The task of ridding a home of bedbugs can cost thousands of dollars if professional exterminators are called, but a new study shows how the pests can be driven away for only about $1.

Researchers at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have devised a bedbug trap that can be built with basic household items, catching and collecting the bugs as they try to migrate between people and the various places bedbugs tend to hide.

"This concept of trapping works for places where people sleep and need to be protected at those locations," and relies on the bugs' poor ability to climb on smooth surfaces, Phil Koehler, an urban entomology professor at the university, said in a school news release.

The Institute warns against trying to get rid of bedbugs by using flammable liquids, mothballs, treating mattresses with pesticides or using bug bombs.

The new trap, which can be cobbled together with two disposable plastic containers, masking tape and glue, includes rough areas at its opening, to let bedbugs enter easily, but also a smooth-surfaced moat that keeps the critters from escaping.

The bedbug device is close to foolproof and highly effective, said Koehler. Besides, "it's really hard to mess this up to the point that you'd hurt anything."

Here's how to make the new bedbug trap at home, according to the Institute's news release:

1. Cut four pieces of rough-surfaced tape. Each piece should be at least as long as the wall of smaller container is tall.

2. Evenly space and firmly press the four pieces of tape vertically on the inside surface of the smaller container. The tape allows the bugs to escape the small container easily and fall into the space between the small and the large container wall, where they are trapped.

3. Wrap tape around the exterior of the larger container from the base to its upper edge so the bedbugs can enter the trap easily.

4. Glue the smaller container onto the center of the bottom of the larger container.

Koehler said the traps work best if talc, including baby powder, is applied to the space between the small and large container walls, in order to make it harder for the bugs to escape.

A survey by the National Pest Management Association in April 2013 showed almost every pest management professional -- 99.6 percent, to be exact -- had faced a bedbug infestation at some point during the prior 12-month period.

Meanwhile, entomologists report bedbugs are becoming more resistant to pesticides, making what is already an expensive problem worse.

Recent market data shows bedbug treatments can run upwards of $3,000 for single-family homes and $1,200 or more for a low-income apartment.

Koehler and his colleagues say the number of traps needed for any given household is dependent on the number of locations people sleep; one estimate by researchers suggests about 50 traps would be needed for a typical three-bedroom home.