Synthetic bed bug pesticides may be designed to kill pests, but they don’t stop there – humans in the home can suffer too. The potential dangers of insecticide exposure on humans has prompted the development of “natural” bed bug pesticides. But just how well do these alternative control materials work?

Researchers from Rutgers University sought to determine the efficacy of these “natural” pesticides which are labeled and marketed for bed bug control. These non-synthetic products contain ingredients such as geraniol, cinnamon oil, rosemary oil, mint oil, clove oil, peppermint oil, lemongrass oil, eugenol, sodium lauryl sulfate, 2-Phenethyl propionate, potassium sorbate, and sodium chloride. Out of 11 non-synthetic bed bug pesticides that were tested on bed bug nymphs, only two – EcoRaider and Bed Bug Patrol – killed over 90 percent of the bed bugs.

While the lab results for these two non-synthetic bed bug control products may seem promising, their efficacy is probably significantly lower in actual settings due to the difficulty spraying products directly on bed bugs that are hiding in tiny cracks and crevices.

Further investigation under field conditions are needed to determine the effectiveness of EcoRaider and Bed Bug Patrol. Some of the active ingredients in EcoRaider and Bed Bug Patrol are also contained in the other products that showed little to no efficacy, which indicates that the inactive ingredients in these two products play an important role in eliminating bed bugs.

The findings of the study are published in the Journal of Economic Entomology.