Bed Bug Pill: Worth the Hype?
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Reports of a potential "bed bug pill" have surfaced so American Pest is on the case to discover the pros and cons of this new development in bed bug control.
The drug, called Stromectol®, is typically used to treat blood parasites. The tests, performed at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, showed that 3 out of 5 bed bugs were killed after feeding on the blood of the researcher who had taken the drug. But the good news comes at a price.
Because the medication is not 100 percent effective at killing bed bugs, the potential side effects of the drugs may outweigh their benefits. Side effects like nausea, diarrhea, seizures, swelling, itching and many more in addition to still dealing with roughly 40 percent of a bed bug infestation seems to add insult to injury. The drug is apparently effective at combating diseases caused by parasites, but its use as a bed bug remedy may not be practical.
Bed bug infestations, especially in big cities, have become a serious problem. Bed bugs were largely dormant through much of the 1900's until the late 1990's when they made a resounding come back. Believed to be because of a new resilience to pesticides, bed bugs are infesting homes, apartments, businesses, schools, theaters, and public transportation at an alarming rate.
The resilience to over the counter remedies has forced the public to call professionals for a generally costly solution to bed bug infestations. Other so-called "solutions" that have made headlines include setting the infested mattress on fire and causing severe illness with improper use of products that are not meant to control bed bugs. Professional products administered to the infested area or thermal remediation treatments (or a combination of the two) are currently the proven ways of eradicating bed bugs. Both of these methods should only be conducted by a reputable pest control company.
This is just the first of many new studies to try and find other solutions to completely remove bed bugs from human lives.