<span style="font-weight: 400;">In </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">BITE Back!</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Vol. 21, we reported on the effectiveness of essential oils for bed bug control. “Green” pest <img class="alignright wp-image-4740 size-medium" src="http://midwestpesticideaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Bed_bug_Cimex_lectularius-300x210.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="210" />management has become a trend in recent years, with more consumers looking to natural products for insect control to reduce health risks. But because these “</span><a href="https://www.epa.gov/minimum-risk-pesticides/minimum-risk-pesticide-definition-and-product-confirmation"><span style="font-weight: 400;">minimum risk” (a.k.a. EPA 25B list) pesticides</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> pose little to no threat to human health, they are exempt from more rigorous EPA testing requirements under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The public is often drawn to buying these products by grand claims of effectiveness coupled with the promise of being safe for children and pets. With little regulation and low development costs, manufacturers can quickly roll out these products with bold claims that are not always supported by scientific data. With this in mind, researchers at Rutgers University </span><a href="https://entomology.rutgers.edu/personnel/changlu-wang/pdfs/Singh2013NaturalProductsPCT.pdf"><span style="font-weight: 400;">tested</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> 11 commonly available minimum risk insecticides (9 biopesticides and 2 detergents) on bed bugs collected from infested apartments.</span>
<h3>11 Natural Pesticides <a href="https://entomology.rutgers.edu/personnel/changlu-wang/pdfs/Singh2013NaturalProductsPCT.pdf">Tested by Rutgers University Researchers</a></h3>
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-4723" src="http://midwestpesticideaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Rutgers-insecticide-chart.png" alt="" width="1006" height="451" />

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<span style="font-weight: 400;">As suspected, they found that most of the natural insecticides performed poorly against bed bugs, with two notable exceptions:</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> EcoRaider</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> killed 100% and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bed Bug Patrol</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> killed 92% of the bed bugs after 10 days. Pending more testing, both showed promise as natural alternatives to the more toxic conventional insecticides with the added benefit of defeating insecticide resistance. As for the rest, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bed Bug Bully</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> killed only 60% after 10 days, and all others achieved less than than 50% mortality. Notably, researchers found </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">EcoEXEMPT IC2</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to be completely ineffective. No matter the effectiveness in the lab, all of these products likely perform less effectively in real-life conditions where bed bugs tend to avoid direct contact by hiding in cracks and crevices.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The results of this study show that more attention is needed to prevent the registration and marketing of ineffective bed bug control products. False advertising can trick consumers into purchasing products that don’t work, resulting in money wasted and a false sense of security that opens the door for bed bugs to spread.  MPAC recommends always consulting with a licensed pest control operator for a bed bug infestation and making sure to use products proven to be effective like those highlighted above or in MPAC’s past </span><a href="http://midwestpesticideaction.org/what-you-can-do/all-resources/"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">BITE Back! newsletters</span></i></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. And, as always, buyer beware!</span>

<em>Sign up for the <strong>BITE Back! newsletter</strong> to receive bi-monthly news you can use to beat back bed bugs by emailing LTrudeau@pesticideaction.org.</em>