Experiments on the Use of DDT for preventing Bed-bug Infestation of new Houses

Abstract

An experiment on a semi-practical scale was made to determine the effectiveness of DDT treatment to a new house, in quelling an infestation of bed-bugs introduced with untreated furniture. Two small huts were constructed, one being finally treated with DDT, the other acting as a control. Rabbits introduced nightly represented the hosts and infested rabbit-hutches the furniture.Forty adult bugs were introduced on the infested hutches in each hut. In the untreated chamber, the bug population soared up to over 400 in six months. In the treated hut the population remained at 10 to 20 up to the end of the experiment (28 weeks) ; these bugs remained in the untreated hutch. Translating these results to practical conditions, it appears that a bug colony might persist in an untreated bed in a room sprayed with DDT. However, the wandering bugs would be destroyed which would severely check population growth and prevent a heavy and widespread infestation.Observations in the untreated hut indicated the decline of the first generation adults, the rise and decline of the second generation and emergence of the third.A few preliminary tests with marked bugs proved that these insects do not usually return to the same site after going to the host to take a meal.