Diatomaceous Earth (DE) does it work?
DE works by making microscopic cuts to the outside of the bed bug and the result is death via dehydration. As such it is a decent non chemical alternative in some insect settings. But does it work with the bed bug? One study showed that most bed bugs died within 4 days of continuous contact […]
How does a tenant prevent bed bugs from entering his suite in multi family settings?
The first and most important advice is for the tenant to avoid risky behaviour. The tenant should take precautions in hotels, avoid visiting or entertaining others known to have bed bugs, avoid used furniture, and absolutely no dumpster diving. But often tenants get bed bugs in multi family settings with no fault of their own […]
How do you know the bugs are gone after treatment?
There are basically 5 different methods of determining if the bed bug treatment was effective – rely on the tenant to tell you, randomly placed glueboards folded into triangles, climb up interceptors under bed legs, glueboards under the bed legs, and various contraptions that emit co2 and heat to bait and trap bed bugs. Lets […]
Killing bed bugs with heat – what temperature is optimum?
The bed bug’s achilles heel is heat. They can not live more than a few hours starting at 113F and as the temperature rises the time they live becomes shorter. At 122f all stages of bed bugs are dead within a minute. A typical older model home dryer operates at 180f on hot, 160f on […]
Glue board monitors – do they work?
One of the most common bed bug monitors is a glueboard bent into a triangle. These devices are placed randomly in suites in the hopes of discovering bed bugs. The difficulty is that these devices only occupy a tiny percentage of the floor area in a suite so the chance that a bed bug would […]
One of the consequences of repelling bed bugs from bed legs
Before climb up interceptors were invented I attempted to make my own climb up interceptors. I simply glued a small bowl and a large bowl together to form what in essence appeared to be an interceptor. I filled the outside ring with mineral oil and placed the contraptions under bed legs. It was my hope […]
Double sided sticky tape – Does it work?
I have noted that numerous “authorities” such as Reader’s Digest, various government bed bug publications, and exterminator instruction sheets contain instructions to use double sided sticky tape as a monitor for bed bugs. In my own practice I have seen little benefit to this product. I notice that some tenants place double sided sticky tape […]
Inappropriate use of “RAID” in multi family settings – what are the consequences?
RAID typically has an active ingredient of “pyrethrin” which belongs to the pyrethroid family of pesticides. The pyrethroids with a residual action are typically restricted to professional use and are commonly used by exterminators to treat bed bugs. Pyrethrin is a non residual pyrethroid and is widely available to the general public. It kills on […]
The difficulty with mattress encasements in multi family settings
Bed bugs tend to be centered on the bed. There are exceptions of course such as mattresses that have very little ribbing and mattresses on the floor. Both of these circumstances tend to push the bugs to the baseboards and surrounding furniture. But in the case of an ordinary mattress with ordinary ribbing with a […]
sealing suites for bed bug transmission in new renovations – a case study
As an inner city exterminator I have had the privilege of working in many 3 or 3.5 story walk up apartment blocks. These buildings are typically brick exterior with wood frame floors, and steam heat with pipe chases through the walls and floors. The spread of bed bugs through these buildings can be incredible because […]