This method involves petri dishes, a heating plate/mat and a plastic membrane – Parafilm ‘M’. A small amount of blood is placed into the lid of a petri dish, which is then covered with stretched parafilm ‘M’ plastic. The bottom of the petri dish is used to push down the parafilm so that it is in contact with the blood. A hotplate is used to keep the temperature of the blood at 37°C and the insect containers are placed upside down on the parafilm so that the bed bugs can feed through the mesh lid. The petri dish method shares some disadvantages with the water bath method, such as expensive heating equipment and the leaking of blood. While leakage may occur, one of the advantages of the petri dish method is that there is a reduced risk of this leaking blood causing damage e.g. bed bug drowning. Other advantages include its quick setup and the use of disposable petri dishes (Chin-Heady et al. 2013).
If you have any questions on the bed bug research or testing carried out at airmid healthgroup, please contact Graeme Tarbox at gtarbox@airmidhealthgroup.com or +353 (0)1 633-6820
About airmid healthgroup
airmid healthgroup helps clients with products and services related to residential and commercial indoor environments to differentiate their customer offerings through health relevant marketing claims. Clients include Dyson, LG, Stanley Steemer, Shaw Industries, Tarkett, Fellowes, Solent Group, Spring Air and Kenmore. airmid healthgroup creates value for clients through a number of collaborative strategies, including field research projects, environmental test chamber studies and licensing our own intellectual property. airmid healthgroup specializes in studying the relationship between allergens, viruses, bacteria, molds or other ultra-fine particles in the air and on surfaces to the spread of illness and disease in buildings. As a leading authority on biomedical and aerobiology research, they use this deep domain knowledge to improve products and services to make the indoor environment as healthy as possible.
