When it comes to sheets, bedbugs would have preferences. A study with astonishing conclusions suggests that these parasites are fond of red and black.
The bug is crazy about the blood of its innocent victims, which it attacks at night when they are asleep. She orientates herself thanks to the pheromones emitted by her peers and during the day, she quietly digests her meal by hiding in the mattress. A study tells us that another element could attract this pest in your bed: the color of the sheets! The works, published in the journal Journal of Medical Entomology, show that bedbugs have a preference for certain colors. Because yes, the tacks can see the colors.
In red and black
To arrive at this observation, the authors made shelters for bedbugs in the shape of tents, of different colors. They placed the insects in the center of a Petri dish by arranging the tents around them, and let them take up residence there. Several types of tests were carried out – bedbugs alone or in groups, female or male, adult or baby, sated or hungry.
First observation: bedbugs ran as fast as they could to find shelter in a tent, they who hate light. All the shelters have been taken over. However, the insects showed a “strong preference” for red and black shelters, while they were less inclined towards light shades like yellow and green.
A bug trap
“At first, we thought that the bugs preferred red because the blood is red, and they feed on it,” explain the authors. However, after carrying out the work, we believe that the bedbugs themselves having a red appearance, they could go to these shelters to be with the other bugs, since we know that they live in aggregates ”.
According to another hypothesis, the insect would perceive through the green or the yellow a very enlightened zone, not very conducive to its nocturnal and vampiric activity. From there to thinking that you are safe in your pale bedding, there is only one step… that the authors do not take.
“It would be to extrapolate the results, they qualify. To prevent infestations, we believe colors can be useful for making a trap, but they must be coupled with other strategies ”.
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