The infestation of bedbugs in cinemas and the metro plunged France into psychosis around the summer of 2023. A year later, French researchers may have discovered a miracle product. And the good news is that it is already on sale in stores. Researchers from the Nice University Hospital and the Mediterranean Infection University Hospital Institute (IHU) in Marseille have published the results of their study, conducted on two colonies, in the journal Parasite last month.
“We tested several types of powders, such as green clay, sodium bicarbonate, talc, diatomaceous earth or Sommières earth, and the results show that the latter kills bedbugs in 24 hours,” said Pascal Delaunay, a parasitologist and medical entomologist at the Nice University Hospital, who conducted the study for a year and a half with his colleague Jean-Michel Berenger, a member of the IHU of Marseille and founder of the National Institute for the Study and Fight against Bedbugs (INELP).
What is the land of Sommières?
Commonly sold commercially as a household product, to remove grease stains from wood for example, Fuller’s earth, a mineral composed of hydrated aluminum and magnesium silicate, acts on bedbugs by killing them through dehydration.
“It is a simple product to use, accessible to all and respectful of both the environment and human health,” says Pascal Delaunay, who recommends, in the event of an infestation, spreading Sommières earth on the bed bases, while using the usual mechanical processes, including washing the laundry at 60 degrees.
Why is it the dream product?
“In addition to a short-term effect, since a simple three-minute exposure is enough to kill the bedbugs, we have also demonstrated a non-repellent effect, unlike chemical insecticides, and a transversal effect, meaning that a contaminated bedbug also contaminates its fellow bugs and kills them,” explained Pascal Delaunay.
ANSES is now asking to avoid insecticide-based treatments, which create resistance problems, spread bedbugs due to their repellent nature and are dangerous for human health, with a thousand cases of exposure recorded between 1999 and 2021.
This study also proved the effectiveness in combating bedbugs of silicon dioxide, a product currently being marketed for this use. Similarly, certain qualities of diatomaceous earth, a product sometimes used by professionals against bedbugs, are said to have some effectiveness, but they are “dangerous to breathe.”