Success Story

Penn State startup finds new solution to bedbug problem

 

As the summer travel season kicks into high gear, Penn State startup CondioTec have found a potential solution to those unwanted guests that can turn a relaxing vacation into a skin-crawling nightmare.

Anyone who has had to deal with a bedbug infestation knows that once the bloodthirsty bugs gain a foothold—be it in one’s hotel room, home or psyche—getting rid of them can be anything but easy.

Traditional chemicals require direct, long-term exposure to be effective, hardly an easy task given bedbugs’ habit of congregating behind baseboards and electrical outlets, inside furniture cracks, amongst household clutter, and other hard-to-reach places.

Heat treatments can be effective in solving infestations but are often expensive and don’t always work in drafty, old, expansive properties.

Then there’s the problem of insecticide resistance among bedbugs, which recent research suggests is a mounting problem.

However, a team of Penn State scientists has developed a potential game-changer in the war against bedbugs—a naturally derived, fungal-based pesticide that uses the bugs’ own natural tendencies to humankind’s advantage.

Check out the video above to learn more about Aprehend, a patent-pending, EPA-registered biopesticide that has the potential to turn the bedbug control market on its ear—and the Invent Penn State entrepreneurial ecosystem that’s helping to push such crucial discoveries out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.

CondioTec launched in late 2017.