Skatek commissioned two independent studies of ExHale on live bed bugs: a test in a furnished bedroom in the UK, and a lab study at the University of California, Riverside. This is our summary of each.
How ExHale works
ExHale imitates the breath of a sleeping person. On a schedule set in the programmable dispenser, it releases CO₂ and other compounds found in exhaled air from a compressed aerosol. Hungry bed bugs that sense it leave their hiding place to look for a host, so you can see that they are there.
Study 1 · Bedroom study · March 2025
Bed bugs came out every night ExHale ran
Dr. Richard Naylor, Cimex Store Ltd, UK
Without ExHale · on the bed
With ExHale · on the bed
Infrared camera images from the bedroom. Every picture from an 8 hour night is stacked into one, so each dark mark is a bed bug at some point in the night. Left: the night without ExHale, when a single bed bug came out. Right: the first night with ExHale, placed on the floor by the bed.
5 of 5
nights with bed bug activity when ExHale ran. On the night without ExHale, a single bed bug left its hiding place.
How it was tested
A furnished bedroom of 2.8 × 2.5 m with carpet, skirting boards, a double bed and two bedside tables, kept at about 22 °C.
100 bed bugs were released and left for four weeks to settle in and get hungry, like an established infestation.
Two hiding places with 20 bed bugs each: one on the skirting board and one on the floor under the bed.
Infrared time lapse cameras above and below the bed took a picture every 5 seconds through the night.
ExHale released from 23:00 to 04:00. It stood on the floor by the bed, on the bed and by the door on different nights.
What it found
Bed bug activity was recorded on every night ExHale ran, from all three positions.
Activity peaked with ExHale on the bed, facing the head end.
It also worked with ExHale set to release only once an hour.
On the night without ExHale, only one bed bug left its hiding place, and the camera under the bed recorded no activity at all.
Pitfall traps on and around the bed caught bed bugs only on the nights ExHale ran.
“The ExHale was effective at activating bed bugs in the simulated infestation. Considerable bed bug activity was recorded on every night that the ExHale ran, while only a single bed bug left its harbourage during the control night.”
Dr. Richard NaylorCimex Store Ltd, UK
Study 2 · Lab study · April 2025
About twice as many bed bugs came out with ExHale
Dong-Hwan Choe, Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside
+108%
more bed bugs out of hiding on the night ExHale ran than on the night before. In the control group, without ExHale, the change was +8%.
More bed bugs out of hiding, night 2 compared with night 1
The strongest response: test arena 3Bed bugs out of hiding in one test arena, photographed every 30 minutes over two days. At most 3 of the 20 were out at once on night 1. With ExHale running on night 2, up to 11 came out.
How it was tested
Twenty adult bed bugs, unfed for about two weeks, in each test arena, with a hiding place in the middle.
An infrared camera photographed each arena every 30 minutes, day and night, and the bed bugs outside the hiding place were counted.
ExHale ran on the second night only, from 18:00 to 06:00, with the digital dispenser releasing every 15 minutes.
Six arenas had ExHale. Six identical arenas without ExHale were the control group.
What it found
With ExHale running, about twice as many bed bugs were out of hiding as on the night before: +108% on average across the six arenas.
In the control arenas, without ExHale, the number barely moved: +8%.
In three of the six ExHale arenas, 10 or 11 of the 20 bed bugs were out at the same time. The night before, it was never more than 5.
“…substantial increase in the male adult bed bug activity (i.e., leave their harborage site and walk around) was found during the period of ExHale product release in the room.”
Dong-Hwan ChoeUniversity of California, Riverside
The percentages are calculated by Skatek from the charts in the report.
Full reports
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Summaries written by Skatek AS, which commissioned and paid for both studies. Quotes are from the researchers' reports.
Without ExHale · on the bed
With ExHale · on the bed