As a very frequent traveler, I can’t let myself focus on the nightmare of hotel bed bug infestations. I’m queasily aware of the increasing problem, but trick myself into considering all the press merely FUD. Otherwise, how could I deal with 200+ nights in hotels each year?

Kidney bean leaves to the rescue! An ancient practice from Eastern Europe has just been verified, documented, and filmed under a microscope. The bean leaves trap the little bed bug buggers via tiny hooks that catch their achilles heel: thin spots in their exoskeletons at their leg joints.

“Spread bean leaves in a bed bug-infested room.” It sounds like an old wives’ tale, but it’s now proven: the bed bugs get stuck the moment they step onto the kidney bean leaves. See the video.

And if you don’t think bed bugs are super-creepy, read about their alt-lifestyle sexual practice called traumatic insemination.

I’ve suddenly got an idea for my vegetable garden.

3/11/17: Edited to add a great resource, more than you ever wanted to know about bed bugs, on the site of nonprofit org Tuck, which is devoted to sleep.