British invention bedbugs can't compete with

ATHLETES competing at the Paris Olympics were protected from the city's bed bugs infestation by a clever gadget invented by British scientists.

- Tony Whitfield

The French capital has been plagued by the blood-sucking insects in homes and hotel mattresses - and even in the seats of public transport - since October last year.

So the organisers of the Games, which finished last Sunday, turned to the commercial arm of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine for help.

Competitors were the first to use the new bed bugs trap, called the BugScents Sentry.

Scientists spent 15 years developing the small slim traps that are designed to be placed under a mattress or in baggage to lure the biting insects with pheromones, so they can be spotted early and killed.