You’ve heard the joke about the man sprinkling anti-elephant powder in the road. A guy walks by and asks, “what are you doing?” He answers, “I’m sprinkling anti-elephant powder.” “But there aren’t any elephants here,” the guy replies.

The man responds with satisfaction, “I guess it works!”

I sort of feel like that guy sprinkling anti-elephant powder. For seven weeks, I sprinkled Proof on every bed I slept in during my recent trip to Bangkok and Indonesia. Proof is an EPA registered bio pesticide that is supposed provide protection against bed bugs. A friend of mine who is the VP of Marketing for the company that manufactures the product asked me to try out the product while I traveled in one of the buggiest regions of the world.

The hotels I stayed in and the ship on which I traveled were clean, upscale and well maintained, so I wasn’t expecting to run into many bugs, bed or otherwise. But the accommodations at the university, where I spent most of my time, were anything but upscale. I did see, and immediately squashed, a few cockroaches during my stay there, but I didn’t encounter any bed bugs.

So unlike the guys in the joke, I didn’t know if there were any bed bugs in the area. But like the joke, “I guess it works.”

Check it out. Let the manufacturers know how it works.