Nina Jenkins didn’t start out thinking about bedbugs. The Penn State researcher was studying how insect-killing fungal spores could combat locusts, houseflies and Asian long-horned beetles. But that all changed when a graduate student asked Nina if her fungal spores would work on bedbugs. Sure enough, they were the perfect target. So in 2017 Nina founded ConidioTec to deliver a novel, non-toxic bedbug-fighting product to pest management companies. Eight years later, in 2025, the Pennsylvania company sold its flagship product to Kansas City, Missouri-based Rockwell Labs for an undisclosed, eight-digit price…