For controlling the edge particle flux, a proposed method of pumping is tocapture backscattered neutrals due to atomic processes with a dedicated vented structure.This solution has been tested with the ergodic divertor (ED) of Tore Supra. Theinvestigated ranges of volume averaged density ⟨ne⟩ and total powerPtot are (2.5-5.5) × 1019m-3 and 1-6.5 MW, respectively,covering both the high recycling and semidetached plasma regimes. In this domain ofparameters, the neutral pressure in the ED plenum always remains proportional to theincident ion flux. It follows that the high recycling regime is the most efficient fordensity control. This regime is then studied in more detail and the behaviour of theedge temperature and density with ⟨ne⟩ and Ptot characterized,together with the location of the transition towards the semidetached regime in the[⟨ne⟩ × Ptot] plane. The particle balance around theneutralizers is analysed with the code EDCOLL (Ergodic Divertor COLLection), thesimulations of which show a satisfactory agreement with both the pressure and Dαemission measurements, demonstrating that both neutral recirculation and particlecollection with the vented structure are correctly understood. Finally, possibleimprovements of particle control with the ED are discussed and the code EDCOLL is usedto estimate the collection efficiency of an optimized structure. It is shown that thepresent performance could be multiplied by ≈ 3, allowing efficient densitycontrol in the semidetached plasma regime at a moderate level of power.