This document provides an overview of bed bug testing facilities and methods. It discusses the growing issue of bed bugs and outlines various tests that can be conducted, including barrier tests to evaluate fabrics, repellency tests using environmental chambers, and quantification of bed bug removal from electrical appliances. The document also introduces Airmid Healthgroup as a testing facility with accredited laboratories and expertise in entomology that can perform specialized bed bug testing.

1. airmid healthgroup ltd
A SPECIAL INDUSTRY REPORT
www.airmidhealthgroup.com/bedbugs
November 2011

2. Objectives of talk
• Overview of the issue
• Fast facts
• Type of tests that should be considered
• Testing facilities that should be used
• Further reading
• About Airmid and contact info
This slides accompany a lecture given at Trinity Enterprise Campus by the Bed Bug Research Team
For further information contact www.airmidhealthgroup.com/bedbugs

3. Fast Facts
• Ability to stop the spread of bed bugs is almost non-existent
• Could almost say it is a pandemic
• Bed bugs are highly resistant to many of the pesticides that are used to treat
them
• Can be found in beds, chairs, sofas, electrical outlets, baseboards, and crevices,
in homes, apartments, hotels, hospitals, college dorms, offices, high end stores.
• Getting rid of them is hugely difficult
• EPA held its first Bed Bug Summit in 2009
• Federation legislation, known as the “Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite Act,” has been
introduced to provide states with more resources to educate health professionals
and increase inspection, prevention and eradication programs.
• Bed bugs are difficult to maintain - obligate hematophagous (bloodsucking)
parasitic insects which feed exclusively on warm blooded mammals.
• We use specially constructed blood membranes (our dedicated scientists
volunteer blood!).
• An adult female will drink about 8mls of blood

4. A problem of the past, a bigger problem for the future
• The impact of the rapidly increasing global prevalence of Bedbugs cannot
be underestimated.
• Once close to eradication in the late 1940’s, bedbugs have made a
staggering resurgence particularly in the United States over the past 10
years but also in western European countries including Ireland and the UK
where infestation report rates are increasing and distribution areas are
expanding.
• Although the basis and point source for this resurgence is unclear, large
bedbug infestations have been attributed to increased worldwide travel,
altered insecticide management, and increased resistance to widely used
broad spectrum insecticides.
• High resistance has been reported to many of the more limited insecticides
still available to combat them.

5. Life cycle
• Bedbugs undergo incomplete metamorphosis during their lifecycle.
• Mated adult females will lay up to 5 eggs per day for the duration of their
life. Eggs are a translucent colour approx 1mm in length and will stick
strongly to the surface upon which they are laid.
• Hatching of 1st Instar nymphs occurs 10 days later. After feeding, the 1st
instar nymph will shed its skin and emerge slightly larger in size as a 2nd
Instar nymph.
• This cycle will occur a further 4 times before the adult stage is reached.
Each nymphal stage requires at least one blood meal to progress to the
next stage of development.
• Remarkably, bedbugs have adapted to survive for up to 18 months without
feeding and up to 2 years in colder environments.

6. Physical Description
• Adult bed bugs are fast running wingless
insects, 4-5mm long when fully grown and
rust brown in colour.
• They are dorsoventrally flattened and
extremely thin, facilitating their ability to
hide in the narrowest of cracks close to
the sleeping host.
• The undersides of mattresses, within
furniture structures, under floorboards,
behind skirting, and in carpets in various
cracks are popular locations for bedbugs
to be found.

7. Types of Bed Bug Tests
1. Textiles
1. Barrier
2. Bite Penetration
3. Repellency
Bench scale
Chamber testing
2. Electrical Appliances
1. Quantification of Removal
2. Lethal effect

8. Test Facilities
• Climate-Controlled Environmental Chambers
– Bed Bugs
– Allergen
– Environmental
• Class II Microbiological Laboratories

9. Artificial Feeding Method

10. Barrier Test
• Artificial Feeding Method (AFM)
• Attractant applied to system to draw bedbugs in a desired direction
– CO2, heat, chemical cues (pheromones)
• Bedbugs will/will not be able to penetrate test fabric
• Triplicate study with control
• Positive control - AFM where test fabric is replaced with a control
fabric known to allow bedbugs to penetrate and feed

11. Bite Penetration Test
• AFM + Non fed bedbugs.
• Hungry bed bugs will be drawn towards warm blood and will
instinctively want to obtain a blood meal.
• System monitored at defined time intervals
• Fed bedbugs vs. non fed bedbugs visually different due to rapid
increase in body mass post feeding.
• Evidence of feeding bedbugs indicates that bedbugs can bite
through the fabric
• Study in Triplicate, with Control

12. Repellency Algorithm
AFM
Test Fabric (Treated) Control Fabric (Untreated)
Unfed bedbugs introduced Unfed bedbugs introduced
Feeding monitored for three time points
Quantity of fed bedbugs determined

13. Repellency Chamber
• Dual containment units (0.75m x 0.5m)
– (Fully sealed with access from central corridor)
• Bed bug population introduced at neutral points for dispersal
• Numeration & image capture of settling locations
• Time-specific repellence ratios determined

14. www.airmidhealthgroup.com
• Research & Innovation Centre of Excellence
• Biomedical ISO accredited facility
• Specialises in indoor air and health for the built
environment
• Multidisciplinary staff
• Medical Doctors, Occupational Hygienists PhD's
researches, specialist technicians
– Expertise in
– Acarids & Insects,
– Mycology, Virology & Bacteriology,
– Allergy & Immunology

15. Accreditation + Validation = Reputation
• Trusted Test facility to
• Asthma & Allergy Foundation of America
• Asthma Society of Canada
• Asthma UK
• Exclusive Health Advisor to Major airlines
• ISO accreditation

17. For Information Contact
Phone +353-(0)1-633 6820
E-mail: bedbugs@airmidhealthgroup.com
airmid healthgroup ltd.
The Tower,
Trinity Enterprise Campus,
Grand Canal Quay,
Dublin 2, Ireland
www.airmidhealthgroup.com/bedbugs