They sell them at most larger hardware stores, I have even seen them at Target. But *move fast. *
If you’re currently in the US and experiencing the heat wave, you can put all your laundry in black plastic garbage bags and leave em out in the blazing sun for an afternoon or two. This will kill them.
You can either put it in the freezer overnight if you have a chest freezer, or put in a a large black garbage bag, tie it shut and leave it out in the hot sun for a day or two. Both methods kill em dead, no need to throw stuff out!
Direct sunlight not only works, but is, I believe, the traditional cure pre-pesticides.
You may think people don’t like bedugs today, but our great-grandparents literally went thermonuclear on them.
I think I got bedbugs just reading about it. Thanks for that. scratch scratch scratch
Don’t the regular household sprays fall onto to the floor eventually ?
People who wash hard floors make a safe haven for the bugs, by keeping the pyrethrin levels down and keeping the spaces wet… (the bugs avoid dry places as they dry out easily.)
And same with carpets… washing them removes the build up of insect sprays that people have used.
The apartment blocks are getting bedbugs because houses would have copious permanent insecticides around the ground level… (to stop spiders,ants,wasps,termites,borer…)
I guess the spider and ant repellant surface sprays on your skirting boards and bed posts would send all insects to some other residence…
Gentrol IGR, Insect Growth Regulator, makes all the babies grown into non reproducing adults. Read and follow the labels.
I’ve seen enough episodes of Hotel Impossible to know that you just need to heat up the room for a bit to kill them off.
Increasing the room’s temperature to 120ºF for 20 minutes will kill them off, keep it at that temperature for 90 minutes to make sure the eggs are dead too.
Take it from me*, You CAN NOT do this yourself. You need to call in the big boys - they have special heaters to do the job. Its not enough to heat up the room, you need to heat it up to the point were it reaches temperature inside the walls as well.
Call a professional exterminator with documented experience treating bedbugs. Get references. Do not try to treat this yourself - that’s how small infestations become big infestations.
*entomologist with almost 20 years experience working on, among other things, bedbugs.
Here’s a link to my hotel traveling advice to prevent bringing bedbugs home. If you travel a lot, its a good idea to follow the advice:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12993245&postcount=2
Thank you for your advice, mozchron and others!
Currently have most of the bedroom stripped of bedding and clothing. Trying my best to convince the wife that diatomaceous earth is safe to use around the bedrooms.
We have a 2 year old and the packaging unhelpfully lists “KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN!!!11one!” as the final instruction. I suppose he’d be in trouble if he ate a bunch of it or inhaled it in mass quantities, but sheesh.
Thanking Og I bought a $75, 4" thick foam pad because it’s making sleeping in the living room a lot more tolerable.
If mozchron will correct me … pyrethrin is nonpersistent, the chemical breaks down after a few hours into harmless byproducts. This is by design, we don’t want dangerous poisons building up in our carpets and drapes.
How long can bedbugs live in the absence of a host? How long are the eggs viable? I.e., if your house is infested, could you just go on a lovely vacation?
I have a commercial website that makes theis claim:
“Adult bed bugs can survive for about five months without a blood meal.”
“How Long can Bed Bugs Survive Without Feeding?” … and again, this is a commercial website … they want you to buy their service more than they want you to know the true facts.
It depends on the temperature and humidity. But 6 months or more isn’t out of the question.
Couple days to a couple weeks, depending on the product, the concentration of the active ingredient, what you’re spraying it on, environmental conditions (exposed to sunlight etc…).
Have you hung up the no-pest strips? How old are your kids?
Yes, eating tablespoons of it could be a issue. But the main issue is if a kid plays with it then rubs their eyes. Same with us, so wash your hands afterwards.
If the diatomaceous earth is food grade, its safe to spread around. You already eat this stuff, as its added to food products (don’t eat it of course).
If you got it from a pool supply store, its not safe - its an inhalation hazard. You need food grade.
But I reiterate my point above - call an experienced exterminator. Don’t try to cheap out and control this yourself.
You don’t have to strip a room or get rid of anything, what you have to do is mimic a human with a household trap (You can see on Youtube). Bedbugs have no idea what a human or animal is and is just attracted to what a human gives off so they will delightfully all die in a trap because they don’t know what’s happening.
I had them in a motel and this was before I knew about household traps, I simply spent mostly the entire couple of days sitting at the desk with my laptop. All of the bedbugs left the bed and were all underneath the chair I was sitting in, then I simply overturned the chair and killed them and made sure I got all of the ones hiding between the fabric and wood of the chair. Years later I can safely say that I conquered them that way.