�y��vlog

The first pesticide to be tested will be propoxur, which is commonly used against fleas and other insects.

The one thing that demonstrably does work is a pesticide called propoxur, but in 2007, when the EPA asked the manufacturer for more safety data—which would have cost millions of dollars to compile—it was pulled from the residential market instead.

Ted Strickland this spring, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the request “presents an unacceptable risk to children who might be exposed to propoxur,” but an EPA spokesman says the agency is still “evaluating whether propoxur could be approved for emergency use with additional restrictions to ensure children are not exposed to the pesticide residues after applications.”

Officials in Ohio, which has some of the worst infestations, have asked the EPA to reconsider its ban on the indoor use of propoxur, a neurotoxic pesticide that is effective against bedbugs.

Potter's research has found propoxur, which belongs to a more toxic class of pesticides known as carbamates, to be effective because it does not rely on direct contact but remains potent on surfaces where bugs crawl even after it dries.