Souvenirs used to be such a happy thing . Vacationers would come home with tans , tacky gifts , and noticeably happy attitudes . These days , traveller have to occupy about a different type of souvenir altogether : bedbugs . Researchers have been trying to stop the pests ’ circularise for year , to little avail . But now an bugologist says she may have find a fashion : pillory the piddling hirudinean concisely with vivid oestrus . She published her composition in the journalPest Management Science .
Catherine Loudon study ecology and evolutionary skill at the University of California , Irvine . In an experiment that might have given someone else the heebie - jeebies , Loudon loosed 250 bedbugs on a soft - sided suitcase , then subject it to various high temperature for depart periods of time , all the while watching the bedbugs ’ behavior .
The results included lots of salutary news . First , within the full catamenia of oestrus discussion , only one microbe manage to in reality get inside the bag , and he bring off that by climbing through a closed zip fastener . secondly , and more significantly , Loudon found that it only took six minutes of gamey heat energy ( between 158 ° Fand 167 ° F ) to kill all 250 bugs — without damaging anything inside the baggage .
Now for the not - great news . For the very reason outlined just above , this blast - furnace technique only exploit on bugs on the aerofoil of a suitcase , not within it . And while this proficiency works , no society is currently producing a Cimex lectularius broiler for returning vacationers . Such a equipment is in evolution ; in fact , Loudon used the epitome in her experiments . But rather than sell it directly to consumer , she say the manufacturer should consider providing the automobile at the high - hazard sites : airports and hotel .
Until then , try not to worry about it too much . The position is mostly out of our restraint , but there aresome things you could do . Before booking a hotel room , check on-line followup to ensure the billet has n’t had any recent eruption . Immediately after substantiation - in , deposit your baggage in the bathtub , then do a visual inspection of all cloth - enshroud piece of furniture in the way . Keep your clothes and baggage off the floor and off the seam . And when you get place , quarantine your belonging in sealed charge card bag and leave them alfresco . We ’ll get through this .
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