EASTERN VIRGINIA MEDICAL SCHOOL, VIRGINIA, USA. It has been recently reported by Bloomberg that the anti-parasite drug ivermectin is actually deadly for bed bugs. An infestation of bed bugs has been one of the most common and serious problems that doesn’t seem to have an effective solution yet. That is why some scientists started a study on the effects of ivermectin for bed bugs.
The scientists ran three different experiments on different groups of bed bugs in various growth stages by feeding them all with ivermectin-laced mouse blood. Some of the bed bugs were fed using an artificial membrane with the ivermectin-infused mouse blood. At the same time, they also had 4 persons take in ivermectin orally.
The results showed that ivermectin actually killed most of the bed bugs in varying degrees. Some of the bed bugs that didn’t die weren’t able to reach their reproductive age. The mortality rate of the bed bugs in the human volunteers was 67 percent after 3 hours of taking the drug orally. After 54 hours, the mortality rate of the bed bugs fell to 42 percent.
Although it has been proven that ivermectin is effective in killing different types of bed bugs, the head of the research team Johnathan Sheele still stresses that ivermectin shouldn’t be experimented with at home in case one has a bed bug infestation. It still needs to be used only by experts such as exterminators.
| Invention | Ivermectin |
|---|---|
| Organization | Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia, USA |
| Researcher | Johnathan Sheele & Team |
| Field(s) | Tropical Medicine, Bed Bugs, Ivermectin, Antibiotic |
| Further Information | POPSCI |
