Let's not forget this wonder drug kills bedbugs (and other parasites)

[-] dhmt | 1 points | Apr 18 2021 04:18:51

The setup to get the bedbugs to ingest the ivermectin in vitro is very complicated. Involves <3 hour old mouse blood, heparinized so that it doesn't clot, and then actively pumped against a feeding membrane.

The other choices were humans.

This needs some biomedical engineering help.

[-] BernieTheDachshund | 2 points | Apr 18 2021 04:41:57

One of the studies the researchers used themselves. But I don't need the study, since we did it and it worked.

[-] dried_pirate_roberts | 4 points | Apr 18 2021 15:53:16

since we did it and it worked.

Cool. What exactly did you do, please? How long did it take to work?

Here's another study of ivermectin vs bedbugs. It found that ivermectin reduced bedbug population and fecundify (measured by the number of eggs laid). I didn't read the whole study, but my impression is that ivermectin could help but not enough to be a "cure", like "take ivermectin and your bedbug troubles will soon be over."

Edit: Looking at the data, it actually looks pretty damn effective!

Groups|Number of fed bed bugs at start of experiment|Number of alive bed bugs on day 54|Fold change :-:|:-:|:-:|:-: Control|306|662|2.16 4 hours|298|27|-11.04

The "4 hours" means that the bedbugs were fed the blood of human subjects that was taken from those subjects 4 hours after the subjects took ivermectin. The "Fold change" means that without ivermectin, there were more than twice as many bedbugs after 54 days -- while there were only 1/11th as many when the bedbugs were dosed with the 4-hour blood.

This seems to imply that taking ivermectin nightly before going to sleep might do the job!

Does anyone want to participate in an experiment? It will necessarily involve infecting your sleeping area with bedbugs, and half of you will be getting placebo of course.

[-] BernieTheDachshund | 4 points | Apr 18 2021 18:43:56

Sure, we got a 50 mL bottle of sterile 1% Ivermectin liquid. Dose was by body weight, .1cc for every 10 lbs. So for 100 lb person it was 1 cc, for 150lbs it was 1.5 cc's, for 200 lbs it was 2 cc's, etc., taken orally. We started out with so many, numbers were knocked down with a shop-vac used daily on the entire area. Dosing was about every 2 or 3 days at first and never saw another live one after 2 weeks. But we kept dosing for another 2 weeks to be sure. They can go a very long time without feeding but prefer to feed every 2 or 3 days or so. The main goal was to break that reproduction cycle, so even if they didn't get a fatal dose at first they got enough to stop them from laying eggs. We also had to wait for any existing eggs to hatch and start their feeding cycle, there's like 4 or 5 stages they go through and require a blood meal in between each molting. Without Ivermectin they are free to feed and reproduce all they want. With it, they will get nailed by it sooner or later. It seemed very logical to use an anti-parasitic on parasites. People take it for scabies and lice, so this isn't that different. So start to finish a month to eradicate them. I was very confident in it since it has such an outstanding safety profile.

[-] dried_pirate_roberts | 2 points | Apr 19 2021 03:30:29

Thanks so much! That's a fabulous description of how to use ivermectin vs bedbugs!

It's interesting that a shop-vac was useful. Bedbugs are small, right?

Thanks! Your post is the most fun I've had in a while. :)

[-] dhmt | 2 points | Apr 18 2021 20:18:55

You get my upvote for trying to recruit for an experiment. (I'm not participating, though!)

[-] dhmt | 2 points | Apr 18 2021 13:21:25

Yes - in this study, the third experiment was researchers using themselves as guinea pigs. we did it and it worked.

Explain (in detail) please!

[-] BernieTheDachshund | 3 points | Apr 18 2021 18:52:33

Oh yes, about 5 years ago my sister lived in an apartment and got them from a neighbor. We had no idea until one day one was found in the shower here. When we checked, there was a mortifying number behind the headboard. Next, an epic freakout and manic cleaning with a shop-vac. Then research online. I remember reading about how IVM kills them. So we all start taking it every 2 or 3 days (the liquid) and shop-vacuuming the bed and carpet every night. At first we'd find some live ones and a few eggs, but after a couple of weeks we never saw any more live ones. We still were very paranoid and sleep deprived, so we kept at it another couple of weeks. What a fiasco, but it's over. Ivermectin saved the day.

[-] dhmt | 2 points | Apr 18 2021 19:43:51

Meaning you ingested ivermectin yourself? (ie. you became the bait in the trap?)

I will keep this in mind. In the city where I live, there have been several outbreaks of bedbugs. My wife is a bit freaky about that particular worry. I think she would want to set fire to the house. In our case, I might have to be the bait while she sleeps at her mother's for a couple weeks.

Thanks for the info!

[-] BernieTheDachshund | 2 points | Apr 18 2021 20:18:03

Yes, absolutely. They were already getting a free buffet for God knows how long, so we decided to take advantage of the fact they had to come to us. If I were an exterminator or going to visit a place that I knew had them, I'd 100% take a prophylactic dose. They are notoriously hard to treat using traditional extermination methods (except for heat treatment, but that's expensive). I hope one day people consider it the standard protocol, like it is for other human parasites.

[-] dhmt | 1 points | Apr 18 2021 20:21:39

Where are you, that you can get it so easily? My kids had lice, and I don't remember ivm even being an option.

[-] BernieTheDachshund | 1 points | Apr 18 2021 21:09:10

Lice have grown resistant to the shampoo/topical they used to use, so now many have switched to oral or topical IVM. American doctors can prescribe it. If that's not available, there are places you can order it online from foreign pharmacies (usually tablets). Some doctors are willing to rx it here for covid prevention or treatment too. Another option is to buy the vet formula online, it's the same thing and it's a sterile liquid. They also sell it at stores like Tractor Supply. Here's an article about IVM and lice treatment in children. It says one 3 mg tablet given on day one (and another in a week or so) is better than topicals. Even the nits were rendered non-viable. https://academic.oup.com/ajhp/article/75/13/937/5102073?login=true