Building a bedbug detector for under $20

If you think you might have bedbug infestation (you have insect bites that are arrayed in a row or cluster), you can create a MacGyver trap that is just as good as the ones used by professionals. You cannot exterminate the bugs with this method, but you could detect them and contact exterminators.

The folks are Rutgers University experimented with various homemade contraptions until they built a trap superior to the ones used by exterminators for detecting an infestation. (They presented at the 2009 meeting of the Entomological Society of America)

Here are the stuff you'll need:

• Plastic food and water dish for cats (or a similar plastic bowl with smooth lining)
• Insulated 1/3 galloon jug sold in camping-supply or sports stores (Yay! to another excuse to visit REI!)
• 2.5 lbs of dry ice (~$1/lb). The dry ice is the bait. The CO2, which is mistaken as human breath, lures the bloodsuckers. 
• Gloves (because you should never handle dry ice with your bare hands!)
• Sandpaper
• Talcum powder
• Tape

Build the contraption with the following steps:

1. Put on gloves and place 2.5 lbs of dry ice pellets inside the insulated jug. 
2. Leave the spout open to let the CO2 evaporate. It should seep out completely in 11 hours at room temperature and no faster.
   If the CO2 is seeping out too rapidly, partially cover the spout. 
3. Overturn the food dish, scuff the outer rim with sandpaper to give the bloodsuckers better traction. 
4. Create a paper ramp on the food dish by taping the sandpaper (or other pieces of paper) to the dish. 
5. Make the inside of the food dish even more slippery by dusting it with talcum powder.
   Once the bedbugs get into the moat, they can't scuttle out of the steep, slippery rim. Bwahaha! 
6. Place the bait, which is the thermos/insualted jug with dry ice, in the middle of the overturned food dish. 

Bedbugs: Non-emo vampires that like the dark and won't sparkle in sunlight

Bedbugs give us the heebie-jeebies. These vampires were wiped out from the United States back in the day when people sprayed DDT on anything that scuttled or moved, including pesky coworkers and overly smelly men. But they (the bedbugs, not the smelly men, who—to the disappointment of women in that era—never disappeared) were reintroduced into the country when international travel became common.

Photo: Visuals Unlimited / Corbis | Source: New York Daily News

Like Jason in Friday the 13th, pesticide-resistent bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of. If even a single female with eggs survive the extermination, you have another infestation in your hands. Temporarily moving out of your house won't help since a bedbug can survive for up to 18* months without food [ This is your cue to run to the showers screaming. ].

The best way to deal with bedbugs is not get them in the first place. Here are a few precautions you should follow when you travel:

• Before you book a hotel, check with the Bedbug Registry. 
• When you arrive at the hotel, do not put your luggage and stuff on the bed. Put them on non-upholstered furniture (the luggage stand, for example) instead.
• Do not lay your clothes in the drawer (bedbugs like wood, crevices, and protected areas). Instead, keep your stuff in your luggage or hang your clothes up in the closet. Keeping them in the bathroom works. 
• Learn what bedbugs look like.  
• Take out the bedsheets and check the mattresses (all of them, not just the one you are laying on) for signs of blood or bedbugs. Lift the mattress over your head to check for signs under the mattress. Carefully inspect the folds and creases of the mattress. Check the entire length of the fold around the mattress, both top and bottom. 
• Check the headboards. Lift them off from their hinges and inspect the crevices. Headboards are unwieldy, so it's easier to work with another person, but one strong person can manage it.
• Use a very bright headlamp (like the kind they sell in outdoor stores) while doing the inspection.

Other tips:

• Avoid used stuff. 
• Be aware that they're not just in hotel rooms. They have been discovered  in offices, stores (Abercombie in New York had to close down for fumigation), theaters, trains, hospital waiting rooms, and gyms. No need to be paranoid, but just keep an eye out for itchy welts, so that you can take precautions (described next).   
• If you discover itchy welts that you suspect are bedbug bites, take precautions before you return home. Heat will kill them. Bag all your clothes, wash them (including ones you didn't wear) and dry them in high heat (greater than 125 degrees Fahrenheit). Bag your luggage and leave them in the back of your car under the hot sun for at least a day. Once the infestation starts, the nightmare begins. 
• See our article on spotting an existing infestation. 

For a more thorough article, see the University of Kentucky: College of Agriculture site. 

* This figure is based on older records about earlier infestations. Some reports recorded 12 months, which is still creepily long. The pesticide-resistent strain in our era might live to only 2 months without a bloodmeal. But still. Eww.