agrees, "results of this study indicate silicone oils and paraffin oil have the potential to be used as safer alternative bed bug control materials", not essential oils. So you're spraying your bed with C5-20 paraffin, more commonly known as mineral oil, i.e. petroleum distillates, to kill bedbugs. I'll take cypermethrin, imiprothrin, phenothrin, or tetramethrin, which are known to have little to no toxic effect on humans (inherent low toxicity to humans, and once in the body they break down so quickly there's not even an easy way to test for them), over dousing my bed with mineral oil.
The press release for the study is another classic example of a university PR department trying to goose up a minimal-result study to make it newsworthy. "Study identifies essential oil compounds most toxic to bed bugs" should really read "Study identifies essential oil compounds mostly ineffective to bed bugs, alternatives paraffin and silicone less ineffective", but that doesn't get any news coverage. In the researchers' defence, the actual study, not the Purdue Uni PR form, is neutral, merely "Toxicities of Selected Essential Oils, Silicone Oils, and Paraffin Oil against the Common Bed Bug". If I was citing that, it'd be as a reference to the fact that essential oils don't work for dealing with bedbugs.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday March 14 2019, @07:12PM
I wouldn't say that makes it woo, but it does say it's considerably less effective.
Claims of equal effectiveness OTOH are woo.
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Thursday March 14 2019, @12:59PM
if the effective way to kill them with the oil is drowning- it is not effective.