Sommieres earth, a household product commonly sold in stores, is effective against bedbugs, according to researchers from the Nice University Hospital and the Mediterranean Infection University Hospital Institute (IHU) in Marseille on Friday.
"We tested several types of powders, such as green clay, sodium bicarbonate, talc, diatomaceous earth or Sommieres earth, and the results show that the latter kills bedbugs in 24 hours," Pascal Delaunay, a parasitologist and medical entomologist at the Nice University Hospital, told AFP. He conducted the study for a year and a half with his colleague Jean-Michel Berenger, a member of the IHU in Marseille and founder of the National Institute for the Study and Fight against Bedbugs (INELP).
The study, conducted on two colonies of bedbugs, was published last month in the scientific journal Parasite.
"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-repulsive effect, unlike chemical insecticides, and a transversal effect, meaning that a contaminated bedbug also contaminates its congeners and kills them," explained Pascal Delaunay.
Commonly sold commercially as a household product, to remove grease stains from wood for example, Sommieres earth, a mineral composed of aluminum silicate and hydrated magnesium, 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 Sommieres earth on the bed bases, while using the usual mechanical processes, including washing the laundry at 60 degrees.
The study also demonstrated the effectiveness of silicon dioxide, a product currently being marketed for this use, in combating bedbugs. Similarly, some grades of diatomaceous earth, a product sometimes used by professionals against bedbugs, are said to have some effectiveness, but they are "dangerous to breathe."
The phenomenon of bedbug infestations has grown in recent years in France. According to a 2022 survey by the Ipsos institute for the National Agency for Food, Agriculture and Rural Development (ANSES), 11% of French homes had been infested in the previous five years.
ANSES is now asking to avoid treatments based on insecticides, 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.
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