MEGAN W. SZYNDLER & CATHERINE LOUDON, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
Bed bugs have a fearsome enemy: the bean plant. Traditionally, Eastern Europeans filled their bedrooms with bean plant leaves, which trap bed bugs with tiny hook-like hairs, then burned the leaves the next morning. Inspired by this custom, scientists are studying bean plants’ ability to deter bed bugs in modern-day societies, according to a study published yesterday (April 10) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
University of California, Irvine, biologist Catherine Loudon and colleagues looked at bed bugs trapped on bean plants using video and an electron microscope, and found that the leaves were covered in small hooked hairs, which pierced the thin areas in the insects’ carapaces near their joints. On average, the bugs were trapped after just six steps on the ...
