A LIMERICK second level student has devised a treatment that she hopes will aid the fight against bed bugs.
Desmond College School student Sophie Keane invented her own product after attending the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Now, she has walked away with the Best Product award at the seventh annual BD STEM Stars event, held at the Limerick site of one of the largest med-tech companies in the world, BD.
Villiers School students Sarah Lehane and Oluwatobi Ipadeola claimed the Best Demonstration prize with their carpal tunnel prevention glove ‘Flexicare’.
The Desmond College entry is a device that draws in and traps bed bugs by mimicking the human heartbeat and human temperatures in a bedroom. Such is its efficacy that the young inventor has already applied for a patent for the product.
Speaking at the event, Sophie recalled getting the idea for the device.
“I had a run in with bed bugs a few years ago in the Olympics when I was in Paris with family. Our hotel was just ridden with bed bugs,” she explained.
“I started my research into the side effects associated with bed bugs because, even for immunocompromised or older people, they can send you into hospital due to anaphylaxis, allergic reactions, and they can cause your skin to flare up. They can also trigger insomnia, anxiety, depression, PTSD. So, they’re really something you don’t want in your house.”
Sophie built what she described as an advanced version of a glue trap with “human-like features in that it replicates a heartbeat through a simple circuit, and it also has our body temperature through these brass rod inserts. And it works by just flicking a switch.”
The device is already proving a hit with consumers, with Sophie explaining: “An Airbnb host reached out to me. She was suffering with bed bugs and she used my device compared to a normal glue trap and she saw that my results were triple and quadruple the amount that people were achieving using common methods.”
Sophie is now waiting on a patent for her invention.
“It’s pending at the moment. And after that I want to develop different prototypes for my project. Maybe ones that can be stationary and plugged in, ones for commercial use in airplanes and trains and hotels,” she said.